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 …

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

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

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 …