In recent years, the medical community has recognized that burnout — a sense of exhaustion, loss of motivation, and growing cynicism — is prevalent among physicians and other medical providers. We’ve also learned that stress and burnout are exper…
Category: Psychiatry
The profound experience of being naked with other doctors
I am sitting in hot springs deep in the dark and crisp air woods – naked. It has been a day of lectures and workshops at a retreat with my fellow physicians. We are all naked in the effervescent, warm bubbles of the springs. In the dark, I can recogniz…
Behavioral health providers face challenges in value-based care
Value-based care (VBC) continues to be a popular expression across the health care landscape, but the challenges and opportunities it offers are quite different across specialties. Behavioral health (BH) providers are an important case in point. The op…
It’s time to rethink the model minority
I am a first-generation Chinese American. And amidst the complexity of the pieces that form my identity (mom, wife, daughter, woman, doctor), it is the piece I have often prized the least. In one of my earliest memories, I am riding a crowded bus in Be…
A plea for help from the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic [PODCAST]
“This plea for help is on behalf of every hospital worker who has been on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic — from the environmental services staff and medical assistants who are often not recognized, to the social workers and chaplains wh…
From physician to holistic healer: my journey on Clubhouse
My days start differently now than they did a year ago. I arrive in my private practice office and take a seat on a meditation cushion as the sun breaks through the curtains. New Orleans streetcars can be heard passing by outside, splintering the still…
Moral injury: What is it, and how is it relevant post-COVID?
The COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented as such an event has not happened on such a global scale since 1919, with the Spanish Flu. At the beginning of the pandemic, we sometimes heard muzzled voices of health care providers who experienced sheer h…
Dying of loneliness: the COVID-19 epidemic in children and adolescents [PODCAST]
“We know the ER’s revolving door will continue to spin for so many children and adolescents who seek help in the heat of their personal crisis. Some will need to stay in the hospital – to heal their bodies and minds and even fight for their lives…
Nothing prepared me for telehealth’s nightmare
The orders from the state seemed to come suddenly, although we all knew we would have to adjust our methods of treating our clients, the news wasn’t good, and seeing anyone in person was treacherous since many still thought it was a hoax and they didn’…
The dark truth of physician burnout
Burnout among doctors is not something new. In fact, way before the pandemic, 69% of physicians reported they were somewhat or incredibly happy in 2020, before the pandemic started. This number drastically fell to 49% when COVID-19 stepped in. This is …
