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The Hidden Curriculum: The Lessons of Microaggressions
“He didn’t mean anything by it when he did that.” “She only said it because she doesn’t know any better.” “Don’t take it personally. They didn’t mean it that way.” Microaggressions refer to everyday, subtle, intentional, or unintentional interactions and behaviors that communicate some sort of bias toward historically marginalized groups. The term is not…
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Techniques to Improve Focus
It is an ugly reality that sometimes our learning environments are incompatible with learning. Sleep deprivation and stress can both lead to impaired cognitive performance. Low self-efficacy can reduce motivation and perseverance. Internal and external distractions can hinder concentration. Fortunately, there are evidence-based techniques to improve your focus and performance even in difficult circumstances. Keep…
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Strategies for Better Sleep as a Healthcare Worker
You may have seen the recent news article about an exhausted Boston nurse who accidentally drove off the top level of the hospital parking garage at the conclusion of her shift. For many of us, our empathy for her may be accompanied by a fear for ourselves, a knowledge that we too are so fatigued…
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Mind Body Experiences of Residency
Let me tell you a story from my early doctor days to bring to life the mind body interactions that can occur when our inner mindsets, beliefs and assumptions, face circumstances that activate our ancestral stress-response survival systems. When I was a chief resident, I was given the opportunity for the first time to present…
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Combatting Learned Helplessness
“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.”-Unknown, but frequently attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald A debilitating thing happens when we begin to feel like our efforts don’t make any difference. At first, we might try even harder to…
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21 Things to Do When You Don’t Want to Do Anything
There are times when we might feel so overwhelmed or distressed that we are emptied of our desire to engage. Everything just seems too hard. Or we are physically exhausted, deprived of sleep, rest, and relaxation. So we find ourselves mindlessly scrolling through social media for hours, at the end of which we usually feel…
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Dealing With Guilt As A Physician
“Guilt is one of those emotions that feeds on itself. With every bite it gets a little heavier.” Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about coping with loss and about checking our social support to see if it is genuinely supportive. As we discussed, some of the steps to healing are both…
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Gifts for Residency Graduation
Graduating from residency is no small feat, and one that deserves the perfect gift.
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Problem-Focused vs. Emotion-Focused Coping Strategies
To Solve or To Soothe? When we face a situation that causes us distress, we can try to reduce that distress by working to change the situation. We can also try to manage our emotions, or we can try a combination of both approaches. Emotion-focused coping centers on efforts to change our emotional responses to…
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Potential Pitfalls of Social Support for Physicians
Research has consistently shown that social support helps buffer us against stressors, but there are times when we may be getting suboptimal social support that can actually make us feel worse.