Maire Daugharty is an anesthesiologist.
We went into medicine to help people, and now we struggle with feelings of betrayal. We sacrificed so much. While our cohort in college went on to graduate and earn an income and start families, we continued with medical school, an all-in venture financially and personally, demanding all of our time, efforts, and attention. Then we trained. And trained some more. And then, finally, we went to work. We took …
I have heard from more than one retired anesthesiologist about becoming aware of the weight of the pager after it is relinquished. I imagine other physicians engaged in critical care, trauma (physical and emotional), other emergencies, and obstetrical care might have heard similar descriptions. Have I left anyone out? We do a pretty good job of negotiating chronic professional anxiety at a subacute level. In fact, we are so accustomed …
Some forms of trauma are obvious: natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, fires, being physically assaulted, wrongfully terminated, becoming suddenly very ill. Trauma is divided into so-called big T and little t experiences, but the distinction is misleading.
While physical assault (big T trauma) can lead to serious sequelae such as loss of a sense of safety, chronic hypervigilance, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); a dissolved intimate relationship, being bullied, being emotionally or …
Therapy is a treatment intended to heal a disorder. That’s the medical perspective anyway, and it’s not wrong, but it’s maybe only part of the picture. Therapy frequently begins by addressing a primary complaint or problem in a collaborative relationship that grows over time. And during that time, while the client is assessing trustworthiness, the clinician continues to work towards an effective therapeutic alliance. How this exactly occurs depends a …
Initially, after completing my master’s degree, I felt a bit lost. Being very busy, juggling different roles, focusing on areas of interest to the exclusion of other areas of life has long been my comfort zone. The stillness of having completed an intensive project while working full time would have been challenging enough. But in the middle of a pandemic, I found myself wandering around my house, confined, without a …
They say you learn a lot from your clients. Not in anesthesia, where I frequently feel great empathy for my sick patients and their families. Our connection in the peri-operative environment is too short-lived for this, I believe.
But in therapy, where the relationship is both critical and deeper, and where I have more recently turned my attention, I have come to appreciate that observation personally. I specialize in “burnout,” that …
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