Are Hospital Wellness Initiatives Making Doctor Burnout Worse?

A Physician Suggests Encouraging His Colleagues to Explore, Reflect, and Talk About Their Feelings

This article is a co-publication of Zócalo Public Square and State of Mind, a partnership of Slate and Arizona State University focused on covering mental health.

In early 2020, weeks before Covid changed our lives, I sat uneasily with a dear medical school friend, listening to a panel of experts discuss burnout, moral injury, and wellness. The speakers focused on categorizing and describing these terms, recited research and data, and prescribed self-care strategies, including a healthy diet, exercise, yoga, and mindfulness. Many colleagues found these sessions helpful. I left …

by Jay Baruch | May 17, 2023

The Stories Doctors Tell

Physicians and Patients Stitch Together Narratives to Diagnose and Heal

by Jay Baruch | February 1, 2023

The belly pain is so bad that Mrs. Alves*, a woman in her 40s, is worming uncomfortably on the ER stretcher. “I need an answer,” she says. I promise her …

What Do We Owe Doctors and Nurses?

The Virus Has Exposed the Weaknesses of American Healthcare; to Build a Stronger System We Need to Care for Caregivers

by Judith Garber, Shannon Brownlee, and Vikas Saini | April 10, 2020

In late March, a mutual friend of ours called with a grim picture of the situation on the ground at the Queens hospital where he works. New York City had …

National Oversight or Not, All Health Care, Like All Politics, Is Local

Leaders of Britain’s NHS and America’s Mayo Clinic Enviously Eye Each Other’s Domains

By Andrés Martinez | April 7, 2016

At first glance, America’s fragmented, private health care delivery system and Britain’s state-run National Health Service have little in common. But both nations’ contrasting approaches to caring for their populations …

Is Universal Health Care an Impossible Fantasy?

It’s Difficult to Imagine a Single-Payer System That’s Both Politically and Practically Viable in America

April 6, 2016

For more than a century, America has argued about how to share the costs of health care. Drawing from new government-sponsored insurance programs in Germany and England, Progressive reformers made …

In Medicine, Dying Doesn’t Have to Be a Struggle

Options, Not Treatment, May Be What's Most Needed at the End of Life

By Paul Bisceglio | January 21, 2016

Grandma’s dying.

She lived a full life, but illness is getting the best of her. Could be days, could be weeks, the doctors say—unless, that is, she tries one particular treatment. …

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