Have you ever felt burned out at work? Emotionally depleted? Cynical about or detached from your patients? Stressed and overwhelmed?1 These feelings of burnout are common in residents, so if you answered “yes,” you’re not alone. This problem is very real for many of us. The early-morning didactic sessions, 24-hour workdays and the weeks without a day off – we practice challenging tasks repetitively in hopes to one day achieve attending status. We set high individual standards and, once those have been accomplished, we reset to higher ones. The daily grind is a familiar concept that makes residents susceptible to breakdown and burnout. We see it in the workplace every day.
The House of God, by Stephen Bergman, M.D., Ph.D.,2 provides an often humorous yet overall somber reference to the effects of burnout. The repetitively badgered interns work endless shifts and are expected to perform daunting tasks...
