Cast & Curious

Tag: Medicine

  • Managing Stress, Building Resilience and Finding Meaning at Work

    Summary: This pandemic brought stress and the needed resilience to an all time high. Experts recommend finding new meaning at work to combat disillusionment. Join our #HealthXPh chat this Sat 9PM MLA Jan 29, 2022, share your experience and results!

    “I quit!!This is hardly the work I imagined when I entered med school! You risk your life and the safety of your family, for what? Getting rebuked for not extending an already extended duty??! What the f-!”

    MD

    I’ve seen more colleagues leaving this past 2 years than in 10 years I’ve been in practice. Many left because of the untenable healthcare system. Most, simply got burned out by this pandemic. Gone were the accolades and praises for health workers leading the fight against COVID-19. Instead, healthcare workers get ridiculed, criticised and accused of profiteering. People would rather believe popular but misguided personalities who propagate misinformation. Thus, vaccine hesitancy is at its highest.No wonder a lot of healthcare workers wonder- “are we still in the vocation that we all so loved before”?

    This pandemic “broke” many records in healthcare. Given the enormous level of burnout and stress healthcare providers receive at work, mental health issues is at its highest. The number of healthcare workers leaving the local health industry is also staggering, probably the highest in recent memory. Exit interviews among healthcare providers reveal predictable answers- seek greener pastures elsewhere or leave medicine until our healthcare system “figure out” this pandemic. If this diaspora continues, our healthcare system will probably collapse.

    What seem pretty obvious though is that in our healthcare system, care for healthcare providers is not a topmost priority. This is a difficult reality to swallow. Notwithstanding, healthcare providers should prioritize self care or we cannot sustain taking care of others. I am very interested in the thoughts and experiences of healthcare providers who continued doing their “calling”.

    “Why are you not leaving medicine? Have you found ways to manage stress at work? How did you sustain and build resilience? Did you find meaning in this thankless job? Or, are you are you simply zombie- riding the tides of this pandemic??” This will be the topic of our #HealthXPh chat. To guide our discussion, here are the topic questions.

    T1. How do you manage stress at work?

    T2. How do you build resilience at work?

    T3. How do you find meaning at work?

    All these questions obviously mattered even before. This pandemic however brought the level of stress and the needed resilience to an all time high. Many psychologist and mental health experts recommended finding new meaning at work as a way to combat disillusionment with the current healthcare work environment. Most of us agree on these recommendations, but “devil is in the detail”. Note my emphasis on the “how to” so many healthcare provider joining this chatr can try some out of what works for you. So come and join our #HealthXPh chat this Saturday 9PM Manila time Jan 29, 2022, share your experience and results!

    Image by WOKANDAPIX from Pixabay

  • Coping with Pandemic Induced Stress

    In early 2019, I was assigned several innovative projects because of technical, educational and administrative “troubleshooting” abilities. I was happy with what I considered as a promotion, embracing additional responsibilities to a mildly busy orthopedic practice and academic duties. The projects entailed mostly online work, with few face to face meetings as needed.

    Inspite of my supposedly “stress-proof” lifestyle, stress began creeping in early January of 2020. I was trying out some “stress mitigation tactics” when this pandemic happened.

    Stress, is at a unprecedented level.

    My adult life was about balancing the pursuit of dreams, self care and positive contributions to society. Many medical professionals eat stress for breakfast and most survive, unscathed. We’re “stress-proof” so to speak. We’re confidently resilient, agile and unbending to “pressures” . When COVID-19 pandemic came, I’m confident about surviving stress. One year after and though I’m alive and coping, I’m still trying out new things to stress proof my life inside a bubble.

    I’m having a hard time “managing” this unprecedented level of stress.

    Here’s the deal. I am very much interested in how you, a medical professional, is coping with this pandemic induced stress. I’m an action guy and I like knowing details or specifics of your coping mechanisms. Verb, I repeat specifics and the context of its application. Yes, you may include all those memes, tiktoks, food galore, plants and what nots. Just have the “decency” to spell out if and when these whatever, helped you cope with stress. What metrics did you use. Yes, let’s be scientific- evidenced based coping mechanisms measured by. This will be our tweet chat topic later 9PM manila time. Game?

    T1. How did pandemic-induced stress got you?

    The first step in coping with stress is knowing or accepting you are stressed. I has had sleepless, anxious nights thinking I got COVID after inadvertently bumping one sneezing person. There were times I had to wake up, read online messages for fear of missing out some important news. I easily flare up when people disregard health protocols. I had eating binges and didn’t exercise. I get angry when people don’t follow procedures or are offering excuses . I lost that “what-if-you’re-in-this person-shoes” empathic mind battle completely. I am on a self preserving mode. When I argued with a family member over some trivial stuff, I called up a friend for help. I was breathing stress and I needed help.

    T2. How did you cope with pandemic induced stress?

