Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! “Are you a perfectionist? Did you know that perfectionists are actually some of the biggest procrastinators? Yes, really. In theory, perfectionism sounds like a good thing. Who doesn’…
Category: Psychiatry
Certainty is a fading flame in a failing body
“You should prepare for the future. Your son will never be independent.” I do not recall hearing those words at their source, but I was only eight when they were relayed to me by my parents. At the time my diagnosis, now characterized as ju…
Less resiliency may heal burnout [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! The word “resiliency” has been lauded, applauded, and buzzed about in talks about physician burnout. When I hear it, I tune out. My stomach churns. I feel sick. Why? Because physicians are …
As we live in fear, there is still hope
Fear. It means something different to each person, but collectively we can all agree that fear can be something that drives us to succeed (fearing failure), causes us to take care of ourselves (fear of poor health), and can even promote experiences tha…
My “dig deep button” is officially out of service
I started my hospitalist shift like any other day. I arrived at 5:30 a.m. for shift hand-off at 7 a.m. A full hospitalist load and endless administrative tasks to complete, the duality of both roles punctured me like a venomous snake bite. I had two fu…
The New Zealand health system in crisis: We need to look after our clinicians
I lay on an examination table while a plastic surgeon surveyed my skin to determine if a suspicious mole should be excised. I joked with him that I had once considered plastic surgery as a career. I knew he still worked at the hospital and fired a rhet…
If you don’t practice, don’t move, or you’ll probably lose your license
I left practice 25 years ago when I saw portents of clinical practice as it exists today: impersonal, with electronic records and assembly-line labor heralding the movement to institutional employment over private practice. But it was also my genuine i…
Is burnout the wrong word?
An excerpt from Determined: How Burned Out Doctors Can Thrive in a Broken Medical System. Let’s address the elephant in the room. The word “burnout” has come under fire recently (pun intended). The reason is that burnout, which was fi…
Less resiliency may heal burnout
The word “resiliency” has been lauded, applauded, and buzzed about in talks about physician burnout. When I hear it, I tune out. My stomach churns. I feel sick. Why? Because physicians are resilient. We are, in fact, the walking, talking, b…
Do microaggressions persist after practice?
Microaggressions are common, subtle, offending behaviors and attitudes that stem from implicit (unconscious) bias. Individuals targeted by microaggressions are different than us — different in their look, skin tone, gender, sexual preference, socioecon…
