Blog Archives

What Is the Least Painful Way To Die? →

woman doctor crying. Why do so many doctors secretly want to die?

What is the least painful way to die? Why do people commit suicide painfully? Why do doctors commit suicide in such painful and scary ways?

First, we should agree that it’s better to say that a person has died of suicide than to say that they have committed suicide.

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Hazardous work conditions kill doctors (and patients) →

 

I was invited on to this TV show to share why burnout and moral injury fail to address the underlying cause of physician distress—human rights violations in medicine. View full TV show here.

Doctors have the highest suicide rate of any profession.

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NBC News: The Real Reason Doctors Burn Out →

View on NBC News. Full transcript below.

Medical Resident: Frustrating is way too benign of a word. It’s an infuriating system that we practice in.

Dr. Umut Sarpel: I don’t think most doctors get burnt out by doctoring,

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Not “burnout,” not moral injury—human rights violations →

Burnout is a slang word for end-stage drug addiction first used on the streets of inner city America in the early 1970s. During that time, psychologist Herbert Freudenberger volunteered at a New York City free clinic treating addiction. He overheard the term and used it to describe himself and clinic staff in a 1974 article on staff burnout detailing long-term physical and psychological job stress.

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Physician “burnout”—a coverup for human rights violations in medicine →

Since 2015, I’ve advised doctors to stop using the word “burnout.” Here’s why.

Each year our best and brightest, most compassionate students enter medicine—a career with the highest suicide rate of any profession. Each year more than 1 million Americans lose their doctors to suicide.

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Top 10 Lies Doctors Tell Themselves →

LiesDoctorsTell

I’m Dr. Pamela Wible. I run a suicide helpline for doctors. I hear from a lot of physicians with distorted thinking patterns that limit our ability to reach our full potential as healers on this planet. Recognize any?

1. “I’m stuck in assembly line medicine.”

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Physician retreats: how doctors heal →

This past week I held my 14th physician retreat. To promote intimacy, I generally allow no more than 40 attendees at any one retreat. This retreat was unusual in that I only invited a handful of graduates from prior retreats—all successful solo doctors in their ideal clinics. In their own words .

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Top 10 Fears That Hold Doctors Back →

Top 10 fears that hold physicians back

What prevents us from being the doctors we always imagined? We enter medicine as inspired, intelligent, compassionate humanitarians. Soon we’re cynical and exhausted. How did all these totally amazing and high-functioning people get screwed up so fast? Attention: med students and doctors: It’s not your fault.

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10 signs it’s time to quit your job →

Job Pain Scale Crop

Attention all nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, midwives, doctors and anyone else in health care: here are the top 10 warning signs that it is time to quit your job. The first three are mine. The rest are from colleagues. If you recognize anything on this list,

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“Burnout” ~ a smokescreen for human rights abuse →

Physician burnout is human rights abuse

“Burnout” is a smokescreen for rampant human rights violations in medicine. Am I losing anyone here? Let me break it down.

“Burnout” is a complete mental and physical collapse from overwork. Psychiatrists define it as a job-related dysphoria in an individual without major psychopathy.

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How the word “burnout” perpetuates medicine’s cycle of abuse →

We enter medicine with our hearts and souls on fire ready to serve humanity. By the time we complete medical training many of us have anxiety, PTSD, depression—even suicidal thoughts. Why? Medicine is stressful. Many of us work 100 hour weeks surrounded by suffering and death. We may deliver a stillborn,

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Meditation is not the treatment for human rights abuse →

Meditation

Doctors who complain about inhumane working conditions are often labeled as “burned out” or “lacking resilience” or even “disruptive.”

Their employers respond by mandating resiliency classes so they can learn mindfulness, deep breathing, or yoga. Victims get instructed in work-life balance, boundaries, and other ways to conform to their workplace abuse.

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Don’t let your job suck the life out of you →

This is an urgent message for doctors and all health professionals. It may also apply to you. 

“If you are standing at the corner working on your charts or sitting in your bed working on your charts or you have a million things to do and you have chest pain and you can’t breathe,

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You’re not burned out. You’ve been abused. →

Please stop using the word burnout. You’re not burned out. You’ve been abused. Let’s get the diagnosis right.

We enter medicine as inspired, intelligent, compassionate humanitarians. Soon we’re cynical and exhausted. How did all these totally amazing and high-functioning people get screwed up so fast? ATTENTION medical students and doctors: It’s NOT your fault. 

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Tired after 200 patients? You need resiliency training. →

PamelaWible-R-U-Resilient?

Dear Pamela,

I just worked 36 hours in 3 days. Stick a fork in me. Must have seen close to 200 patients [in the emergency department] and picked up a nasty head cold from one of them. My throat feels like sandpaper and my mouth feels like the bottom of a birdcage.

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