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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.
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Coping with the Death of a Patient
Have you ever struggled with your emotional reactions after losing a patient? There are rituals and practices frequently associated with loss of a loved one that may be absent in the case of loss of a patient.
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Stop Giving Luck The Credit
We do learners a disservice when we frame our success with luck. Stories that credit happenstance rather than our own doing teach that circumstances have more control over our success than we do.
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Did We Win? Finding Your Purpose
Why do you do what you do? Work is not something that happens in a box over on the side while the rest of your life waits patiently for your attention.
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The Hidden Curriculum: Non-Negotiables
What we as teachers can do is take an interest in the non-negotiable of trainees and help them understand how we, ourselves, integrate our non-negotiables into the demands of life.
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Boundary Setting as a Physician
Healthy boundaries are flexible boundaries. They are not so infinitely malleable that they end up meaningless, but they are also not so rigid that they don’t allow for situational variation.
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The Hidden Curriculum: Specialty Disrespect
Specialty disrespect is a pervasive behavior in medicine. And, with the worsening of healthcare silos and the decline of face-to-face interactions, specialty disrespect is only getting worse.
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Distinguishing Necessary from Unnecessary Think Pieces
A critique of the popular NEJM article by Dr. Lisa Rosenbaum, ‘Being Well while Doing Well – Distinguishing Necessary from Unnecessary Discomfort in Training’
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Using Reframing Techniques as a Physician
We see ourselves and our circumstances differently depending upon how we frame them. We might not like any of them. But until we acknowledge that we are making a choice, we are giving away our power to change that choice.