Recently I sent out a survey to doctors to assess the impact of COVID on burnout.
The results were unsurprising, and one response floored me.
It was from the wife of a doctor who recently took his own life.
And those were his final words.
Our profession was struggling before COVID. With the increased workloads, online vitriol, and huge costs to families, it’s gotten much, much worse.
This is a crisis, make no mistake. Doctors and health professionals are paying the biggest price.
It’s not OK, this is not our ‘new normal.’
Governments need to pour funding into the medical workforce. Organisations need to step up and advocate for their staff. The public need to appreciate these people and what they’re doing.
We must do better.
One of the greatest lies we tell ourselves is that we’re falling behind. That someone else is ahead.
As a young man I associated strength with force; louder voices, sharper opinions, firm lines in the sand.
There’s a strange kind of pride we’ve developed in being exhausted. But even lions, the king of the jungle, rest.
I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't have ambition.
We sometimes believe strength means self-sufficiency — that being independent means being isolated.
We often try to outrun the storm, emotionally, physically, spiritually.
We’re entering an age where machines do our thinking before we’ve even had a chance to try.
In church the other day, the pastor gave a sermon that really stuck with me. He talked about two people.