Much has been made of fatigue increasing the number of medical errors doctors make.
But what about other factors, like emotional stress?
That’s a little-reported issue that Pauline Chen addresses in her recent New York Times column. In residency, some doctors-in-training have to care for small children, among other life issues. As Dr. Chen notes, “whenever one of us experienced additional stress apart from our work, the house of cards in which we functioned would start to collapse. Unable to admit to or find support for our distress, we would continue to soldier on at the hospital, leaving a series of mistakes, ranging from barely perceptible to blatant, in our wake.”
And indeed, studies have shown that both distress and fatigue contribute to medical errors. More physicians today share family responsibilities, compared to eras past where “the majority of physicians were men, and their wives took care of the kids at home.”
Having residency programs recognize the impact of life stresses would be a good start. Support programs should also be in place, along with mentors and attendings realizing that physician training today isn’t what it used to be.
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- Doctors lose a part of their training when resident work-hours are capped
- Do doctors set themselves up for physician burnout?
- Can medical school expansion revitalize physician training?
- How work-hour restrictions harms resident surgeon training
- Training the well-mannered physician
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{ 3 comments }
Amen. My husband is a surgery resident and we recently had a baby. While he loves being with his daughter, taking care of her is an added responsibility and this emotional stress affects him at work. It’s ridiculous to put all the family related responsibility on the non-physician in a household, and I don’t think a physician spouse wants to be so disconnected from his family. Residency programs need to recognize this and give some support. I’m not talking huge changes here, but even recognizing that a physician needs to spend time with his family would be a positive change.
My wife bore two children while I was in residency and I must say that it was not an added stress at all for me but a much appreciated joy. Thanks to her frugality and household management, we managed to live off my earnings which eventually included some moonlighting. It was pre-work hour limitation days so I really was rarely at home for more than a few hours in the early years; but when I was it was 100% Daddy and baby playtime. I would come in, lay on the floor and fall asleep with babies romping on me. I loved it of course. She took care of everything from moving to major purchases to sick babies.
If I had to do over, I would wait though to have more time to spend with them at that age and to make things easier for her. For me, the stress was the work itself, and the lack of rest with moonlighting. Actually if I had it to do over, I wouldn’t go into medicine. The stress of residency left it’s mark.
Thanks for your comments Doc Stone! I will be in your situation very soon and am thankful for all of the insight and pointers.
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