PookieMD's Blog: Where Physicians Learn About the Business of Medicine

I love that expression–fall down 7 times, get up 8. It sums up what life is like, and how to react. Lately I seemed to be mired in miscues, miscommunications, mistakes and more. What the heck, maybe writing about it will help me get up from the latest fall!

First the “toos”:

Too busy–I have been too busy working to take care of myself. Yesterday I finally got my hair down after they had to photoshop the roots out at work  when they took my picture!

Too tired–I have still been going to the gym, but have just been going through the motions. I zone out on the bike, reading gossip mags to figure out what Brad and Angelina are up to now. I feel better after a good work out, but it has seemed like so much effort.

Too stressed–our census at both hospitals where I work has been in the “red zone”, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have to take care of patients! I have been harried by the long days, the complexities and dealing with the other doctors that are just as stressed by the high volumes. Hubby’s lack of work adds to the story too! 

Too negative–the root of much of my problem. I am trying desperately to shed this cloak of negativity I have been wearing since Hubby lost his job, but it’s been tough. For those who don’t know about the cloak of negativity, it’s like Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility, with out the fun factor and much harder to take off.

And the most damaging –the “lacks”

The biggest: lack of faith in myself. I have constantly questioned everything I do, filling my head with “I should haves” and “why didn’t I?” which of course allows that inner voice of criticism to get louder. “You’re not smart enough/a good enough doctor/communicator/wife/human (etc.!)”

Argh.

It all seems so grim. But this time in my life, I realize, is not a permanent reality. I can’t take everything personally and let it become pervasive. So I will dust myself off, and get up again.  Thanks for listening.

Medical decision making grows more complicated daily.  Before we can even focus on the problem at hand, we have to synthezise data from many diverse sources–we use the old fashioned tools of listening and talking to patients and families, then log in to computers to obtain more data, view radiology images from yet another system, and call colleagues to discuss what we know or don’t know.

Whew.  Just the data gathering is complex, not to mention the actual decision making!

In a fun but scientific twist I offer a solution–give a doctor a bag of candy and we’ll make better decisions!

Our mental attitude effects how we make decisions.  If we are in a negative frame of mind, we tend to close down to other diagnoses and solutions, focusing on the obvious.  Furthermore, we are less likely to think in depth and go beyond the problem in front of us.    We are also less likely to engage the patient.  A body of work has been published, examing how affect effects clinical problem solving.  If a physician has a positive frame of mind, he or she is more likely to perform a deeper analysis of the problem, be more organized in the thinking process, and arrive at a correct decision faster!

Surprisingly, a similar study showed that giving a physician  a bag of candy, categorized as a small act of kindness, placed the clinician in a more positive frame of mind and inproved decision making. So what to do if no one is handing out bags of chocolate? Simply thinking about a good friend, or a favorite pet was also enough to shift frame of mind toward positivity and better decision making.

It may seem silly, but give it a whirl. I’ll try it out this week and let you know.  In the meantime, of course, you are welcome to send chocolates my way.  I am particularly partial to chocolove chocolate bars–the dark chocolate with raspberries

PS: tomorrow I’ll update you on the mixed results of the “do one thing differently” experiement of last week.