The Inner Life of Physicians and Care of the Seriously Ill

Abstract

Seriously ill persons are emotionally vulnerable during the typically protracted course of an illness. Physicians respond to such patients' needs and emotions with emotions of their own, which may reflect a need to rescue the patient, a sense of failure and frustration when the patient's illness progresses, feelings of powerlessness against illness and its associated losses, grief, fear of becoming ill oneself, or a desire to separate from and avoid patients to escape these feelings. These emotions can affect both the quality of medical care and the physician's own sense of well-being, since unexamined emotions may also lead to physician distress, disengagement, burnout, and poor judgment. In this article, which is intended for the practicing, nonpsychiatric clinician, we describe a model for increasing physician self-awareness, which includes identifying and working with emotions that may affect patient care. Our approach is based on the standard medical model of risk factors, signs and symptoms, differential diagnosis, and intervention. Although it is normal to have feelings arising from the care of patients, physicians should take an active role in identifying and controlling those emotions.

A pilot study on burnout syndrome: its existence, causes and coping strategies practiced by medical professionals in Colombo South Teaching Hospital, Sri Lanka

“…From the present study findings it is possible to say that risk of major duty failure and/or patient death appears to positively correlate with burnout syndrome, particularly in E.E and D.P dimensions. This finding is agreeable with the research of Meier, Back and Morrison (2007) where evidence of physicians being emotionally being attached to patients suffering from serious illness was observed. Similarly Chlan and Linda (2013) stated that constant life and death struggles of patients created an emotional turmoil for the medical professionals who treated the deceased.…”

Health care professionals' grief after the death of a child

“…Longstanding and close relationships between the staff and the child and family seemed to have a more important role than the circumstances of the death or social support received. This finding was also highlighted in other studies (2,5).…”

Effects of Imbalance of Self‐ and Other‐Care on Counselors' Burnout

“…The mean scores for the Exhaustion and Negative Work Environment subscales did not significantly differ across the four groups in our study. This is inconsistent with a previous finding that clinicians who are untrained to handle their personal emotional toll can experience different forms of emotional exhaustion, such as hopelessness and helplessness (Meier et al, 2001). A possible explanation for no difference in mean score for Exhaustion across the four groups is that people who do not take care of themselves are indifferent to their body (Orbach, 1996).…”