What does it mean to be a professional? And how do we maintain our professionalism at a time when things such as stress, burnout, and caregiver fatigue can degrade our motivation? In medical school, you learn early that one of the best ways to remember important information is to attach an …
Been on vacation lately?
Please excuse the lack of posts on PracticeBalance, but I have just returned from a long vacation... the first in at least 4 years and the first of (hopefully) many similar vacations. I had hoped to post this during my trip, but my current lack of blogging skills rendered me unsuccessful (this …
Are chronic sleep deprivation and call nights making you fat?
A new study out in the journal Science Translational Medicine makes a direct link between disregulated sleep and metabolic derrangements that lead to poor health and weight gain. While there have been several epidemiological studies drawing correlation between sleep deprivation and hyperglycemia, …
Are chronic sleep deprivation and call nights making you fat?Read More
From Fuel Shortage to Chronic Symptoms
In his book Is It Worth Dying For?, Robert Eliot describes his experiences with stress, culminating in his own heart attack on the job. He identifies five stages on the downward spiral to burnout: Job Contentment, Fuel Shortage, Chronic Symptoms, Crisis, and Hitting the Wall. Here, I continue …
The anatomy of stress
Before I continue with my own personal navigation toward balance, I want to define some terms and alert you to the potential problems that unmanaged stress may cause. "Stress is the spice of life; complete freedom from stress only comes in death." - Hans Selye, MD This quote from the …