There has been an overwhelming response from many residents is my program that there is no avenue for discussion about the difficulties of our profession. These difficulties include not only hours, sleep deprivation, hierarchical pressures, but more importantly loss of patient life, mistakes that might hurt others. The response from many in administration has been that residents have had to deal with these issues for many years and they have to figure it out. Residents have been told again and again “it has always been this way.” I have accepted this mantra and have done my best on my own to deal with these stressors in as best a way I know possible. Many residents have expressed that dealing with it alone doesn’t work. Seeing a program like caring for the caregiver seems so blatantly obvious to its benefits that it floors me that it’s not common hospital practice. I can envision such amazing outcomes for residents and nurses, therapists and techs, and even janitorial staff. I plan to take steps to at minimum create a foundation and framework to make a program like this feasible. Knowing our culture and current state, I unfortunately don’t see a program of this nature as possible. I hope to change that. I hope that so many of you would be willing to help me with this change and give me information about what you already have in place. These aspirations make me excited about this profession again.
