3 ms·

I don't understand the problem. Why can't residents just check in with a therapist each week to ensure that they're mentally healthy?

carbocation 9y ago
I went for a few years without a dental checkup because I couldn't get time to do it during the hours the dentist was open. (Granted, I also didn't choose to spend my vacation getting checkups.) In many programs, there is simply so little slack in the system that absence is acceptable only for emergencies. And, sure, we can talk about how that's bad, unacceptable, etc., but that's the reality that everyone I know lived during residency.
rubatuga 9y ago
Sarcasm?
- jancsika 9y ago
  No sarcasm. I'm talking about employing an independent third party to monitor the stress I'd be putting on myself, and trusting them to tell me if I cross the threshold into lasting damage and/or risking my life. Is this a requirement for a residency?
  - mentalhealth 9y ago
    Residents barely have time to eat (we called it "low food security"), let alone consider their mental health. I've actually heard it vocalized as a strategy for hospital administration -- keep the residents absurdly overworked and stressed out (and with no way out, since almost all of them have so much debt that leaving the profession is not an option), and they can't muster the coordination to do anything about their terrible working conditions.
    - jancsika 9y ago
      Right, I get that. But take this line from the article about the author's free confidential counseling session: > The therapist’s first question was about my sleep schedule—the likely cause of my distress, but also absolutely beyond my control. Is the purpose of the confidential counseling session to restore wellness to 100%? Or is it to combat the enormously elevated suicide risk in physicians that the author cites? That it doesn't provide the former tells you nothing about its effectiveness in preventing the latter.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
sbov 9y ago
Something like this isn't unheard of either. My wife worked as a sexual assault advocate for some time. Part of the job requirement was regular therapy sessions for her.
kansface 9y ago
You are completely missing the point - they aren't suffering for lack of therapy.
- jancsika 9y ago
  Right-- they are suffering because they entered a training regimen during which, as the author stated, wellness is not an option. The point is a therapist is trained not only to look for high levels of work-related stress, but also for signs that the patient is at risk of causing serious, long-term damage to their psyche. It's certainly not fool-proof. But the author seems persuaded that the stress is so high that it requires a new, idiosyncratic moral system for residents. Before doing something that drastic and so obviously prone to confirmation bias, I ask why checking in regularly with a trained, objective third party observer isn't an option.

carbocation 9y ago

I went for a few years without a dental checkup because I couldn't get time to do it during the hours the dentist was open. (Granted, I also didn't choose to spend my vacation getting checkups.) In many programs, there is simply so little slack in the system that absence is acceptable only for emergencies. And, sure, we can talk about how that's bad, unacceptable, etc., but that's the reality that everyone I know lived during residency.

rubatuga 9y ago

Sarcasm?

jancsika 9y ago
No sarcasm. I'm talking about employing an independent third party to monitor the stress I'd be putting on myself, and trusting them to tell me if I cross the threshold into lasting damage and/or risking my life. Is this a requirement for a residency?
- mentalhealth 9y ago
  Residents barely have time to eat (we called it "low food security"), let alone consider their mental health. I've actually heard it vocalized as a strategy for hospital administration -- keep the residents absurdly overworked and stressed out (and with no way out, since almost all of them have so much debt that leaving the profession is not an option), and they can't muster the coordination to do anything about their terrible working conditions.
  - jancsika 9y ago
    Right, I get that. But take this line from the article about the author's free confidential counseling session: > The therapist’s first question was about my sleep schedule—the likely cause of my distress, but also absolutely beyond my control. Is the purpose of the confidential counseling session to restore wellness to 100%? Or is it to combat the enormously elevated suicide risk in physicians that the author cites? That it doesn't provide the former tells you nothing about its effectiveness in preventing the latter.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

sbov 9y ago

Something like this isn't unheard of either. My wife worked as a sexual assault advocate for some time. Part of the job requirement was regular therapy sessions for her.

kansface 9y ago

You are completely missing the point - they aren't suffering for lack of therapy.

jancsika 9y ago
Right-- they are suffering because they entered a training regimen during which, as the author stated, wellness is not an option. The point is a therapist is trained not only to look for high levels of work-related stress, but also for signs that the patient is at risk of causing serious, long-term damage to their psyche. It's certainly not fool-proof. But the author seems persuaded that the stress is so high that it requires a new, idiosyncratic moral system for residents. Before doing something that drastic and so obviously prone to confirmation bias, I ask why checking in regularly with a trained, objective third party observer isn't an option.