Tag Archives: burnout

Short Coat Podcast

Oath Vs. Enterprise: Moral Injury in Medicine with Wendy Dean

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Burnout is the wrong word for what’s ailing healthcare workers

  • The term burnout doesn’t really cover what happens to physicians and others in healthcare. Dr. Wendy Dean and others are coming around to the idea that what’s really happening is moral injury–what happens when you want to do the right thing but aren’t allowed to do it.
  • M1s Jeff, Faith, and Linda visit with Dr. Dean to talk about moral injury, what people are doing about it, and what still needs to be done.
  • Her book, If I Betray These Words, is available everywhere, and is a great read for anyone interested in knowing why their doctor can’t just do what’s right for their patient.

More about our Dr. Wendy Dean:

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

No matter where you fall on any spectrum, we want your thoughts on our show.  Do you agree or disagree with something we said today?  Did you hear something really helpful?  Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to?  We’ll be sure your ideas are heard by all–leave a message at 347-SHORTCT (347-746-7828) and we’ll put your message in a future episode (use *67 to be an “Unknown caller”). We want to know more about you: Take the Listener Survey Continue reading Oath Vs. Enterprise: Moral Injury in Medicine with Wendy Dean →

Short Coat Podcast

Pancakes and Firehoses: How Med Students Decide Where to Focus

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There’s always something more to do, but should you do it? And how much?

  • First, we get something important out of the way: Is “Drinking from the Firehose” the best analogy for medical school’s workload, or is “The (Infinite) Stack of Pancakes” more accurate?
  • M2s Matt and Zay, MD/PhD student Riley and M4 Nathen discuss how they decide how much to do in medical school to become the best doctor they can be.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

No matter where you fall on any spectrum, we want your thoughts on our show.  Do you agree or disagree with something we said today?  Did you hear something really helpful?  Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to?  We’ll be sure your ideas are heard by all–leave a message at 347-SHORTCT (347-746-7828) and we’ll put your message in a future episode (use *67 to be an “Unknown caller”).

We want to know more about you: Take the Listener Survey

Continue reading Pancakes and Firehoses: How Med Students Decide Where to Focus →
Short Coat Podcast

Recess Rehash: DROWNING IN EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:59 — 44.8MB)

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Doing stuff outside of your coursework is fantastic…until it isn’t.

explosion photo
Actual photograph of Gwyneth Paltrow’s “This Smells Like My Vagina” candle in use.

[Dave was suddenly called home for a family emergency, so no recording this week. Enjoy this rerun, though!]

Listener Tasneem Ahmed–a fourth-year medic at London’s King’s College–joins MD/PhD student Aline Sandouk, M4 Holly Conger, and M1s AJ Chowdhury and Alex Belzer on the show. She wrote to us at theshortcoats@gmail.com because she wanted to talk with us about those times when extracurricular activities are too much of a good thing. These activities are important to both schools and students as a way to convey and learn vital lessons about service and career opportunities. But there is a temptation to overdo it in an attempt to distinguish oneself as a competitive applicant. Take that far enough, and it’s a recipe for exhaustion and burnout.

We also take time to compare the two systems of medical education, dance on the grave of Step 2 CS, and cover the most important story of January 2021: Gwyneth Paltrow’s exploding vagina candle.

We Want to Hear From You

How’d we do on this week’s show? Did we miss anything in our conversation? Did we anger you? Did we make you smile? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime  or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  It’s always a pleasure to hear from you!

Short Coat Podcast

DROWNING IN EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

Audio
Share

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:59 — 44.8MB)

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS | More

Doing stuff outside of your coursework is fantastic…until it isn’t.

explosion photo
Actual photograph of Gwyneth Paltrow’s “This Smells Like My Vagina” candle in use.

Listener Tasneem Ahmed–a fourth-year medic at London’s King’s College–joins MD/PhD student Aline Sandouk, M4 Holly Conger, and M1s AJ Chowdhury and Alex Belzer on the show. She wrote to us at theshortcoats@gmail.com because she wanted to talk with us about those times when extracurricular activities are too much of a good thing. These activities are important to both schools and students as a way to convey and learn vital lessons about service and career opportunities. But there is a temptation to overdo it in an attempt to distinguish oneself as a competitive applicant. Take that far enough, and it’s a recipe for exhaustion and burnout.

