- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Section One Stress of Being a Medical Student Introduction
- 1 Distributed Emotional Intelligence
- 2 First Clinical Attachments
- 3 Between two Worlds
- 4 Laughter for Coping
- 5 Bringing Complexity thinking to Curriculum Development
- Section Two Stress of Being a Physician
- 6 Maintaining a Balance
- 7 Physician Stress
- 8 The Medico-Legal Environment and How Medico-Legal Matters Impact the Doctor
- 9 The Impaired Physician
- 10 How Doctors Become Patients
- 11 Healthy Docs = Healthy Patients
- Section Three Management of Physician Stress
- 12 Overcopers
- 13 Stress and Coping
- 14 Treatment and Prevention Work
- 15 Promoting Resilience and Posttraumatic Growth in Physicians
- 16 Ethical Decisions
- Section Four Personal Reflections
- 17 Surgery
- 18 The Gifts of Palliative Care
- 19 Pediatrics
- 20 Psychiatrists in Distress
- 21 Medical Students and Residents
- 22 Family Medicine
- 23 Anesthesiology
- 24 Emergency Medicine
- 25 Conclusions
- Index
Anesthesiology
Anesthesiology
Personal Reflections
- Chapter:
- (p.331) 23 Anesthesiology
- Source:
- First Do No Self Harm
- Author(s):
Robin Youngson
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
The author, who had created the very first anesthesiology clinic at his hospital, urged his surgical colleagues to send him their worst cases. One of these was Jessie, for whom surgery would be high risk. Although her religious beliefs prevented proper medical treatment, she explained that she would trust his skill and God’s compassion and guidance. “I revised my estimate of her chances of survival. This was a human spirit not yet ready to depart the world. We made our farewells and to my surprise I was able to put aside my fretful worrying to sleep soundly in preparation for the next day’s challenge.” This experience changed his perspective as a physician from conceiving the doctor-patient relationship as a one-way street, with the doctor in control, to the recognition that doctoring is a two-way process; that we are all vulnerable. Physicians are taught clinical detachment as a fundamental value in medical practice, but such detachment is often a defense mechanism to avoid the emotional cost of witnessing suffering and loss.
Keywords: emotional skills, physician awareness, detachment, compassionate practice, patient-physician relationship, professional attitude, humor
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Section One Stress of Being a Medical Student Introduction
- 1 Distributed Emotional Intelligence
- 2 First Clinical Attachments
- 3 Between two Worlds
- 4 Laughter for Coping
- 5 Bringing Complexity thinking to Curriculum Development
- Section Two Stress of Being a Physician
- 6 Maintaining a Balance
- 7 Physician Stress
- 8 The Medico-Legal Environment and How Medico-Legal Matters Impact the Doctor
- 9 The Impaired Physician
- 10 How Doctors Become Patients
- 11 Healthy Docs = Healthy Patients
- Section Three Management of Physician Stress
- 12 Overcopers
- 13 Stress and Coping
- 14 Treatment and Prevention Work
- 15 Promoting Resilience and Posttraumatic Growth in Physicians
- 16 Ethical Decisions
- Section Four Personal Reflections
- 17 Surgery
- 18 The Gifts of Palliative Care
- 19 Pediatrics
- 20 Psychiatrists in Distress
- 21 Medical Students and Residents
- 22 Family Medicine
- 23 Anesthesiology
- 24 Emergency Medicine
- 25 Conclusions
- Index
