The first paper we will be looking at was a paper that was written and then reviewed by somebody who knows a lot on this subject. The main focus of the report is to evaluate how pediatricians deal with the death of a child. They talk about some of the emotions that are felt by pediatricians, as they point out that not enough information was previously published on this subject, meaning this report had to work from scratch. The paper then described one of the biggest emotionally traumatizing experiences a pediatrician can have, the SUDDEN death of a child. It causes shock and self-doubt, especially when this is a newly-minted doctor. When a child dies, the first response is to question their own quality of care, creating a sense of uncertainty that can last for long periods at a time. If mistakes are found to invoke substandard care, it can lead to severe emotional reactions, regardless of seniority. The most common and dangerous result of having emotion experiences in the medical industry is that doctors can begin to personalizing and internalizing the tragedy, which tends to affect how they treat their own family.
This leads to something we’ve talked about before, externalizing the problem. In one of the previous sources we’ve analyzed, it was stated that doctors use humor as a coping mechanism to deal with the difficulties they deal with in the workplace. This can be generally labeled as externalizing the problem and becoming numb to emotion. There is currently no agreement on what is the best way to provide support for doctors. Currently, the most popular way to do this is through psychological debriefing, which is a technique used to mitigate long term consequences of exposure to increased stress. However, that method is currently being questioned. With a lack of research on this subject as a whole, many find it difficult to asses what is the best solution to the problem. This report ends with a simple solution of getting more and/or better training in medical school itself, to prepare people for the realities to come. The second study also focused on a specific specialty, oncology. This is another field of medicine that has a large amount of patient loss involved. However, even physicians like these are subject to the taboo on the idea that emotion itself can have a negative consequence on both the doctor and the quality of care they produce. This was conducted at 3 Canadian hospitals from the years 2010-2011, with 20 oncologists who varied in age, sex, and years of experience. The data was analyzed by a systematic coding transcript that searched for themes. When looking at the results, it was clear that oncologists struggled to manage their feelings of grief with detachment they deemed necessary to do their job. Half of the participants reported feelings of failure, self-doubt, sadness and powerlessness and one third talk about feelings of guilt, loss of sleep, and crying. Another finding is that grief leads to inattentiveness, impatience, irritability, emotional exhaustion, and burnout. However, they hid these emotions from others because showing emotions is considered a sign of weakness. Participants reported that they fear their discomfort with grief over patient loss could affect treatment decisions with future patients. For example, they could avoid diagnosing more aggressive chemotherapy, or in a clinical trial. This uneasiness with losing patients could potentially affect doctors’ ability to communicate about end-of-life issues with patients and families. Participants also said they distanced themselves and withdrew from patients as patients got closer to dying. These sources are important to see what specific situations put a strain on the doctor-patient relationship. They especially show us how this strain has a unique effect on the doctor and stress the fact that doctors are in fact human. In previous sources, doctors seem to have a different response to pain and can approach stress differently, but these sources show the reader that they do need the same caring that any other person would. CHECK OUT THE STUDIES: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2082912/. www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/opinion/sunday/when-doctors-grieve.html?mcubz=1.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorFeel free to contact me using the contact page! |