The term “compassion fatigue” might imply that physical fatigue leads to the loss of ability to feel compassion for others. After all, what physician hasn’t experienced running on too little reserve? Feeling some degree of emotional numbness? Many physicians may not realize, however, that compassion fatigue can go much deeper. Physicians and other health caregivers…
4 CommentsThe doctors’ office: an insider glimpse. (A facetious piece. Inspired my my kids’ love of Mad Libs) Directions (in case you were raised by wolves and never played Mad Libs): Play with a friend or colleague. Ask them to say a word for each type of word specified. Read the story using their words to…
Comments closed(published also online on 4/10/17 in The ASCO Post, under the title The Mystery of Grace. re-published here on my home blog with permission of the editor). The day after I told Nell she had seven metastases to her brain, she sent me flowers. She was my patient; I was her oncologist. I had met her…
3 Commentsupdated 3/17/19 A short story on the meaning of burnout. The return from a vacation weighed on me physically. This had been a true vacation – an entire week away spent with my family, away from clinic and the burden of care. I even managed to unplug to the point of only checking email on…
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