Hi all, This will be a quiet week here while I’m partly on vacation and partly not. Three quick items for you for today… Long Covid symposium. I’ll excited to share with you that I’ve been invited to give a keynote address at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine this Friday, June 22, in Washington, DC, at its “Symposium on Long COVID: Examining the Working Definition.” I’ll be speaking about my
Congratulations on your invitation to give a keynote address on Long Covid at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Concerning Dr. Hotez, an elite scientist and outstanding human being, he has agreed to go on Rogan’s show to explain the science but wisely declined to debate RFK Jr. Katelyn Jetelina and Dr. Kristin Panthagani's post covered this convincingly.
Retired Jan 2020 (timing, right!?) after 35 years as an ICU nurse in several hospitals. The whole moral injury thing has been going on for years. Initially a lot of time & money was spent trying to convince us that we were the problem (remember "Who Moved My Cheese" -- had to waste a couple hours in a symposium in the '90s because my employer latched on to that) or "burn out" (we just had to slow down outside the hospital and take care of ourselves). A profit driven system will always put money over people and there's no way around that. I think nurses felt the crunch long before doctors. As we lost resources: no more transport for ED pts being sent to ICU (have to go get them yourselves, which means no time to prepare a room that's being turned over in a rush or front load on your other pt), no more aides (help each other turn pts, which means constantly taking other nurses away from their own busy pts), cover each other for lunches, and on and on nurses desperately tried to run faster and work harder -- gee, look, productivity went up, our bottom line is doing great. Some of that shielded doctors initially from the full effects of what was happening.
What struck me from the article, though, was an aside to one of the anecdotes: ED physician needs a bed so they put a person on the street & call the cops to pick her up. Does no one else see where this whole mess leads? EDs and hospitals were becoming a dumping ground for the people our society can't deal with, but now the EDs and hospitals have reached their capacity on that and it gets thrown to the police. We think our moral injury is bad? We want the indigent person moved from in front of our house or business, we want the psych-disturbed person w/o a physical problem out of the ED, we want the undocumented immigrant or unresourced person living in a tent out of our park, the junkie off our corner -- we call the cops. The cops know that our society views these people as dispensable, that there are no places to move these people to, no resources to provide them. So the violence and cruelty and desperation escalates.
Yeah, moral injury indeed. America is one big moral injury at this point but hopefully we are reaching the extreme on this end and will begin to swing back the other way through unionization, money being funneled away from corporations and into resources for people who have none, etc. Fingers crossed.
I 100% remember early in my career there was this whole thing about resident wellness and resiliency. And I told them over and over: mark my words, the only way to fix this is to stop the practice of asking residents to work inhumane hours. Pizza, retreats, and email kudos won't fix that. Same is true for nurses and other colleagues who have been stretched so thin.
My ex-husband did his residency at Columbia Presbyterian in NYC in the early 1980's. He reported at one point not peeing for 36 hours during his internship year, he was so busy. He has said in the past, however, that it was a great education to be able to follow the patients' progress by being at the hospital working the hours that are no longer expected. That struck me as an interesting point.
First, thank you so much for all you do; your newsletter is priceless! Second, would you suggest a young person considering med school read the NYT article? I thought about sharing it so an amazing young woman who’s thinking about it could go in w eyes wide open. I hesitated because I didn’t want to discourage them from pursuing their calling or dream. I’m curious about your thoughts?
I think people can just reply to the email that gets sent. I don't always see them all but sometimes I do (and when someone points out that they're a paid subscriber, I try to read those and respond when I can!)
Congratulations on your invitation to give a keynote address on Long Covid at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Concerning Dr. Hotez, an elite scientist and outstanding human being, he has agreed to go on Rogan’s show to explain the science but wisely declined to debate RFK Jr. Katelyn Jetelina and Dr. Kristin Panthagani's post covered this convincingly.
Have a great vacation!
Thanks! Peter really walked the walk for a long time. He deserves support not attacks.
That photo of a Doc walking quickly is headed to subscribe to Inside Medicine.
hahahah nice
Retired Jan 2020 (timing, right!?) after 35 years as an ICU nurse in several hospitals. The whole moral injury thing has been going on for years. Initially a lot of time & money was spent trying to convince us that we were the problem (remember "Who Moved My Cheese" -- had to waste a couple hours in a symposium in the '90s because my employer latched on to that) or "burn out" (we just had to slow down outside the hospital and take care of ourselves). A profit driven system will always put money over people and there's no way around that. I think nurses felt the crunch long before doctors. As we lost resources: no more transport for ED pts being sent to ICU (have to go get them yourselves, which means no time to prepare a room that's being turned over in a rush or front load on your other pt), no more aides (help each other turn pts, which means constantly taking other nurses away from their own busy pts), cover each other for lunches, and on and on nurses desperately tried to run faster and work harder -- gee, look, productivity went up, our bottom line is doing great. Some of that shielded doctors initially from the full effects of what was happening.
What struck me from the article, though, was an aside to one of the anecdotes: ED physician needs a bed so they put a person on the street & call the cops to pick her up. Does no one else see where this whole mess leads? EDs and hospitals were becoming a dumping ground for the people our society can't deal with, but now the EDs and hospitals have reached their capacity on that and it gets thrown to the police. We think our moral injury is bad? We want the indigent person moved from in front of our house or business, we want the psych-disturbed person w/o a physical problem out of the ED, we want the undocumented immigrant or unresourced person living in a tent out of our park, the junkie off our corner -- we call the cops. The cops know that our society views these people as dispensable, that there are no places to move these people to, no resources to provide them. So the violence and cruelty and desperation escalates.
Yeah, moral injury indeed. America is one big moral injury at this point but hopefully we are reaching the extreme on this end and will begin to swing back the other way through unionization, money being funneled away from corporations and into resources for people who have none, etc. Fingers crossed.
Kathleen,
I 100% remember early in my career there was this whole thing about resident wellness and resiliency. And I told them over and over: mark my words, the only way to fix this is to stop the practice of asking residents to work inhumane hours. Pizza, retreats, and email kudos won't fix that. Same is true for nurses and other colleagues who have been stretched so thin.
And yeah...that anecdote. YIKES.
My ex-husband did his residency at Columbia Presbyterian in NYC in the early 1980's. He reported at one point not peeing for 36 hours during his internship year, he was so busy. He has said in the past, however, that it was a great education to be able to follow the patients' progress by being at the hospital working the hours that are no longer expected. That struck me as an interesting point.
First, thank you so much for all you do; your newsletter is priceless! Second, would you suggest a young person considering med school read the NYT article? I thought about sharing it so an amazing young woman who’s thinking about it could go in w eyes wide open. I hesitated because I didn’t want to discourage them from pursuing their calling or dream. I’m curious about your thoughts?
The keynote is Friday June 23 ( not the 22) at 8:30 am, registration https://events.nationalacademies.org/39635_06-2023_symposium-on-long-covid-examining-the-working-definition?i=oGltyuuSLnEWaQFYa7Y3c1VZnx9YHSwM
Mazel on the NASEM talk--break legs!
And I do hope you don't leave Twitter but just rely on the mute and block functions more liberally.
Joe
Wondering how a reader sent you an article-- is there a public email for subscribers?
Congratulations on the speech and the article.
I was on twitter, as just a reader, during the last 3 years but am limiting my exposure to it now.
I think people can just reply to the email that gets sent. I don't always see them all but sometimes I do (and when someone points out that they're a paid subscriber, I try to read those and respond when I can!)