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Overcoming Addiction In Residency & Fellowship
Dr. McKeown tells her story of battling, and overcoming, addiction in both residency and fellowship. She tells her story so that others struggling with addiction or substance abuse can know that they are not alone.
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How I Switched Residency Programs & Specialties
The Nitty-Gritty – how I switched career paths two-thirds of the way through a residency program and the questions I asked myself as I contemplated doing a second residency.
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Stigma, Shame & Psychotherapy for Physicians
Research shows that only 16% of medical professionals under age 55 who are experiencing significant distress will reach out for help. Over age 55, that percentage drops to 6%. There are a number of both internal and external barriers to accessing needed mental healthcare. While they are real and valid, external barriers can sometimes absorb…
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Beyond Self Care: Coaching and Psychotherapy
Maybe you’re doing all the things. You meditate, eat well, exercise, seek out appropriate social support, set good boundaries, and follow good sleep hygiene practices. But you’re still feeling significant distress. There can be a tendency to push ourselves harder, to berate ourselves for not feeling better despite our best efforts. But this is often…
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Caring for Yourself as a Physician
Consider taking care of a child, a pet, or a garden. Do you ignore them for long stretches and attend to them periodically and call that good care? Or does caring for pretty much anything or anyone you can imagine involve paying consistent attention to their needs and taking steps to meet those needs? Self-care…
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Self Directed Self Care
“When someone is drowning, that is not the time to teach them how to swim.” How does the concept of self-care land on you? Do you envision morning meditations, beach vacations, a dedicated yoga practice, or something else that replenishes and renews you? Or do you experience it as another obligation, just one more thing…
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Blowing the Whistle: A Guide for Medical and Surgical Trainees
“I sat wondering, Could I take it all back? I could say I made it all up. More and more, it seemed that the whistleblowing would just be met with more blow-back. Everything I did was just being used against me. I wanted NBO to investigate. I wanted someone to take my concerns seriously, but…
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Reducing Distress by Thinking about Thinking
Consider this scenario: I am approaching my house, which I believe to be empty. I hear unmistakable noises from inside. If I conclude that I am interrupting a break-in, I will take precautions. If it turns out to be a surprise party, that’s okay. I may have felt frightened for no reason, but I really…
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Cumulative Trauma in Medicine
One of the biggest challenges with setting boundaries may be an unacknowledged internal drive to avoid those boundaries. We talked last time about challenging ideas of work as worth and about accepting that no amount of accomplishment can resolve empty feelings. You could pour a literal ocean into a cup with a hole in it…
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So You Want To Be a Sports Medicine Doctor?
Sports medicine, or more specifically primary care sports medicine (PCSM), is a field that is as rewarding as it is varied. Those in medicine will likely have heard the phrase “no two doctors have the same career.” The job of a general surgeon versus an OBGYN versus an emergency medicine physician are all completely different.…
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Challenging Ideas of Work as Worth
Much of our suffering comes from efforts to avoid suffering. Or, in the words of Carl Jung: “What we resist, persists.” Overwork can be one of the ways that we resist distressing emotions. Sometimes it can be harder to spot than other maladaptive coping mechanisms because work, and often overwork, tends to be praised and…
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Match Day Gift Guide For Medical Students
You want to get the Med Student in your life something they’ll love and actually use, but what is that, exactly? Medical students as a population are generally experts at delayed gratification and practicality.