What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine

by Danielle Ofri MD

Overview

“A fascinating journey into the heart and mind of a physician” that explores doctor-patient relations, the flaws in our health care system, and how doctors’ emotions impact medical care (Boston Globe)

While much has been written about the minds and methods of the medical professionals who save our lives, precious little has been said about their emotions. Physicians are assumed to be objective, rational beings, easily able to detach as they guide patients and families through some of life’s most challenging moments. But understanding doctors’ emotional responses to the life-and-death dramas of everyday practice can make all the difference on giving and getting the best medical care.
 
Digging deep into the lives of doctors, Dr. Danielle Ofri examines the daunting range of emotions—shame, anger, empathy, frustration, hope, pride, occasionally despair, and sometimes even love—that permeate the contemporary doctor-patient connection. Drawing on scientific studies, including some surprising research, Dr. Ofri offers up an unflinching look at the impact of emotions on health care.
 
Dr. Ofri takes us into the swirling heart of patient care, telling stories of caregivers caught up and occasionally torn down by the whirlwind life of doctoring. She admits to the humiliation of an error that nearly killed one of her patients. She mourns when a beloved patient is denied a heart transplant. She tells the riveting stories of an intern traumatized when she is forced to let a newborn die in her arms, and of a doctor whose daily glass of wine to handle the frustrations of the ER escalates into a destructive addiction. Ofri also reveals that doctors cope through gallows humor, find hope in impossible situations, and surrender to ecstatic happiness when they triumph over illness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807033302
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	05/06/2014
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	171,944
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, is an associate professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine and has cared for patients at New York’s Bellevue Hospital for more than two decades. Ofri’s books and articles have become academic staples in medical schools, universities and residency programs. She is the editor in chief of the Bellevue Literary Review and writes regularly for the New York Times.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "What Doctors Feel"
by .
Copyright © 2014 Danielle Ofri.
Excerpted by permission of Beacon Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Intoduction: Why Doctors Act That Way

Chapter 1: The Doctor Can't See You Now
Julia, part one 
Chapter 2: We Build a Better Doctor?
Julia, part two
Chapter 3: Scared Witless
Julia, part three
Chapter 4: A Daily Dose of Death
Julia, part four
Chapter 5: Burning with Shame
Julia, part five
Chapter 6: Drowning
Julia, part six
Chapter 7: Under the Microscope 
Julia, part seven

Afterword
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

Taut, vivid prose . . . She writes for a lay audience with a practiced hand.”
—New York Times

“In her lucid and passionate explanations of the important role that emotions play in the practice of medicine and in healing and health, Danielle Ofri tells stories of great importance to both doctors and patients.”
—Perri Klass, author of Treatment Kind and Fair

“An invaluable guide for doctors and patients.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Insightful and invigorating…makes the case that it’s better for patients if a physician’s emotional compass-needle points in a positive direction.”
—Booklist, starred review

“A fascinating journey into the heart and mind of a physician struggling to do the best for her patients while navigating an imperfect health care system.”
—Boston Globe

“Ofri gives voice and color to the heartbreak, stress, and joy that attends medical practice.”
—Library Journal

“A fabulous read.”
—Greater Good

“Essential reading in Medical HumanitiesShe weaves together personal anecdotes and medical learning in a compelling account of her medical decisions and reflections. Highly recommended.”
—Sara van den Berg, Professor of English, Saint Louis University

“Dr. Ofri's real-life experiences can be incorporated into a variety of health science curricula bringing course theory together with practical application. Readers gain critical insight into why applying theory in the practice of medicine requires empathy for the physicians.”
—Christine Whittrock, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Temple University

“Part of medical education now is not only core competencies from a factual standpoint but also a social standpoint. Dr. Ofri has a way of communicating those lessons in a clear a cogent and very personal fashion.”
—Beth Dollinger M.D., Arnot Ogden Medical Center

“The perfect book for my teaching on the subject of lack of empathy in medical school students.”
—James Asa Shield, Jr., MD, Professor, Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University

From the Publisher

Ofri (Medicine in Translation: Journeys with My Patients) offers an eloquent and honest take on the inner life of medical professionals, describing not only her own bumpy path from med student to M.D., but also the difficulty of maintaining empathy for patients over the years. “Emotional layers” in medicine are more subtle and pervasive than anyone wants to believe, and they often become the “dominant players in medical decision-making,” she argues. Ofri uses the story of illegal immigrant Julia and her battle with congestive heart failure as a jumping-off point for discussing how doctors handle emotionally complicated cases. From the reluctance of Julia’s medical team to deliver her “death sentence” to a happy conclusion following the persistence of her hospital team, Ofri celebrates the rare occasions “of joy in our profession” while investigating the “documented decline in empathy” shown to begin in med school. Not every doctor becomes hardened, though many lose their way (the author describes an ER doc who was canned for being drunk on the job). Ofri heaps praise on one M.D. who sagely advises that “it is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease than what sort of a disease a patient has.” Ofri’s passionate examination of her own fears and doubts alongside broader concerns within the medical field should be eye-opening for the public—and required reading for medical students. (June)

Publishers Weekly

With grace, courage, humility, and compassion, Bellevue Hospital physician Ofri (cofounder, Bellevue Literary Review; Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue) gives voice and color to the heartbreak, stress, and joy that attends medical practice. New York-based Ofri notes that medicine is about far more then science and that a physician's vision can be sharpened or misled by emotional reactions to patients. In particular, she follows the case of a long-term patient, Julia, exploring the twists and turns of her care and how she impacted Ofri's mind and heart. While this book's best feature is its raw emotional storytelling, it also addresses the academic literature on emotions and medical decision-making without overpowering Ofri's prose or interrupting her momentum. VERDICT A moving and informative read that will appeal to both general readers of books such as Jerome Groopman's How Doctors Think or Richard Selzer's Letters to A Young Doctor and to medical students and practicing physicians.—Aaron Klink, Duke Univ., Durham, NC

Library Journal

Ofri (School of Medicine/New York Univ.; Medicine in Translation: Journeys with My Patients, 2011, etc.) uses her experiences as a medical student and practicing physician at Bellevue Hospital to illuminate a side of medicine infrequently addressed: the psychological toll on dedicated doctors. The author begins with the experiences of third-year medical students, as they leave the classroom for the "the ongoing bedlam" of a hospital ward. In addition to the difficult task of learning all the medical jargon, they absorb the gallows humor that helps medical professionals deal with the constant stress that goes with the territory. They must also learn how to deal with the stench of disease--which is worse in the case of the homeless--without losing sight of a patient's humanity. Ofri ably describes the sheer terror that can occur when an exhausted intern or resident faces a cardiac arrest or other emergency. She describes an incident in her own career in her first week as a medical consultant. After her beeper went off, she rushed to the bedside of the patient (with interns and residents crowding around waiting for her directions), and her mind temporarily blanked. She explains how the fear of making a wrong decision stalks even an experienced doctor, especially when overworked and tired. To function, they must be able to suppress their emotions without losing the empathetic doctor-patient connection that is an essential part of the healing process. However, the constant stress can lead to temporary or permanent doctor burnout. Ofri also deals with what happens when doctors make mistakes. The loss of self-confidence and shame they feel is scarring, even when they receive support from superiors. An invaluable guide for doctors and patients on how to "recognize and navigate the emotional subtexts" of the doctor-patient relationship.

Kirkus Reviews