    Accepting everyone’s in the same stress boat as I am, I started looking for “positives”, a way out, an opportunity to act rather than blame. I was letting go of things or actions that is beyond my influence. Watched less TV, social media fasted and tried a phone-less existence as often as I could. I focused on plants, food then some healthy routines. Pre COVID I had this weekly, daily routine of exercise, creative and challenging pursuits, journalling. When COVID came, all that is left is journalling thoughts, because all the actions were severely limited. I struggled much adapting my exercise, exploring and discovering routines. Am still am. Refocusing is hardest, particularly with greying of the work and personal time with a work from home arrangement. Rereading stoic literature was helpful in this. Then there is this social media hiatus. I often turn off my phone, lock it inside drawer so people could not call me at night. One of I think the best coping I learned this pandemic is being grateful. Even with the smallest of things or failures that made me a better person.

    T3. How did you know your coping mechanism is effective?

    First, I slowly regained some restful sleep at night then wake up early in the morning to exercise. I’ve learned to reply to essential messages at day time. There’s this seemingly relaxed and unperturbed attitude at the breakfast table or a leisurely coffee while trimming plants. I could also now walk away from whatever I work from without guilt, accepting everyone’s is entitled to some reprieved in this pandemic. I’m still working on my stingy often cold, stoic demeanour about so many things. I’m still whinny as hell, but I laugh, or give self demeaning jokes about more often. I’m still a work in progress and hopefully, this tweet chat will give me ideas on how to have breakfast with sarscovid.

    Image by KamranAydinov on Freepik

  • COVID-19 : What we have either amazingly gotten right, ridiculously predicted wrong or mind bogglingly don’t understand, so far..

    Early this year, out of necessity or this human propensity to “predict” the unknowns, I unceremoniously made some bold predictions about COVID-19 and this pandemic. Some of these unsolicited predictions seem logical, based on our previous historical experience with pandemics. I used quite a number of these “modelling” predictions, to help run a COVID-19 Management team. Many of the “other predictions” I made were now, seemingly immaterial and ridiculous. Part of the “bargaining” and grieving stage for a life that was disrupted by an underrated “flu like” disease. As a disclaimer, I made these ridiculous predictions jokingly, to cope with the stress of living a life in a bubble that is constantly threatened by COVID 19.

    • T1. What COVID-19 predictions you’ve gotten right so far?

    There were things, behaviour or events we’ve sort of “predicted” would happen- the frontliners, medical workers and public fatigue, mental health issues and an ailing health system that really needed a “fix” right even before COVID. We’ve also predicted we can decode SARS COV2 and develop vaccine against it in time. There were health protocols that worked- handwashing, PPEs, social distancing and to some extents the lockdowns- whatever Qs there was implemented and followed. Then, there were predictions I made that are flat out wrong.

    • T2. What COVID-19 predictions you’ve ridiculously gotten wrong so far?

    I boldly predicted that this pandemic will end up in three months, dismissing it as a flu or exotic colds that will pass away in no time. I was excited the lockdowns would be lifted soon and we are all back to our normal way of life- particularly travel. Eight months into this pandemic and we’re even sure if there’s an end on sight. Even the expert Dr. Fauci earlier this year dismissed the risks of COVID-19 cases and mortality increasing in the US. That statement didn’t last even a month and Dr. Fauci made a swift 180 degrees turn and urge everyone, including the president, to take COVID-19 seriously. Who would have thought US will be a clear winner for highest mortality rates and cases of COVID-19, so far?

    Oh, the record breaking vaccine development and lab to mass production speed is on a grand prix level. I mean eight months? That’s warp speed in vaccine development.

    • T3. What about COVID-19 you badly needed to understand but still mind bogglingly don’t, so far?

    In the Philippines, we were still waiting for the peak of this pandemic’s first wave. Yet, there were “other waves” that peaked and fell off right in our eyes and ripped us off our senses. Tiktok? Meme? Food craze? Plants? and the zoom storm! I never had the slightest idea how these waves came and stayed that long!Or did these craze flattened? Around the curve?

    I am still baffled of this pandemic effect on our social fabric, culture, way we travel and do business. Technically, I’m still at lost, on how do we do things or recover when this pandemic finally ends. Do you?

    This will be the topic of the #HealthXPh chat today Saturday December 12, 2020 9PM Manila time. Here our the guide questions:

    • T1. What COVID-19 predictions you’ve gotten right so far?
    • T2. What COVID-19 predictions you’ve ridiculously gotten wrong so far?
    • T3. What about COVID-19 you badly needed to understand but still mind bogglingly don’t, so far?

    Join us as we share our predictions and experiences- scientific and otherwise, about COVID 19 as we are about to close the year twenty twenty.

    Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

  • Telemedicine’s What, Weird and the Wacky! in the New Normal

    COVID 19 whacked this privilege almost overnight and we’re left to deal with providing care, as much as possible from a distance, or we risk harming the patient or us in the process. Even a decade old Telehealth hobbyist like me was unnerved by this disruption. As a healthcare professional, do I really have other choices? So how do we deliver care from a distance? Is it really possible to do this?

    T1. What competencies do I need to provide care from a distance?

