Preventing Physician Suicide Part 1:

Recognizing You Are At Risk

The First-Person Experience of Suicidal Ideation

[ Part 2 - Reaching Out to a Suicidal Physician Colleague - is here ]
[ Part 3 - Coaching a suicidal physician client - is here ]

The first step in preventing physician suicide is recognizing a clear and present danger of suicide in an individual person - be that you or someone else.

This recognition comes in two parts.

First Person:
You recognize when you are in danger, step back and get support.

Second Person:
You recognize someone else is - or may be - at risk and reach out to offer support.

• In this podcast we will explore the First-Person experience of suicidal ideation, so you can understand what happens on the inside when suicide risk is high.
  
  
• In Part 2 we will explore how to recognize suicide risk in a colleague and reach out to them to offer support. 
  
  
• In Part 3 we will discuss how a physician coach works effectively with a suicidal physician client
  
  

Do you need help and support right now?
Connect with one of our physician coaches 
In a Free Discovery Session

Watch or listen as Pam Pappas MD and Penelope Hsu MD - two of our coaches at TheHappyMD.com share these life saving tools.

The fundamental conflict and a proven process for a way forward, in three brief chapters

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Chapter 1

Physician's Search for Meaning

Physicians are Lightworkers

We made a choice long ago to ally our professional career to the forces of Light in the universe ... battling specific forces of Darkness - illness, suffering, death and dying.

Every day an invisible, swirling wall blocks us from helping and healing and making the difference we dreamed of when we went to medical school

We are LIGHTWORKERS in a daily WHIRLWIND and this is the main cause of burnout at the level of heart, soul and spirit.

I reveal and narrate this battle in this 3 Minute Video  

And it just does not have to be this way.

It is a modern epidemic and a plague upon US healthcare. It should wake CEO's up in a cold sweat across the nation every night at 3 AM.

Adversity does not build character ... it reveals it.

In the heat of the pandemic and now in the short staffing crisis that dominates most markets ... physicians, nurses and all front line staff have revealed their character

PhysiciansOnPurpose [ POP ] Podcast #62

In the medical profession, women physicians are automatically assigned a position of inferior status compared to their male colleagues. Women physicians also run into challenges to their status from female nurses on the job site.

Status leveling burden is a set of behaviors all female physicians must perfect in order to up-level their status with regards to these two groups on the practice site. 

1) Male physicians. Men are automatically granted higher status purely virtue of their gender. Women physicians must work to bring themselves up to the level of status and respect of their male colleagues. It takes finesse, practice and effort.

2) Female nurses. There is an additional set of behaviors women physicians must master in order to maintain status with Female Nurses on the practice site. Again, these specific communications and acts of kindness take finesse, practice and additional effort that male physicians need not expend at work.

This was a great discussion for women and men alike with the lead researcher from a new study, Dr. Teresa Cardador PhD. This is a set of behaviors that make it harder for female residents to make it through training and can drive female physicians right out of medicine in some cases. We have all seen them. Now we have a name to aid our discussions of how to respond.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
~ Albert Einstein

Physician Burnout - Praying for a one-step solution is human nature and a trap!

One of the key features of physician burnout is a desire to run away, escape, make the pain stop. When you are deep in the downward spiral, your mind drops to its knees and prays for a simple, one-step solution to the agony and despair.

We ask basic questions like:

1. What is the solution to physician burnout?
2. What can I do to solve this, make it go away and get on with my career and my life?
   
   

Because our questions are simple, we assume a simple answer -- a solution, a magic pill, a one-shot fix -- will come to our rescue.

This is magical thinking and a search that is doomed to fail !

In this blog post, let me show you the simplest way possible to prevent physician burnout in any healthcare organization that employs physicians. 

I promise to make it as simple as possible for you, but no simpler. 

 

THREE KEY DISTINCTIONS

Physician burnout is a normal response to overwhelming stress  

Burnout is a normal response in anyone who chose to be a helper and a healer and is blocked from making enough of a difference in the lives of their patients.

PhysiciansOnPurpose [ POP ] Podcast #60

Dr. Elizabeth Hughes MD and "Doctors Emotionally Abusive Relationship With Our Careers"

Are YOU at Risk?

Learn six parallels between classic abusive romantic relationships and employee physician's often dysfunctional relationship with their career.

This is Episode 60 of our Physicians On Purpose [ POP ] Podcast - with 19,564 downloads to date.