Healing After Bad Outcome

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3 Steps to Using Ritual to Heal After Patient Deaths

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3 Steps to Using Ritual to Heal After Patient Deaths

Physicians and nurses are feeling enormous grief in relation to patients’ losses right now. I’ve long been interested in grief as it shows up in us and how those feelings reflect what our patients and our work means to us. Now I’d like to explore what we can do to get through it. Many use a moment of silence to allow the medical team to process a patient death. I believe we could do so much more for ourselves, though. For today, let’s ask, how can physicians and nurses use ritual to process their grief, especially in the midst of a pandemic?


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Surviving A Long, Dark Night -- 5 Lessons For Us

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Surviving A Long, Dark Night -- 5 Lessons For Us

Physicians commonly call their experiences with a hard patient outcome or a lawsuit the “dark night of the soul.” As we mark Winter Solstice — the longest night of the year — I find myself wondering what it might have to teach us about how we emerge from our own long, dark nights.

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Managing Emotion in a Lawsuit - First Steps

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Managing Emotion in a Lawsuit - First Steps

Most physicians and other healers experience a dramatic array of powerful, often difficult emotions, in response to a lawsuit. Sometimes it feels as if those emotions will overwhelm or even crush us. Today, let’s explore a first step toward navigating those emotions in a way that serves us in the lawsuit and in life.

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Am I a Second Victim? 3 Ways to Know

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Am I a Second Victim? 3 Ways to Know

Unforeseen events can alter the course of physicians’ and other healers’ lives. They sometimes make us question our understanding of our professional role, our place in the universe as a human being, and our outlook on ourselves and others. Are you wondering whether you might be what some call a “second victim?” Join me to explore 3 questions that will give you the clues you need to find an answer.

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Mental Health Under Stress: Interview with Dr. Melissa Welby

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Mental Health Under Stress: Interview with Dr. Melissa Welby

As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, it is slowly morphing from an acute, high-intensity stressor in our lives to a chronic one. This is remarkably similar to the experience many physicians have after an adverse outcome or in the midst of a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Join me today for a wonderful interview with Dr. Melissa Welby, psychiatrist and blogger, where we discuss anxiety under stress and how to manage it in ourselves.

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Nourish the Body: Dr. Roxanne Sukol's 3rd Pillar of Well-Being

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Nourish the Body: Dr. Roxanne Sukol's 3rd Pillar of Well-Being

Today, I bring you the final segment of my interview with Dr. Roxanne Sukol, an internationally recognized expert in preventive medicine and wellness. Over the last few blog posts, we’ve explored ways to preserve our health in the midst of deep stress. Today, Dr. Sukol illuminates the way we nourish our bodies. Explore the role of various foods in supporting your well-being, the foods that are Food and the “foods” that are Not, and fun ways to know the difference.

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Activity and Well-being: Interview with Dr. Roxanne Sukol

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Activity and Well-being: Interview with Dr. Roxanne Sukol

Today we continue our conversation regarding preserving our well-being in the midst of any major stressor through our patterns of activity. Join me to continue our conversation with internationally recognized preventive medicine expert, Dr. Roxanne Sukol.

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3 Pillars of Well-Being: Interview with Dr. Roxanne Sukol

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3 Pillars of Well-Being: Interview with Dr. Roxanne Sukol

In my last post, we talked about the four domains of health — physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual — we want to attend to in times of significant stress. Join me today for the first in a series of conversations with internationally recognized expert in preventive medicine, Dr. Roxanne Sukol, as we explore 3 pillars supporting well-being, the power of vagal tone, and concrete strategies you can use NOW to improve your well-being in this time of stress.

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Caring for Ourselves In Times of Deep Stress

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Caring for Ourselves In Times of Deep Stress

Physicians and other healthcare workers are under extraordinary stress right now. Unfortunately, chronic stress is not good for our health in so many ways. Let’s start right now to explore ways to care for ourselves in the face of deep stress.

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4 Injuries Hidden in the Work We Love

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4 Injuries Hidden in the Work We Love

For weeks, the news has been all about COVID-19 and its impact beyond Wuhan, where it emerged.. Our work exposes us to so much. Injury from agents like COVID-19, while immediate and concrete, is in many ways the least among risks we run. By virtue of our commitment to humanity, we encounter an array of injuries which can impact on our health, joy, and longevity.

Like all injuries, the better we define them, the greater the likelihood we’ll heal. So, let’s explore them.

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Your Big Shift: 3 Steps to Moving Through Hardship to Growth

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Your Big Shift: 3 Steps to Moving Through Hardship to Growth

Did you know that many physicians who experience an unexpected adverse outcome or malpractice litigation also experience post-traumatic stress, some even PTSD? Recently, we’ve explored post-traumatic growth — what it is and early steps. Today, I want us to dip our toes into how people start to put it all together anew by looking at 3 concrete ways of doing that.

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Step 1 to Post-Traumatic Growth: Shattering Our Assumptions

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Step 1 to Post-Traumatic Growth: Shattering Our Assumptions

In our last two posts, we’ve begun to explore the ways physicians and other healers recover after traumatic experiences with adverse patient outcomes. Today, we get down to the nitty gritty with a look at the first step in the process of post-traumatic growth.

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Can Setbacks Really Set Us Up for Comebacks?

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Can Setbacks Really Set Us Up for Comebacks?

If you’d told me seven years ago that I’d be grateful for my experience with an unexpected adverse outcome and malpractice litigation, I’d have called you insensitive or worse. How is that we find our way through adversity to make something beautiful out of some of the most difficult moments of our lives?