Category Archives: physician

Running Strong In Our Lane

Posted on by
5

photo 1

NaBloPoMo 2018:  What I’m Learning

So the NRA tweets, “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane. Half of the articles in Annals of Internal Medicine are pushing for gun control. Most upsetting, however, the medical community seems to have consulted NO ONE but themselves.”

Hmmm, self-important.  Yes, sometimes.  After four years of college, four years of medical school, up to seven years of residency and then another 3 years of fellowship to earn the privilege of operating on the spines, nerves, organs, and blood vessels of gunshot victims, to maybe give them a chance to stay alive much less walk and talk, I can tolerate a little (just a little) self-importance in my emergency medicine, neurosurgery, trauma surgery, critical care and other colleagues.  They are f*ing rock stars.

Anti-gun.  I have yet to meet any physician, or any person, really, who is wholly anti-gun.  We are pro-gun safety, anti-violence by guns.  We would like for toddlers to not kill their siblings and parents by accident.  We would like for domestic disputes to not escalate to someone shooting their family and then themselves in an impulsive fit of rage.  We would like for depressed and suicidal patients not to actually kill themselves, which is too much easier to do with a firearm than any other method.  We just want to stop being the only country where so many die every year from being shot by guns.

The American College of Physicians (ACP), the internal medicine professional society and my home for professional communion and development, and the largest medical specialty organization, has published an updated position paper on reducing firearm deaths in the US:

In 2015, 9 (the ACP) joined the American College of Surgeons, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Public Health Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Emergency Physicians, and American Bar Association in a call to action to address gun violence as a public health threat, which was subsequently endorsed by 52 organizations that included clinician organizations, consumer organizations, organizations representing families of gun violence victims, research organizations, public health organizations, and other health advocacy organizations (2). Yet, firearm violence remains a problem—firearm-related mortality rates in the United States are still the highest among high-income countries (3).

Cited in their tweet, the NRA Institute for Legislative Action posted an article (no author identified) picking apart the ACP’s research citations and approach, stating, “This position paper leaves one wondering if the authors reviewed the evidence, or just found works that suited their needs. For all of the bluster about their own important role in the anti-gun movement and all of the misuse of research findings, the ACP makes one thing clear: they respect their own rights and opinions far more than they do those of law-abiding gun owners.”  *sigh*  As I have not read the primary literature on gun mortality and public health myself, I will not comment on that here.  I will just say that I wholeheartedly trust in the integrity of my colleagues and leaders at the ACP.  I’m proud of our advocacy for patients and, more recently, for physicians ourselves and our well-being.

My physician colleagues have posted a multitude of passionate responses on Twitter; you can read them here, here, and here.  And I just now saw this open letter to the NRA from the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine (AFFIRM) and signed it.  Below are highlights—please take a look.

I admit, I initially responded with profanity at seeing the NRA tweet.  My threshold for swearing is very low these days.  And I wanted to just post screenshots of the anti-NRA tweet storm and let them speak for me.  But that’s not me. I have yet to really decide how I want to design my public platform and conduct on issues like this.  For now, I can just say that tweets and articles like the NRA posted are disappointing.  I don’t want to follow that lead.

* * *

Dear National Rifle Association,

On Wednesday night (11/7/2018), in response to a position paper released by the American College of Physicians (ACP) Reducing Firearm Injuries and Death in the United States, your organization published the statement “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane.”

On that same day, the CDC published new data indicating that the death toll from gun violence in our nation continues to rise. As we read your demand for us doctors to stay in our lane, we awoke to learn of the 307th mass shooting in 2018 with another 12 innocent lives lost to an entirely preventable cause of death–gun violence.

Every medical professional practicing in the United States has seen enough gun violence firsthand to deeply understand the toll that this public health epidemic is taking on our children, families, and entire communities.

It is long past time for us to acknowledge the epidemic is real, devastating, and has root causes that can be addressed to assuage the damage. We must ALL come together to find meaningful solutions to this very American problem.

We, the undersigned – physicians, nurses, therapists, medical professionals, and other concerned community members – want to tell you that we are absolutely “in our lane” when we propose solutions to prevent death and disability from gun violence.

Our research efforts have been curtailed by your lobbying efforts to Congress. We ask that you join forces with us to find solutions. Help us in our non-partisan, physician-driven research efforts at AFFIRM Research.

We invite you to be part of the solution.

You dismissed the ACP’s position statement on preventing death and injury from gun violence by stating, “Most upsetting, however, the medical community seems to have consulted NO ONE but themselves.”

We extend our invitation for you to collaborate with us to find workable, effective strategies to diminish the death toll from suicide, homicide, domestic violence, and unintentional shootings for the thousands of Americans who will one day find themselves on the wrong side of a barrel of a gun.

We are not anti-gun. We are anti-bullet hole. Let’s work together.

Join us, or move over! This is our lane.

 

Who’s On Your Pit Crew?