    This first came into mind after the COVID 19 disruption sunk in. I had to assess myself. Providing face to face care needed competent health professionals. Factor in distance and you are in what seems to be an entirely new way of way of providing car. What do I need for Telehealth or telemedicine?

    Telehealth includes a broad range of technologies and services to provide patient care and improve the healthcare delivery system as a whole. Telemedicine is a subset of Telehealth which is basically “provision of health care services and education over a distance, using telecommunications technology”. Like any technology adoption, I have a framework for evaluating what applies to me and what do I need to use it. But before that, I always do a “needs assessment”.

    T2. What aspect of telemedicine makes you uncomfortable professionally?

    When I started practicing telemedicine, the blank stares or the zombie like nod from other ends is disconcerting. I have no way of knowing whether the epatient” got what we have discussed or instructed. Limited visual cues, the ever lagging net connection and the frequent restlessness of camera shy patient or me, is disconcerting. Sometimes, no econsult ever happend because we all had the time just figuring out our eclinic.

    T3. What’s the funniest telemedicine encounter you had?

    There’s was once that I was so engrossed talking and giving instructions I didn’t noticed the connection went dead and I was talking to a microphone for 5 minutes. Or the whole mic set up collapsed in my face. Or a patient showing up on the other end with a coke and cake in tow, munching and talking at the same time.

    literary a new world for most of us. COVID-19 made it a necessity for us to provide care. I’m just starting my journey, feeling the bumps, humps and ridiculous encounters here there. I realized though that providing care will never be the same again even after this pandemic. As with any other tool in medicine and health, Telehealth will should help us do what we do most best as health professionals

    Join #HealthXPh twitter chat at 9pm Manila time Sept 12, 2020 as we discuss telehealth, providing care from a distance. 

  • How health workers learn and take care of patients in the new normal.

    COVID 19 pandemic forever changed the way humans live. Healthcare it seems, has to bear the burden of fighting this pandemic (and all other enemies of health ) while continually learning about this little known enemy. These we have to do at the same time and at a speed unheard of in the past.

    An Unknown Enemy

    The hardest enemy to fight is the enemy you knew little or nothing at all. In medicine, our chances of neutralising a disease weighs heavily on knowing the disease and its behaviour. That is, if there is literature about that disease and if we have time digesting this literature. Unfortunately, this novel coronavirus caught us all unprepared and there is, but little time for most front liners to learn this disease. Our knowledge of this pandemic is rapidly increasing per science’s standard, but we are still a long way to go for a standardised prevention and treatment modality.

    Learn, We Must.

    COVID-19 is far from over and the we may be looking already at the new normal. Nonetheless, we must learn and treat patients at the same time or we’d be repeating mistakes made in the past. Fortunately, I see beacons of hope from stories frontline on how health workers continue to learn and treat patients in unique ways. There’s an outpouring of collaboration and sharing of ideas and a healthy dose of criticisms too. I have seen learning technologies taking front and center of this effort. Suddenly, alternative ways of learning went mainstream in a matter of months.

    Alternative ways of learning.

    As an educator, I am interested in how our health front liners continue learning amidst this pandemic. More importantly, I’m interested in making the process of learning more efficient, adaptive and more impactful to our current scenario. This way, we might be able to unburden our front liners and increase our chances of neutralising this enemy as well as the other diseases we’ve been fighting for years. This will be the topic of our discussion at #HealthXPh twitter chat August 1 9-10 PM Manila time.

    T1. How do you continue learning in the new normal?

    What changes- knowledge, skills or behaviour you had to acquire or change to do this? What was your top objective? What was your strategy or approach if any?What resources, technologies did you use? How do you balance your time learning and serving in the frontlines? What were your difficulties?

    T2.What are your metrics for measuring learning success?

    Metrics are a way of knowing we actually achieved the objectives we set earlier- that we learned something and that learning is what we aimed for in the beginning. For example, I usually set an objective of ” to learn diagnosing COVID-19 at the end of this 45 minute Zoom teleconference”. My key metric will be ” to get 75% of the correct answers on the post lecture online assessment related to diagnosing COVID-19″. Im usually dead tired after hospital work, so I use very specific metrics to have an impactful, realistic learning success.

    T3. How did this learning approach impacted your practice of healthcare?

    This pandemic already wreak havoc on everything we know existed, more so in healthcare. Guess were I learned about donning and doffing PPEs before actually attending a formal training on doing so? I also had to invest time, finances to alternative ways of learning. I also had to redo health processes inside the hospital and clinics to incorporate learning I got from these alternative pathways.

    Log in to your twitter account and don’t forget to join our discussion at #HealthXPh twitter chat August 1, 2020 9-10 PM Manila time. Append #HealthXPh to all your tweets around these three questions:

    • T1. How do you continue learning in the new normal?
    • T2. What are your metrics for measuring learning success?
    • T3. How did this learning approach impacted your practice of healthcare ?

    Change does not happen overnight in healthcare but this pandemic pushed us to disrupt healthcare in scale and speed un heard of in the past. This include learning how to learn.

    Image by Freepik