This is a summary of the connections among all the conversations I've had in the last few months. This is for YOU! if you are short on time and have missed listening in. The ultimate message is that together we can change the existing cultures and systems around us, for the better.
This is a summary of the connections among all the conversations I've had in the last few months. This is for YOU! if you are short on time and have missed listening in. The ultimate message is that together we can change the existing cultures and systems around us, for the better.
[00:00:00] Christine Ko: Welcome back to SEE HEAR FEEL Today, I have a compilation of episodes 41 to 59. In the last compilation of episodes 21 to 39, we looked at how the current medical culture of overwork and lack of permission to feel can lead to burnout. There's also a medical culture of perfectionism that can lead to shame, especially when I feel that I fall short. Overwork, shame and perfectionism can be addressed with a growth mindset, being self-aware, mindfulness, and curiosity. It sounds easy, but I find it hard. It helps to be vulnerable, to keep practicing, recognizing our emotions, using them as signals to connect better in our relationships. In episodes 41 to 59, I've continued to talk with others about emotions.
[00:00:52] As Brian Ferguson says in episode 41:
[00:00:56] Brian Ferguson: If you look at the highest performers in the world and people who are flourishing, they have a very sophisticated understanding of their emotional landscape, and they know how to move in and out of that landscape in the context of their work.
[00:01:07] Christine Ko: Along those lines, Dr. Jennifer Stein says in episode 50:
[00:01:12] Jennifer Stein: As physicians, it's important for us to be able to make the right diagnosis, and part of that is about practice and continuous improvement, but also a lot of what we do is about emotional intelligence, about taking care of ourselves and enabling us to take even better care of our patients and to listen to our patients. Putting all of that together is really what's gonna allow us to continue long-term to take good care of our patients.
[00:01:42] Christine Ko: The problem remains that the current medical culture often disallows emotion, preventing the development of emotional intelligence. Brian Ferguson commented in episode 42,
[00:01:54] Brian Ferguson: My observation of medicine, like many of these other disciplines, is that it incentivizes compartmentalization of emotion. In medicine, classic archetype is totally compartmented and has no emotion. That archetype looks and says, we don't need emotion; that archetype is built so strongly, they're almost afraid of accessing that.
[00:02:11] Christine Ko: Along the same lines, in episode 53, Dr. Michael Dewsnap says,
[00:02:16] Michael Dewsnap: We see maladaptive responses from physicians, and even other fields, to where they feel like emotions are not supposed to be there.
[00:02:22] Christine Ko: Dr. Johanna Shapiro notes a similar thing in episode 56.
[00:02:26] Johanna Shapiro: I think a lot of times doctors don't even admit to themselves that they're feeling something.
[00:02:33] Christine Ko: Ignoring emotion is a problem because, as Dr. Misha Rosenbach says in episode 51,
[00:02:39] Mischa Rosenbach: To be really great, if you look at people who are able to pick up on cues and handle the social emotional aspects of interpersonal interactions and not just the pattern recognition and algorithmic approach to medicine, both of which are important. I think you have to be able to do both to be really great.
[00:02:56] Christine Ko: And Dr. Chris Cipriano says it all in episode 54.
[00:03:00] Chris Cipriano: Put simply all emotions are information and they are valid. Doctors can begin by affirming their patient's experiences of emotions as valid. And then use that information in how they care for their patient. When we're engaging with our patients, or our students, or our kids or our families, they are constantly learning from us and looking to us as models. The more that we can show up and engage in that co-construction of emotion, we will all be better.
[00:03:30] Christine Ko: Both in diagnostic work, in dermatology and dermatopathology, and in regulating and understanding my own and other's emotions, I make mistakes. I'm not alone. Dr. Donald Burwick says in episode 58,
[00:03:43] Donald Berwick: I know, and I think you know, that you never learn without making errors. The same is true in our work in healthcare.
[00:03:50] Christine Ko: Going further, Dr. Phillip Shapiro says in episode 46,
[00:03:54] Philip Shapiro: In terms of making mistakes, yeah, everyone's gonna make mistakes. The key I think, is to figure out why people make mistakes and what can you do to minimize that.
[00:04:03] Christine Ko: And similarly, in episode 47, Dr. Arnaud de la Fouchardiere says,
[00:04:08] Arnaud de la Fouchardiere: I work in a field where it has a reputation of high difficulty, and I know I've made mistakes. I will make mistakes. So I really thought this through on how to reduce the errors. The method I have developed is to have some redundancy.
[00:04:25] Christine Ko: And Dr. Tim McCalmont says in episode 59,
[00:04:28] Tim McCalmont: Obviously we all are gonna make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. If your premise at the beginning of a career is, how do I never make a mistake? The only way you're gonna accomplish that is to never have an opinion. So a better model is, how do I minimize mistakes? How do I make my mistakes be small mistakes? How do I end up in a position of lifelong learning so that I can continue to expand my repertoire?
[00:04:58] Christine Ko: In terms of lifelong learning, I agree with Dr. Peter Soyer in episode 43.
[00:05:03] Peter Soyer: Emotional intelligence plays a huge role, one of the most important aspects in the career of a medical person, for people who have a job where you have to deal with people. Right?
[00:05:17] Christine Ko: And Dr. Esther Freeman says in episode 44,
[00:05:20] Esther Freeman: Understanding and managing your own emotions and how those emotions can ultimately influence people around you is a constant challenge for all of us.
[00:05:30] Christine Ko: Part of meeting that challenge includes listening carefully, as Dr. Phillip Shapiro says in episode 45.
[00:05:38] Philip Shapiro: If we could pay a little bit more attention to how we are communicating and how people are perceiving what we're saying, it would help.
[00:05:45] Christine Ko: It takes curiosity, as Dr. Batja Mesquita says in episode 49,
[00:05:50] Batja Mesquita: We can learn from each other. We can, if we're curious about each other's emotions, we can find out what's important and how relationships are done. Emotions are the key to unlocking these really important relational values, if you will.
[00:06:06] Christine Ko: Culture is important, as Dr. Esther Freeman notes in episode 44.
[00:06:11] Esther Freeman: Our perception, a lot of that is driven by cultural norms.
[00:06:14] Christine Ko: And Dr. Batja Mesquita, an expert on how emotions are between us, elaborates in episode 48.
[00:06:21] Batja Mesquita: I describe emotions as a dance. People in different cultures dance differently. Certain constructions of yourself in the world are more effective than other constructions. It's certainly possible to reshape your work environment and to reshape cultures. Cultures are made by peoples. If we all start doing, or our emotions differently, we have a different emotional culture. At the same time, you cannot by yourself change an emotion culture.
[00:06:50] Christine Ko: We can't do this work by ourselves. We will get farther if we accept help that is offered, as my friend Bess Siegal says in episode 52.
[00:06:59] Bess Siegal: In the end, allowing people to support you, however they can, fills a kind of bucket in a way that is astonishing, really.
[00:07:09] Christine Ko: Opening up to others is truly important, as Dr. Donald Berwick comments in episode 58.
[00:07:15] Donald Berwick: If we can't tolerate or are ashamed of being open and transparent when things aren't going well, then learning gets very hard. How can we develop a culture in healthcare in which we're constantly looking for the lessons we can learn and sharing of them with each other? I think shame keeps us from turning on the lights, on exploring what happens and how we can learn from each other, connecting things up.
[00:07:42] Christine Ko: By connecting with others, we share each other's experiences. As Dr. Becca Miller says in episode 55,
[00:07:49] Becca Miller: The power of lived experience, and using your lived experience, as a certain kind of expertise has been so valuable.
[00:07:55] Christine Ko: I will end this compilation with two messages. The first that, yes, there is burnout in healthcare right now, as Brian Ferguson says in episode 41,
[00:08:04] Brian Ferguson: Most people in medicine feel overwhelmed, like they're a cog in a system. If you can feel a little sense of agency, it starts to allow a return to that emotional landscape that's fulfilling in one's profession.
[00:08:14] Christine Ko: And Dr. Donald Berwick agrees, emphasizing the power of connection In episode 58.
[00:08:19] Donald Berwick: What creates demoralization is a lack of a sense of agency. It's a, I'm in trouble and I can't do anything about it. Yeah, we need to change that thinking and say, we must do something about it. I may not be able to make the change, but together we can.
[00:08:32] Christine Ko: Thank you for listening in to this podcast. Please follow, share and rate. I hope that the more we listen together to these concepts of emotional intelligence and deliberate practice in the face of human imperfection, making mistakes ,and less than ideal systems, we can create a newer, better culture together.
[00:08:51] Thank you for being with me in this space.