How 2 Train Heroes?

We see that guy every morning when we walk into, or out of the hospital. The clinician who looks 20 years older then he really is, shuffling about, staring straight ahead, almost grimacing. When you say "Good Morning", he just looks the other way. He's the guys who has been here way too long, falling way too far down the rabbit hole of burn out. Let's face it, none of us ever want to become that guy. But on our worst days, many of us already have been. Myself for sure. Medicine is a tough game of paradoxes - exhilarating, exhausting, rewarding, and always demanding. So how do we instead become the guy? The clinician people gravitate towards at the start of the day, when help is needed to meet a new challenge, and at the end to review the day's success. In Academic Medicine Slavin describes Positive Psychology's PERMA model to preventing burnout in Medical Education. Positive emotions: Foster positive emotions by reducing unnecessary stressors and promoti

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.  Trouble no one about their religion;respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life,  beautify all things in your life.  Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.  Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend,  even a stranger, when in a lonely place.  Show respect to all people and grovel to none. When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living.  If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.  Abuse no one and no thing,  for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your time to die,  be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death,  so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a littl

We learn our most effective strategies for helping others to achieve success from our favorite coaches. My long time coach and colleague, Dr. Mark Kling, recently reminded all of us at County to always see the Forest through the Trees. When Mark first started at Cook County nearly three decades ago, the busiest ED in the city was literally a hallway. When I was a resident fifteen year ago, we worked together in an 30 bed ED with one computer that never worked, on the first floor of a third world hospital, ironically in the middle of a magnificent city. Today, we are privileged to practice medicine in a state of the art hospital for the underserved, that easily rivals any other healthcare institution in the county. In many ways, the evolution of our department parallels the development of Emergency Medicine. So when we become frustrated by a computer locking up, an overworked colleague, or a long wait for an inpatient bed, let's pause for a moment, and remember to see the For