Posted on by
13

 

Who helps you succeed?

Who checks in with you regularly and gives you feedback on your performance?

Who rushes to your side when you need help?

Who can tell not only when you have a lugnut loose but also how to help you tighten it again?

Who is on your pit crew?

I can’t remember the first time I started using this analogy.  I do recall, of course, it came about in a patient encounter.  For a long time now I have consistently asked patients about their emotional support networks, their connections.  As I get older, I feel increasingly aware of and grateful for all the people at every phase of life who have helped me learn, improve, succeed, and become.  Nobody succeeds alone—really, all but a rare few of us can even survive alone.

My friend Jeremy Topin, a critical care physician, husband, and dad, writes a heartfelt and honest blog about life as all these things—because he is at once all of them and more—there is no way to truly separate one role from another in life.  His recent post on depression among physicians reminded me of the pit crew idea.  Medical culture does not encourage pit crews for its workers.  It’s evolving, painfully slowly, and I hope to have a hand in that evolution.  But for now, far too many physicians and other caregivers suffer burnout, depression, anxiety, and other work-related heaviness in silence, and it can cost us our lives.

Thankfully, many of us have intact and well-functioning pit crews.  46% of physician respondents to the most recent Medscape survey reported talking to friends and family as a coping mechanism, second only to exercise, and right above sleep.  I count my trainer, my therapist, my life coach, and my Counsel of Wisdom, my closest friends, as my core crew.  I have become more and more open about having a therapist and a coach—ya gotta walk the talk if you’re going to be credible about your work.

Full disclosure, I am not a car racing fan.  Pretty much all I know about pit crews is from Disney’s “Cars” and admiring Lightning McQueens’ motley one.  But that’s how it happens, right?  We acquire and accumulate relationships and connections along the winding way in life.  Who knows when or where it might happen?  I met mine in school, in the exam room, at meetings, and I was introduced by mutual acquaintances.

As I consider further, though, having a pit crew is only part of the success story.  Research shows us time and again that serving on someone else’s pit crew fulfills a profound human need, also.  I suggest works by Adam Grant and Kelly McGonigal if you wish to read more about this.  But maybe you don’t need to read or hear the research evidence to understand this concept?  How does helping others help you?  On whose pit crew do you serve?  To whose Lightning McQueen are you Mater or Luigi?

If your pit crew is sparse, people who study and do this work recommend finding something meaningful or someone you love to serve.  It could be something simple and non-committal, like serving at a soup kitchen or collecting winter coats for shelters.  It could be reading or playing piano at a senior center.  Or it could be mentoring a junior colleague over many months or years.

Imagine a music teacher who accompanies her cello student at recitals.  She plays piano, fingers and hands moving lightly and nimbly over the keys as her protégé plays her heart out during each performance.  I went to my son’s school this afternoon for a music concert, where this pit crew idea struck me again.  I don’t know if the accompanists were the performers’ teachers, but that’s how I saw them, as they were all clearly middle aged adults playing alongside teenagers—surely they had some wisdom to impart in this relationship?  It occurred to me that ‘accompanist’ may not fully accredit these adults’ roles in the kids’ lives.  The music they contributed not only supported the students’ performances.  These adults integrated their music making with the primary performers’, lifting it beyond where it could go alone.  They contributed their own advanced skills and supportive presence to help these young people succeed.  It was a team effort.  And that’s the point, I think.

How widely could we apply this pit crew metaphor?  How does it resonate with you today?  How else is your life like a racecar driver’s?  What’s exhilarating about it?  How is it faster and more intense than other drivers’?  Is that okay with you?  How much longer can you sustain this work, and what do you need to maintain the joy and reward?

Lastly, what did you think of this post?  It’s much more stream of consciousness and impromptu than I’m used to.  I’m trying to get more efficient with my time—three hours per post finishing at 2am on a weeknight is no longer an option.  Your feedback is welcome!

One more weekly post and then the 30 day marathon that is NaBloPoMo, my friends!  Woo hoooooo, ONWARD!

From Meaning to Mission:  Finding Your Voice and Speaking Up for Change

Posted on by
6

Fairmont workshop room

Have you ever felt like you have no voice in your workplace, your community, or the world at large?  When have you felt you do have a voice?  What made the difference?

Two esteemed colleagues, Liz Lawrence and Eileen Barrett at the University of New Mexico, and I presented the above titled workshop at the International Conference on Physician Health on Friday.  The objective was to give participants an opportunity to recognize and rally their strengths, claim their value and agency, and practice the words to advance an idea or project for improving physician health and well-being.

The idea for the workshop came from a conversation Eileen had with a young physician who felt he had no agency to improve his work situation, due to his junior status.  This prompted her to ask, who has agency, and how do they get it?  She concluded that agency is an active skill, not a passive state of being.  Thus it can be learned/acquired, and everybody has/can have it.  Furthermore, we apply it most effectively when we combine it with our strengths, in service of projects that are personally meaningful.

