HAPPINESS, WELLNESS AND RESILIENCY
the insightful ed |
Thriving in the world of medicine can be challenging but it is not impossible. Join me as I share what I've learned, and science confirms, to have the most satisfying job on the planet.
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Compassion Can't Fatigue
Science is teaching us that compassion can't fatigue, it actually heals us. We can learn how to use our built in empathetic system to activate compassion to not only help our patients, but to heal and eliminate the effects of burnout in our lives.
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Chapter 1 - Affective Empathy
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Chapter 2 - Cognitive Empathy and Compassion
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Chapter 3 - The Medicine of Compassion
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Chapter 4 - Mindfulness and Compassion
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the mindful ed |
Experience mindfulness through meditation and discover the most powerful tool to transform our our lives and our careers.
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The Compassion Meditation
Use this meditation to reset and recharge your mind/body with compassion.
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DR FRANK'S PERSONAL JOURNEY BACK FROM BURNOUT
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As a two-time cancer survivor, I can tell you that cancer really does change everything! As a patient, I did well, even though I did not very much care for being on the other side of a stethoscope. Five years into my practice of emergency medicine I developed my second cancer in 1997 and was forced to leave my clinical position as the second experience required more from me than the first. I recovered from the treatments and was able to return to the emergency department but now there were ten more years of obsessing about test results and waiting. Finally- after spending 20 consecutive years of my life worrying about and dealing with cancer, I could say I was cured
But I would never have guessed that the biggest fight for my life was yet to come. You see, I feel victim to compassion fatigue, which went untreated and blossomed into full-blown professional burnout, a form of secondary posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). There is no medicine or surgery you can take for this and until now there was also nothing we could do to heal it or prevent its occurrence.
This dis-ease develops slowly and creeps into our lives insidiously. We don’t even realize it is happening until it has consumed us. Many of you too may be feeling the effects of compassion fatigue or burnout, and not even realize that what YOU are experiencing is job related. Recent studies show that more than half the nurses and doctors who work in emergency departments all across America are suffering from some degree of burnout.
The worst part of all of this is that the results of burnout spill over into every area of your life. It is as if caring for others robs you of your own humanity. Each day we work, a little more of our humanity is eroded as our dis-ease worsens.
In all the research I did, I found no solution for this problem. The effort required for me to find my own way back from burnout, back to a full spectrum healthy emotional experience of life. This was some of the hardest work I have ever done.
I now believe that compassion fatigue is a misnomer and that the real name for this condition should be empathetic overload. I also believe that compassion fatigue and burnout need never occur, and if they do, there is a clear path back to solid emotional health. I believe that I have found the path that will quickly bring us all back from burnout and I am extremely passionate about sharing what I have learned with all of you.
But I would never have guessed that the biggest fight for my life was yet to come. You see, I feel victim to compassion fatigue, which went untreated and blossomed into full-blown professional burnout, a form of secondary posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). There is no medicine or surgery you can take for this and until now there was also nothing we could do to heal it or prevent its occurrence.
This dis-ease develops slowly and creeps into our lives insidiously. We don’t even realize it is happening until it has consumed us. Many of you too may be feeling the effects of compassion fatigue or burnout, and not even realize that what YOU are experiencing is job related. Recent studies show that more than half the nurses and doctors who work in emergency departments all across America are suffering from some degree of burnout.
The worst part of all of this is that the results of burnout spill over into every area of your life. It is as if caring for others robs you of your own humanity. Each day we work, a little more of our humanity is eroded as our dis-ease worsens.
In all the research I did, I found no solution for this problem. The effort required for me to find my own way back from burnout, back to a full spectrum healthy emotional experience of life. This was some of the hardest work I have ever done.
I now believe that compassion fatigue is a misnomer and that the real name for this condition should be empathetic overload. I also believe that compassion fatigue and burnout need never occur, and if they do, there is a clear path back to solid emotional health. I believe that I have found the path that will quickly bring us all back from burnout and I am extremely passionate about sharing what I have learned with all of you.
SHOTS OF SATISFACTION
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