The Point of Medicine
The following articles fall under this category of content within The Point of Medicine.
Overcoming Burnout with Patrick Riecke: Healing, Hope, and the Power of Spiritual Care in Healthcare
This week on CMDA Matters, Patrick Riecke, an ethics leader, author, and coach, joins Dr. Chupp and Pastor Bert Jones to talk candidly about burnout – an all-too-common struggle for healthcare professionals. Drawing from his own journey through burnout, as well as his extensive experience in both ministry and healthcare leadership, Patrick shares practical wisdom, hope-filled encouragement, and a Christ-centered perspective for navigating exhaustion, cynicism, and even the desire to give up.
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Reflecting Back on 2022
George Courtney, CMDA’s Vice President of Stewardship and Legacy Giving, joins Dr. Mike Chupp to discuss how God has been at work through CMDA during 2022, while also looking ahead to opportunities for ministry in 2023.
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CMDA in Nigeria
Dr. Kayode Iyun, President of CMDA Nigeria, talks about how Christian healthcare professionals are making a difference across the continent of Africa.
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Honor the Lord with Thanksgiving
Pastor Bert Jones shares a special message about the importance of honoring the Lord this Thanksgiving.
Read ArticleHealthcare Heroes
Col. Doug Soderdahl, MD, a urologist who recently retired from the U.S. Army, talks about military medicine and today’s healthcare heroes serving in the armed forces.
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Finding Margin in the Midst of Burnout
Dr. Ted Hamilton, an expert in the field of physician well-being, talks about what leads to burnout and how to overcome it and find margin.
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CODE YOU
Phyllis Morton and Tamara Ramirez, two nurses who developed a continuing education course for nurses to overcome burnout, discuss their ministry on this week’s CMDA Matters podcast.
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How to De-stress in Your Distress
I picked up the phone to return a call from a message I had received on my office voicemail earlier that day. The call was from a doctor. I called the doctor back and said, “Hello, this is Pastor Bert from CMDA returning your phone call, how can I help you?” After a pause, he responded, “Thank you for calling me back; I don’t know how much longer I can continue to practice in this environment.” As he continued to download the heavy burden he was carrying, I realized the doctor on the other end of the call was in distress. It was a 911 call for spiritual help. Unfortunately, that phone call is becoming all too common and frequent in my office.
Read ArticleGospel Hope in Burnout
As the medical system groans beneath the burden of the pandemic, conversations have appropriately turned to burnout among healthcare professionals. Most dialogues point to external systems, e.g., the shrinking workforce, limited supplies and political contentions over vaccines. While these forces exert significant influence, and indeed pose a crisis in many parts of the U.S., deeper and more personal dynamics are at play.
Read ArticleAvoiding Burnout
Apparently, Medscape does a yearly survey on physician burnout, and the one that just came out asked 13,000 physicians from 29 specialties about their personal experience with stress and signs of burnout. Being in the midst of a global pandemic, it won’t surprise anyone that burnout rates are rising.
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Transformative Trust
Dr. Sartori from CMDA’s Center for Well-being produces a monthly podcast called The Healthy Doctor. This is a great resource for taking care of our healthcare professionals. If you enjoy this episode, you can find more at cmda.org/wellbeing.
Read ArticleThe Mountaintop
Burnout is the current buzzword in healthcare, the subject of endless articles and editorial commentaries. Fatigue, depersonalization and cynicism characterize this happiness-ruining and career-destroying disease, which has reached epidemic levels among healthcare professionals across the country.
Read ArticleA Lack of Self-care in Healthcare
How many times have you gone to clinic when you were sicker than the patients you were treating? Listened to other people’s woes and stresses when your own were weightier? Given your last emotional resources to a patient whose need was less than your family member’s? Forfeited sleep while advising a patient of how curative it is? Advised a patient about nutrition and exercise right after scarfing a quick lunch from the vending machine?
Read ArticleFacing the Rise of Suicides in Healthcare
As a second year medical student, a member of my medical school class committed suicide. I didn’t know him well, but his death impacted me. Made me ask a lot of questions. Why didn’t I know him better? Had I gotten to know him, could I have made a difference?
Read ArticlePhysician Burnout
It was a relatively slow evening at work when I got the text. My phone vibrated on the clinic countertop as I was looking over a chart. “Are you busy? Can you talk?” I figured those words couldn’t be good, coming as they did from a young intern I mentored when she was a medical student. I found myself wondering if she had lost a patient.
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