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Showing posts from November, 2017

Surgeon grows vegetables across from his hospital to cope with stress and burnout

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From this Reuters/Yahoo article : "Dr. Brian Halloran, a vascular surgeon at St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor, starts planning his garden long before spring arrives in southeast Michigan. His tiny plot, located in the shadow of the 537-bed teaching hospital, helps Halloran cope with burnout from long hours and the stress of surgery on gravely ill patients. "You really have to find the balance to put it a little more in perspective," he said. Hospitals such as St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor have been investing in programs ranging from yoga classes to personal coaches designed to help doctors become more resilient. But national burnout rates keep rising, with up to 54 percent of doctors affected." Burnout as a syndrome is marked by emotional exhaustion, cynicism and decreased effectiveness. A 2015 Mayo Clinic study found that more than 7% of 7,000 doctors had considered suicide within the prior 12 months, compared with 4 percent of other workers. Some blame the way medicine is