The lead article this week in the New England Journal of Medicine is entitled "Innovation in Primary Care--Staying One Step ahead of Burnout". Reading this brought up many issues for me as burnout describes my ongoing experience in internal medicine for the 16 years I was in practice. I ongoingly wrestled with this state during my time in this great profession. While I loved helping people and being their doctor, for unclear reasons to me after 7 months away from primary care, I could not maintain my energy, health and well-being in the midst of this practice. My employers were accomodating; I was permitted to try different innovations (some mentioned in this article including caring for people in groups). At the end, they even allowed me to work half-time which initially did give me enough balance in my life to continue my work. However, I still maintained a large patient population (close to the full-time "ideal" according to this article. While I did have more ti...
A medical challenge is an opportunity to heal.