Wellness Resources

Articles

• "4 Ways to Get Help Cutting the Stupid Stuff at your Health System" Increasing administrative tasks take away from physicians’ time interacting with their patients and delivering care. One way to reduce those administrative burdens is by engaging appropriate departments.
  
  Link: https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/sustainability/4-ways-get-help-cutting-stupid-stuff-your-health-system
• “Physician Burnout Interrupted” NEJM by Pamela Hartzband, Jerome Groopman: "There are lessons from the COVID pandemic that can help inform and drive changes to address the underlying causes of burnout. The system cannot revert to the status quo. It needs to be reset and reconfigured. This perspective compels readers to understand both the root cause of burnout and see that the COVID crisis presents opportunity and lessons to address burnout. The authors succinctly capture the essence, cost and underlying causes of burnout – an a-motivational state that stems from mal-alignment between the system configurations and the clinicians’ values and motivations. Covid presented and continues to present urgent and intense need for system changes and innovations in care delivery. Society and health systems continue to rally to support caregivers. Now is the time to re-assess and reconfigure systems to better support health, well being and satisfaction of populations, patients and the health caregivers."

• “What One Doctor’s Suicide Taught Us” New York Times, Jennifer Senior: "This timely opinion piece conveys how physicians with distress tend to suffer in silence. The author captures why and how health care professionals have difficulty admitting vulnerability and accessing help even when resources exist. We need to acknowledge the reality that clinicians are human and have mental health needs. Such needs will most certainly increase in the aftermath of the kind of existential angst that COVID brought to many front line teams."

• "How Coronavirus Is Changing Our Daily Lives" New York Times, Jud Brewer, MD, PhD: "The COVID pandemic has launched us into an historic time of dynamic and uncertain conditions in society and in healthcare in which front line clinicians can experience difficult risks and stressors in caring for patients and families. It is no wonder that anxiety is running high. Here’s an article authored by an expert physician who conveys how to deal with corona virus anxiety. The steps for ‘hacking it’ can apply to any and many stressors (acute or chronic) experienced by healthcare professionals."  Dr. Jud also provides a short “Daily Update” video on anxiety topics via YouTube.

Podcast

• MedPEP, the Medical Professionals Empowerment Program, is a Free podcast series jointly provided by Physician Health Services, Inc. (PHS) and the Massachusetts Medical Society. PHS is a charitable organization dedicated to improving the health, well-being and effectiveness of physicians and medical students. The Massachusetts Medical Society designates each enduring material for a maximum of 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit.