Free CME Webinar on Clinician Suicide Prevention Sept 12 at 7 PM EDT

[Sagafemina]

September is Suicide Prevention Month. Tomorrow Sept 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day. Sept 17 is (US) National Physician Suicide Awareness Day. We are each and every one of us disproportionately susceptible to death by suicide.

On Weds Sept 12 at 7 PM EDT, I will be presenting a free webinar sponsored by NorCal on this topic, one that has long been of great personal importance to me. Registration required, at CME Live Webinars & On-Demand Webcasts | NORCAL Group - Medical Professional Liability Insurance
If you can't attend, there is a chance it may be made available after the fact, as a public service by NorCal.
Meanwhile, my article on the topic remains free with registration at Medscape Physician Suicide: Overview, Depression in Physicians, Problems With Treating Physician Depression

Please, cherish yourselves, and learn all that you can to protect yourselves from this significant hazard that disproportionately affects our profession.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Skip Intro]

I know a physician who committed suicide. He was both brilliant and (obviously) very troubled. Ultimately, it was equally pointless and tragic. He was (and still is) missed by his widow and his young son who will never know his father.

We are at a real crossroads in our profession. With increasing demands on our time through the widespread mandate to utilize cumbersome and non-user-friendly EMR, answer to non-physician managers who may not truly understand what we do or what we need, and the continuous pressure to simultaneously increase productivity while reducing errors... it's more than a lot of physicians can take, and they don't have a real avenue to express their frustration, sadness, and resultant depression.

The most alarming statistic I heard recently is that we are losing one graduating class annually in the U.S. to this problem. Think about that for a second. One entire graduating medical school class lost each year. What a tragedy.

I hope that, given all the stress and demands of our profession, there are those of you out there who have the courage and the avenue to get help before you make an unfortunate and one-way decision. It is very hard for doctors to admit they need help. And, in our current practicing climate, there are a lot of people who neither understand or care. Your physician colleagues care. There are other people out there who do care, too. I have hope for the future still that the current "suck it up" and heartless trend in the business-of-medicine movement will fail, as it has been lately with many of these soulless corporations full of MBAs and accountants mandating what we do, and we will get to the point where physicians say enough is enough as we take back our profession. Until then, I hope that any doctor who is contemplating murdering themselves (and, that's what this is... you are murdering a person, in this case yourself) will dig deep through whatever fog that is telling you "this is the only way out" will instead remember and apply that important promise you made so long ago... first, do no harm.

Be well, my colleagues. Killing yourself is not the answer. You know this deep down. There is another way out. There always is.

-Skip