Resilient Threads: Weaving Joy and Meaning into Well-Being

by Mukta Panda, Timothy Brigham (Foreword by)

Overview

MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW

A 'must read' for anyone working in the health care community, especially during the once-in-a-century impact of a global pandemic, "Resilient Threads: Weaving Joy and Meaning into Well-Being" will have great value for readers in other stress-filled occupations and circumstances as well. Thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation, "Resilient Threads: Weaving Joy and Meaning into Well-Being" is especially and unreservedly recommended for both community and college/university library Health & Medicine collections.

A Journey to Champion Soul-Deep, System-Wide Self-Care

*** Resilient Threads is a 2021 Silver Nautilus Book Award Winner! ***

If you've ever asked yourself "Who am I? Where do I belong? How do I heal as I strive to serve?"-whether you work in healthcare or any vocation that calls for strength of heart-you will resonate with this woman physician's story.

Physician burnout, depression, and suicide are tearing at the fabric of our health care system, which Mukta Panda has witnessed firsthand. In a culture that privileges evidence over empathy, technology over touch, and what's measurable over what's meaningful, many of us-no matter our profession-feel more fragmented and isolated than ever.

In RESILIENT THREADS: WEAVING JOY AND MEANING INTO WELL-BEING, Dr. Panda gives voice to the exhaustion and gives courage for another way. As a physician and medical educator, she has fought to return human touch to healthcare. As a mother, she has committed-and sometimes failed-to balance the personal with the professional. And as an immigrant from India, she has clung to the wisdom of her family and faith in the face of discrimination and fear.

By weaving stories of connecting to her patients, students, and colleagues with her own stories of belonging, she models how we can each thrive by creating community and self-awareness.

"Ritual, relationships, and reflection are key threads in how I learned to thrive," Dr. Panda writes in the introduction. So, too, are they key for the thriving of our world. The well-being of our clinicians and patients, teachers and students, parents and children depends on integrating these threads into a new social fabric, one that honors the whole of who we are with what we do.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780985566562
Publisher:	Creative Courage Press
Publication date:	01/31/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	547 KB

About the Author

Mukta Panda, MD, MACP, FRCP-London, is an award-winning physician, speaker, and facilitator whose work seeks to transform the heart of patient care and medical education. She serves as the Assistant Dean for Well-Being and Medical Student Education and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine at Chattanooga. To rejuvenate, Mukta likes to take long walks, cook good Indian meals, and plan surprise parties for her loved ones. Visit www.MuktaPandaMD.com and follow her on Twitter @MuktaPandaMD.
Timothy P. Brigham, MDiv, PhD, is the Chief of Staff, and Chief Education and Organizational Development Officer at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). He is also Co-Chair of the Physician Well-Being Task Force. Dr. Brigham holds a PhD in psychological studies in education from Temple University, a Master's degree in counseling and human relations from Villanova University, and a Master's of Divinity from Palmer Theological Seminary.

Table of Contents

Foreword xv

Introduction xix

PART 1

WHO AM I?

1. Where Are You From? 3

2. The Gift of Generations 12

3. Connecting the Dots 26

PART 2

WHERE DO I BELONG?

4. Meeting Point 43

5. The Gift 50

6. The Learning Curve 54

7. Differences and Discrimination 62

8. House Calls 75

9.Walking in a Patient’s Shoes 84

10. Face to Face 93

PART 3

HOW DO I HEAL AS I STRIVE TO SERVE?

11. Family Doesn’t Mean Blood 103

12. Turning Points 113

13. Gray’s Anatomy 119

14. Capitol Hill 129

15. The Measure of a Life 135

16. The Good Physician 150

17. A How to Live Curriculum 170

18. Touching of the Feet 186

19. What Am I Fighting For? 194

20. Match Day 208

21. Resilient Threads 218

Acknowledgments 227

Notes 231

About the Author 235

Explore Your Well-Being 237

About Creative Courage Press 239

 

Editorial Reviews

This is a must-read for learners, educators, and practicing clinicians as they journey on the path of mastery. There are lives at stake and treasures of joy and wonder to be found. With this book, the path is illuminated.
--Timothy P. Brigham, MDiv, PhD, Chief of Staff and Chief of Education and Organizational Development, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)

Resilient Threads is a treasure...Mukta Panda has beautifully captured what it means to be a compassionate physician--one who effortlessly dedicates herself to the well-being of not just patients but also colleagues, students and friends alike. Dr. Panda knows what it means to create a psychologically safe workplace--and why it matters for learning, excellence, and full engagement at work. Readers will pick up countless ideas to transform their own workplaces by adopting the author's generous and curious spirit.
--Amy C. Edmondson, PhD, Professor, Harvard Business School, author of The Fearless Organization and Building the Future

The external aims to provide better health for society cannot happen without tending to the inner imperatives. We need a holistic approach to individual courage and institutional change, and Dr. Mukta Panda shows us how it can be done.
--Donald M. Berwick, MD, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement and former Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

I'm grateful to Mukta for having the courage to share how she keeps her heart open despite heartbreak, and is teaching her medical students and residents to do the same. Internal medicine may be Mukta's clinical specialty, but she is a healer of the inner life as well.
--Parker J. Palmer, author of On the Brink of Everything, The Courage to Teach, A Hidden Wholeness, and Let Your Life Speak

A powerful, inspiring example of a physician and mother who reveals the empathy, compassion and self-care needed to get through medical training and to revive the good doctor you hoped to be.
--Vineet Arora, MD, MAPP, Associate Chief Medical Officer-Clinical Learning Environment, University of Chicago Medicine

Medical students and residents reading her story will learn some of what to expect in a medical career, and for someone like me, 45-plus years into my medical and surgical career, it was an opportunity to reflect: "Oh yes, I remember feeling like that" and "Yes, this is exactly how it feels to connect to a patient.
--R. Phillip Burns, MD, FACS, Professor and Chairman, Department of Surgery, University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Chattanooga

In a modern world of medicine where workload and the expectations of physicians are as great as they have ever been, a reminder of what makes us tick as doctors is sorely needed. This book provides that and more...I am a better physician for reading it.
--Professor Andrew Goddard, MD, FACP (Hon), President of the Royal College of Physicians of London

The book serves as a lesson for all of us. We need to recognize our strengths and weaknesses, focus on what is important, and make sure that we have meaning in our lives.
--Marc J. Kahn, MD, MBA, MACP, FRCP-London, Tulane University School of Medicine

An intimate example of how to live and work, Resilient Threads offers an inspiring model for others to learn from, resonate with, and be emboldened by.
--Penelope R. Williamson, co-author of Leading Change in Healthcare, Associate Professor of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

From the Publisher