BoulderSoWhat
Student
- Aug 29, 2024
- 154
Interesting read. My coworker the other day was cutting out pills from a wrongly packaged card. I'm a pharmacy tech. I randomly asked, "do you think surgery can be relaxing work?" Of course this turned into a hilarious conversation lol, but my curiosity wasn't well worded haha. I was more interested about how surgeons try to achieve a state of flow and resilience besides the obvious stakes. Well after work I wanted to explore my curiosity and found bits and pieces of articles that are interesting and relevant. Thought I would share if anyone is interested:
"For those outside the medical profession, it took a global pandemic to finally understand how pervasive distress and suicide are among medical professionals, particularly surgeons.
For James Harrop, MD, it was made real years earlier by a colleague he'd trained alongside and worked with for decades — "one of the best surgeons I've ever seen" who, one day, just wasn't there.
...Weinstein recovered and later gave grand rounds at Thomas Jefferson University, where he is an associate professor of surgery in the Acute Care Surgery Division. But the story stuck with Harrop.
"I said to Mike afterward, I've known you for 20 years and, retrospectively, going back, I never saw a single sign that you were depressed, sad, or had any issues, and he said to me 'that's because I did everything I could to make sure no one knew I had a problem,'" Harrop said during a talk on physician suicide on May 4 at the recent American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) 2024 Annual Meeting.
"And that scared me because we need to help these people, we need to identify who they are."
Quoted from first link, other interesting links provided.
Best :)
"For those outside the medical profession, it took a global pandemic to finally understand how pervasive distress and suicide are among medical professionals, particularly surgeons.
For James Harrop, MD, it was made real years earlier by a colleague he'd trained alongside and worked with for decades — "one of the best surgeons I've ever seen" who, one day, just wasn't there.
...Weinstein recovered and later gave grand rounds at Thomas Jefferson University, where he is an associate professor of surgery in the Acute Care Surgery Division. But the story stuck with Harrop.
"I said to Mike afterward, I've known you for 20 years and, retrospectively, going back, I never saw a single sign that you were depressed, sad, or had any issues, and he said to me 'that's because I did everything I could to make sure no one knew I had a problem,'" Harrop said during a talk on physician suicide on May 4 at the recent American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) 2024 Annual Meeting.
"And that scared me because we need to help these people, we need to identify who they are."
Quoted from first link, other interesting links provided.
Suicide in Surgeons: The Toll of a High-Stakes Career
Physicians are more than twice as likely to die by suicide, and surgeons are at particularly high risk due at least in part to the US neurosurgeon shortage.
www.medscape.com
US surgeons are killing themselves at an alarming rate. One decided to speak out
The grueling profession has long kept silent about mental distress. After losing a friend, Carrie Cunningham began telling her own story
www.theguardian.com
Best :)
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