Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: burnout

  • Surgeon’s Sorrow

    Nayaab MalikAberdeen, Scotland Artist statement Captivated by the daily battles that healthcare staff face at work, I aimed to depict the varied emotions that doctors experience on a routine basis. Each of my three canvases represents a distinct aspect of a surgeon’s emotional voyage. The first displays a doctor that has had to deliver a…

  • The doctor behind the labcoat

    Varun Raj PassiBangalore, India Sanjeev knew he was not asleep, and the very fact that he was conscious enough to know this made him worry. The relentless clicking of the wall-clock above his bedstead amplified his anxiety. He knew that the more clicks he registered now, the less sleep he would get, and in turn…

  • James Herriot and burnout

    Sylvia PamboukianMoon Township, Pennsylvania, United States The James Herriot veterinary stories are so beloved by readers that they have inspired two television series called All Creatures Great and Small and have sold over sixty million copies.1 James Herriot is the pen name of James Alfred “Alf” Wight, who was born in 1916 and graduated from…

  • Thriving in the face of uncertainty

    Sally MatherChris MillardIan SabroeSheffield, England The experience of uncertainty has appeared as a frequent narrative in articles, autobiographies, and memoirs written by doctors over the last century. A persistent belief that better training, tests, evidence, and pathways will reduce uncertainty has not been borne out in the experience of contemporary clinicians. Beliefs about uncertainty in…

  • The Plague and physician burnout

    Geoffrey RubinMark AbramsD. Edmund AnsteyNew York, New York, United States In Albert Camus’ novel The Plague,1 Doctor Rieux is a consummate physician, a hero and a “true healer.” His main charge is to compassionately perform his duty—a matter, in his words, of “common decency”—despite the personal risk of infection and death. Rieux embodies the Oslerian…

  • Spinoza and medical practice: Can the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza enrich the thinking of doctors?

    Norelle LickissHobart, Tasmania, Australia As doctors we seek to assuage the distress of our patients by relieving symptoms, guarding personal dignity, and remaining present even as they are dying. Yet despite these lofty goals, there remain facts suggesting profound disquiet among physicians, albeit well disguised: high rates of substance abuse, burnout, suicide . . .…

  • Burnout: Are we looking at it through the wrong lens?

    Elizabeth CerceoCamden, New Jersey, United States The epidemic of burnout seems to afflict ever more populations as it insidiously creeps into the workplace of everyone from nurses to teachers, from medical students to seasoned clinicians, from Amazon to Apple. As physicians, we are trained to identify a condition, make a diagnosis, and prescribe a treatment.…

  • Notre Dame and gratitude

    Elizabeth CerceoCamden, New Jersey, United States On April 15, 2019, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris burned. This event highlighted the integral nature of art and beauty in our culture. We often take for granted the beauty that surrounds us and stands as a connection to our past. I was in Paris years ago and went…

  • Defining medicine

    Amira AthanasiosWalnut Creek, California, United States Defining Medicine. The bolded script screamed at me from a massive poster hung six stories high along the side of the university hospital on my first day of medical school. Like most millennials, I pursued medicine with a deep conviction to make a difference. Coming from a humanities background,…

  • Burnout

    Ronald RembertChicago, Illinois, United States I was assigned to work at Cook County Hospital for my emergency room (ER) clerkship in my third year of medical school. “Whoa, that place is crazy . . . you will see a lot a people there,” I was told by a friend who worked there. Actually, I was…