We also take time to compare the two systems of medical education, dance on the grave of Step 2 CS, and cover the most important story of January 2021: Gwyneth Paltrow’s exploding vagina candle.

We Want to Hear From You

How’d we do on this week’s show? Did we miss anything in our conversation? Did we anger you? Did we make you smile? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime  or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  It’s always a pleasure to hear from you!

Short Coat Podcast

Your patients’ stories will sustain you in your darkest hours (bonus ft. Dr. John Mrachek)

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Photo by lifecreations

On this bonus episode of The Short Coat, we hear from Dr. John Mrachek, an anesthesiologist of 17 years who reached out to us at Iowa because he’d long felt a wedge being driven between doctors and their patients. He said that wedge, made of mouse clicks, political meddling, insurance middlemen, patient satisfaction surveys, and annoying electronic health records–was disconnecting physicians from their purpose. And that missing sense of purpose, he fears, is leading them to burn out. It’s contributing to a frightening problem: physician suicide. Modern medicine, he says, is in peril.

Among the solutions, Dr. Mrachek feels, is to encourage physicians and students to take inventory of their most memorable patient stories. He argues that this will return to them that lost connection to their work. This talk, given to our first- and second-year medical students and the first he’d given on the topic, is the the beginning of his mission to spread that idea.

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Continue reading Your patients’ stories will sustain you in your darkest hours (bonus ft. Dr. John Mrachek) →

Short Coat Podcast

Re-doin’ the Drops, a Clash of Wits, and Snapchat Surgery

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:18 — 81.5MB)

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Uh, oh. Sauron’s been doin’ the drops again. Photo by Dustin Ginetz

We tried Roto Z eye drops in the past, and were unimpressed.  But thanks to Doug Russo, who secured the real deal–Roto Z Pro eye drops–Kaci McCleary and newbies Matt Wilson, Jenna Schade and Elizabeth Shirazi felt the burn.  Now that they’re suitably refreshed, Dave must do his part to help med students keep their wits about them by playing a game of MegaClash!  Listener and ortho resident Emily calls in to say hello and express concern that med students are forced to choose specialties based on shallow exposures.  We address a worrying sentiment Dave noticed popping up a lot this week: that “if you can see yourself doing anything else besides being a doctor, do that instead.”  But it’s cool, because the National Academy of Medicine has formed a coalition of organizations to address burnout and suicide in medicine and medical education.  And a UK surgeon offers his students a way to observe surgery without all the boring bits, leveraging Snapchat Spectacles.  Listeners, share your thoughts with us each week.  Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and see our Facebook page for a question to consider every Monday.

Continue reading Re-doin’ the Drops, a Clash of Wits, and Snapchat Surgery →

rerun, Short Coat Podcast

Recess Rehash: How Residents Cope, and the Costs of America’s Most Violent Sport

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:15 — 74.5MB)

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Keep those noggins safe. Photo by USCPSC

Oh, snap.  Our recording last week was nuked by the computer gods.  Here’s a re-run to keep your auditory meatus occupied.

What can medical students and residents do to keep their chins up during their training? That’s what listener Ross–who has noticed the contrast between his happy med student co-workers and his crabby resident co-workers–wants to know. John Pienta, Gabe Lancaster, Jake O’Brien, and Matt Becker consider the question and the advice we gathered from residents. Continue reading Recess Rehash: How Residents Cope, and the Costs of America’s Most Violent Sport →

Short Coat Podcast

How Residents Cope, and the Costs of America’s Most Violent Sport

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:15 — 74.5MB)

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS | More

nfl photo
Keep those noggins safe. Photo by USCPSC

What can medical students and residents do to keep their chins up during their training? That’s what listener Ross–who has noticed the contrast between his happy med student co-workers and his crabby resident co-workers–wants to know. John Pienta, Gabe Lancaster, Jake O’Brien, and Matt Becker consider the question and the advice we gathered from residents. Continue reading How Residents Cope, and the Costs of America’s Most Violent Sport →