Today is National Physician Suicide Awareness Day. While medical students don’t have an M.D. behind their name, I think they still should be included in this group.
Physicians, residents, med students are super human.
We as the public expect them to walk into our exam room, treat us perfectly kind, answer all our questions, and give us all the solutions to fix our problems. Do this all after an 80+ hour work week with very little sleep.
We expect them to do their best (which they do) to save every single patient. To even after a devastating loss, a frustrating pandemic, or witnessing the aftermath of tragic accidents, to stuff it down and smile as they walk into the next exam room.
We expect them to process death, suffering, loss, unfairness, tragedy, and pain on their own because it’s not about them. It’s about the patient.
Well, today, it is about them. And it needs to be about them more often…
THE SUICIDE STATS
Here are just a few stats I found…
“According to the American Medical Student Association, medical students are three times more likely to die by suicide as their same-age peers.” –AAMC
“While it’s unclear how many physician trainees die by suicide each year, suicide is the leading cause of death among male residents and the second leading cause of death among female residents.” –AAMC
“About one in three medical students report symptoms of depression, and one in nine experiences suicidal ideation.” –AMA
Much of this comes because of burnout, the stress that comes with the pressure of schooling, the various cultures in the field of medicine, the demands of the work environment, and more.
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
There is SOOO much more that can be said on this topic, but I will leave it here. What can we work to change?
Here are just a few of my thoughts…
- Normalize medical professionals seeking help.
- Normalize medical professionals getting enough sleep.
- Normalize medical professionals eating lunch.
- Normalize medical professionals going to doctor appointments for themselves.
- Normalize medical professionals having needs and taking care of those needs. They’re human too.
In order to give all they can to their patients, they need (and we need to let them and advocate for them) to be selfish and take care of themselves.
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10 Tips to Thrive During Clinical Rotations from a Med Student and Med Wife
