Christian Doctor’s Digest – October 2019

In this month’s podcast, CMDA’s new CEO Dr. Mike Chupp is joined by Dr. Ruth Haley Barton, the CEO of the Transforming Center, about her book, Pursuing God’s Will Together. Next, he interviews Barney Davis, Jr., MD, a general psychiatrist, about the importance of sabbath and rest.

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Christian Doctor’s Digest – May 2019

In this month’s podcast, Dr. David Stevens interviews healthcare missionary Dr. Eli Horn about his experiences with burnout. Next, he’s joined by Dr. John Chuck about personal health for healthcare professionals and how to create a balance between work and life.

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Christian Doctor’s Digest – February 2019

The February 2019 issue of Christian Doctor’s Digest…A look into hospitality as a way to evangelize within the home. Conservative Christians admit that they do not speak out on political or cultural issues because they do not know how to support their beliefs from a biblical basis. We’ll look at how to defend the Gospel. And finally, the demands of cross-cultural ministry can be overwhelming and draining, leading to discouragement and burnout. We’ll learn how to live the holy, faithful lives God intends for us.

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Combat Burnout and Reclaim Your Calling

I quit medicine. I was only five months out of residency and I was leaving medicine. I was finally a full-fledged physician with the big paycheck but absolutely no fulfillment. Not only did I leave the office night after night completely frustrated, hopeless and exhausted, I showed up each morning in the same state, if not slightly worse.

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A Lack of Self-care in Healthcare

How many times have you gone to clinic when you were sicker than the patients you were treating? Listened to other people’s woes and stresses when your own were weightier? Given your last emotional resources to a patient whose need was less than your family member’s? Forfeited sleep while advising a patient of how curative it is? Advised a patient about nutrition and exercise right after scarfing a quick lunch from the vending machine?

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Sharing Experiences and Decreasing Isolation in Healthcare

An article crossed both my inbox and my Facebook feed this week entitled “Here’s Why Women Doctors Need Time Together.” It certainly wasn’t an academic study, but, as a woman physician, I was intrigued by the title. One sentence summarizes the author’s major premise: “There is an amazing power in gathering, shared experiences and decreasing isolation.” And I agree. When I watch my kids play sports or perform, I gather with other parents who share that experience—and we cheer as loudly as we can. When my marriage needs refreshment, my husband and I gather with other couples who share the experiences, both joyful and difficult, of marriage—and the isolation of our challenges is decreased.

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Facing the Rise of Suicides in Healthcare

As a second year medical student, a member of my medical school class committed suicide. I didn’t know him well, but his death impacted me. Made me ask a lot of questions. Why didn’t I know him better? Had I gotten to know him, could I have made a difference?

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Feeling the ‘Burn’ in Burnout

There is absolutely no question that physician burnout is on the rise in medicine today. Numerous studies have supported the reality that physician burnout rates range from 30 to as high as 65%, depending on specialty. Burnout, of course, isn’t a ‘disease’ a physician would prescribe medicine for, or even necessarily diagnose in one of his or her patients. But it is a ‘dis-ease,’ to be sure. Burnout is a long-term stress reaction, which includes emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a lack of sense of personal accomplishment. For a certainty, Christian doctors are not immune to the effects of burnout, and one of the primary elements of CMDA’s coaching ministry is helping Christian doctors manage and address the challenges of burnout in medicine today.

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Are You Suffering from ‘Hurry Sickness?’

Author Lewis Grant describes a condition he calls, “Sunset fatigue,” end-of-the-day behaviors he says may indicate that an individual has been “infected” with hurry sickness. Here are some of the symptoms he has identified. Sound vaguely familiar?

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Physician Burnout

It was a relatively slow evening at work when I got the text. My phone vibrated on the clinic countertop as I was looking over a chart. “Are you busy? Can you talk?” I figured those words couldn’t be good, coming as they did from a young intern I mentored when she was a medical student. I found myself wondering if she had lost a patient.

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Facing Burnout in Healthcare

Excerpted from “Study: Doctor burnout may increase effect of biases on care,” UPI. January 13, 2016 — A national survey of doctors shows job burnout and personal bias have continued to increase in recent years, and researchers suggest the growth of both could affect the quality of care patients receive.

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