We presented the reciprocal triad of finding meaning in work, feeling empowered, and inspiration and motivation, as the foundation of agency and action.

EB triad

Identifying Strengths

The first exercise had participants pair up and describe their strengths to each other.

What are your strengths?  Imagine describing them to someone, out loud, in person.  How does this feel?  Our attendees reported feeling uncomfortable, not used to it.  They also felt confident, connected, and encouraged speaking to someone they knew was listening supportively.

Defining the Project

Second, we asked participants to think for a few minutes about their own projects.  It could be something they had been working on for a while, a new idea they recently came across, or something from a sample list we provided, related to Culture of Wellness or Efficiency of Practice.  We asked:

  • Is your idea “Big Enough to Matter, Small Enough to Win?” quoting Jonathan Kozol.
  • Is it Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART)?
  • How will your strengths apply?
  • What else do you need? Who can help?

Partners met again to share and discuss each other’s ideas.

Afterward they reported elevated inspiration, excitement, and mutual support.  Positive energy in the room rose palpably at this point, with lots of gesturing, smiling, and engagement.

ICPH 2018 workshop

Communication and Relationship

We didn’t call it an elevator pitch, but that’s basically what we asked attendees to attempt.  In 90 seconds, each participant was to distill and express their idea into words that would convey its essence and enroll their partner in its goal.  Having advanced to this segment of the workshop in less than twenty minutes, and now asking them to perform a pitch on the fly, I gave a pep talk (modified here to include some words I wish I had said):

“Now it’s time to PRACTICE.  If we are to make progress in our projects, we must enroll other people.  It’s all about relationships.  Relationships kill us or save us, and they live and die by communication.  A previous presenter said, ‘Language is the vehicle through which all interactions take place—both verbal and nonverbal.’

“You never know when or where you will meet your champion, or who it will be.  The easier and better you can pull your idea out of your back pocket and present it cogently and impromptu, the higher your chances of success.  Know your ask—be as clear as possible.  Know your audience—what about your project is meaningful to them, what will they relate to?  Make them the hero:  Don’t come at them with demands.  Come alongside them with open-ended questions; help them appreciate the power they have to help.

“You will have to be persistent.  Practice will be key.  Our keynote speaker, applying complexity theory to the work of physician well-being, invoked the image of a grain of sand dropping onto a pile.  One grain may stick on impact and nothing happens to the pile.  Another may cause a small section of sand to tumble just a little.  Yet another grain can trigger the avalanche that alters the sand pile landscape entirely—and no one can predict which grain will be which.  I posit that you are not a grain of sand.  You hold an idea—a whole bag of sand—and each time you pitch it, you drop a grain (or a handful) on the pile.  If one grain makes no immediate change, drop another one, and another, and another.  This is the essence of the Growth Mindset—practice.  Practice is Creation.  Practice is Evolution.  Practice is Progress.  Your job now as speaker is to try with abandon.  There is no such thing as a bad try.  Pay attention to how it feels, where you get stuck, and where you shine.  As the listener, your job is to make it safe for your partner to let go of fear and judgment, to lay it all out.  Support, encourage, and critique with love.  What moved you, what did you observe in words and body language that drew you in or put you off?  What did you want more of?

“Make the most of this time.  Dig in the bag and pull out a few grains to drop.  Take advantage of your partner for feedback and support.”

The room was positively buzzing.  And participants’ comments made our day (paraphrased here):

“Sticking with the same partner throughout was helpful; we could really connect each other’s strengths to our respective ideas and help each other develop them.”

“It was fascinating to see the energy change between talking informally about the idea and then having to present it as a pitch.  She was so much smaller and hesitant the second time around.”  (Partner):  “The first time I was just talking to a colleague.  The second time I pictured presenting to my board.”  The experience was enlightening and curiosity-provoking.

“It’s different and easier talking to a supportive stranger, someone with whom you don’t already have relationship baggage.”  How else, then, might we approach our stakeholders—how could we practice awareness of our assumptions and relationship dynamics, and perhaps modify them positively?

“Hearing someone else’s ideas informs my own.  I like how he conveyed something, I saw how I could do the same; it gave me more insight.”  Taking turns both presenting and listening engaged both people in mutual support and encouragement—both roles were helpful.

The Takeaways

Liz, Eileen and I have collaborated on physician wellness since 2015.  We share meaning and mission around inspiring our colleagues to claim their value, recognize and stand both confidently and humbly in their power, and participate in a global movement of positive change.  Our strengths and styles complement one another and the work flows naturally, synergistically.  What a privilege and an honor it was to have this opportunity to present to and commune with our tribe members in physician health.  May the processing and integration of all of our new learnings continue to sustain and connect us for the long road of work ahead.  As Barack Obama says, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change we seek.”

Onward, my friends.

EB LL CC ICPH 2018