As a family physician, I explore the HEART of HEALTH in my work, recreation, community, and through writing. My blog, Watercress Words, informs and inspires us to live in health. I believe we can turn our health challenges into healthy opportunities. When we do, we can share the HEART of health with our families, communities, and the world. Come explore and share with me.
A highly contagious respiratory virus, that could spread silently, making people minimally ill or lead to severe illness, prolonged hospital stays, and death-struck fear into some people’s hearts while others minimized or even dismissed the risk.
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This is one of the most often quoted , misapplied verses in the Bible, but the comfort this verse offers is far deeper than the out of context promise often claimed.
This was the context of the promise – it was made to people while God was destroying their nation, tearing down the Temple, and sending them into 70 years of captivity in a foreign land. Families were torn apart, people were enslaved; those left behind in a desolate homeland struggled to survive starvation.
But the promise God gave them was- no matter how bad things were about to get, God had a plan and He would not abandon them forever.
The same God who promised them their suffering would end, and they would come into a brighter future because of the hardship they would experience, is the same God who brings us into the covenant (binding) promises.
I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.
Jeremiah 29:14
No matter what fire we are in, if it is the Lord’s discipline we are enduring, God will bring us into a better future if we allow the fire to purify and strengthen us.
When you feel like giving up, endure.
Adapted from a commentary by Jeremy Scott Wilson, B.A., Biblical and Theological Studies; he blogs at Awakening to basics .
Along with the honor of being a physician, comes the problem of burnout. Leaders in the medical community recognize the high and increasing rate of burnout in physicians. In burnout, physicians feel exhausted, lack enthusiasm about work, lose motivation, and feel cynical about the value of the medical profession.
Updated March 27, 2023
Did you know there is a national day to honor physicians? In 1990, the U.S. Congress established a National Doctors’ Day,first celebrated on March 30, 1991.
Along with the honor of being a physician, comes the problem of burnout. Leaders in the medical community recognize the high and increasing rate of burnout in physicians.
National Doctors’ Burnout
In burnout, physicians feel exhausted, lack enthusiasm about work, lose motivation, and feel cynical about the value of the medical profession.
Statistics suggest that a majority of physicians experience feelings of burnout and compassion fatigue at least sometime during their career. At any given time, that could be your doctor.
Physician burnout can arise from the technological and bureaucratic hassles in medical practice that hinder doctors from spending adequate and quality time with patients and interfere with our ability to care for patients in the way we believe is best.
Studies suggest that burnout causes physicians to spend less time providing direct care to patients, and that care may be less efficient and effective.
Doctors are less likely to experience burnout when they have rewarding relationships with their patients.
Most of us went into medicine because we wanted to help people, and that still brings us the most satisfaction. A successful doctor-patient relationship depends on both persons showing mutual respect.
(And by the way, physicians aren’t the only professionals who can burn out. If you recognize any of the symptoms in yourself, talk to your doctor or a mental health professional.)
The first Doctors’ Day observance was March 30, 1933, in Winder, Georgia. The idea came from a doctor’s wife, Eudora Brown Almond, and the date was the presumed anniversary of the first use of general anesthetic in surgery.
The Barrow County (Georgia) Medical Society Auxiliary proclaimed the day “Doctors’ Day,” which was celebrated by mailing cards to physicians and their wives and by placing flowers on the graves of deceased doctors.
You may not have a chance to honor your doctor in person, but I suggest you commit to doing your part to establish a trusting, respectful relationship with your doctors. It will be good for both of you.
To enhance communication with your doctors-
Be open and honest about your medical history,lifestyle, and concerns.
Sometimes patients leave out important information due to forgetting, thinking it’s not important, embarrassment, or fear. But that may be the very piece of data I need to pinpoint what’s wrong.
Give details about your problem, explain what you feel
I find that patients often have difficulty describing how they feel. They may say they hurt, cough, itch or get short of breath, but give few details. Maybe because we use text messaging with its brevity, abbreviations and emoticons. We have forgotten how to use descriptive words.
I don’t think we doctors expect our patients to always recite a rehearsed narrative about “why I came to the doctor today.” But it does help if you come prepared to answer questions as specifically as possible. You might try thinking about your problem using the PQRST mnemonic. It will help your doctor identify possible causes for your symptoms, and may also help you understand your problem and even suggest ways you can help yourself.
As physicians, our patients’ “social histories” help us understand factors in your life that impact your health -where you live, your job, your family, your hobbies . Besides that, we enjoy getting to know you, especially the things that make you and your life unique and interesting. That feeling can go both ways.
Exchanging a few social words can make the encounter more satisfying for you and your doctor. Some of us will be more open about sharing our personal lives, and some subjects may be off limits. But I don’t think any of us will object to polite, caring interest in our lives outside of medicine.
You may cry when you read about a unique doctor-patient relationship in this post-
Finally, in honor of Doctors’ Day, meet some physicians with unique experiences to share, just a few of the many doctors who work tirelessly to provide us all with the HEART of health.
Doctors in international healthcare
Dr. Kent Brantly awoke feeling ill- muscle aches, fever, sore throat, headache and nausea. As his condition progressively worsened to include difficulty breathing, he learned the cause of his illness- the Ebola virus. Having spent the past few weeks caring for patients caught up in the Ebola epidemic that swept Liberia in the spring of 2014, Dr. Brantly had contracted the disease himself, and would likely die, as almost all victims do.
When she applied for a position in New York City at the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), Dr. Judy Melinek never imagined that decision would plunge her into the nightmare of September 11, 2001. She was at the ME office that day when the Twin Towers were attacked and fell, killing thousands of people.
She and the other staff collaborated with the team of investigators who worked night and day identifying remains of the victims, a task she vividly describes in the book. This was basically their only job, since the cause of death was for the most part irrelevant, and impossible to determine. Sometimes they had only a small body part, as little as a finger, to extract DNA to identity a victim. Such identification was critical to bring closure to the families who lost loved ones, people who left for work that day, and never came home.
Read more about Dr. Melinek at this review of her book-
Melissa Freeman, M.D.- the 91-Year-Old Doctor Who’s the Granddaughter of Slaves
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