Health care professionals are human, and as humans we experience loss both in and out of work.  You’d imagine though that our professional expertise and experiences in helping patients and families cope with loss and grief would be helpful in managing our own personal losses.  Turns out, it’s maybe not.

That was the lesson I learned from reading a new book edited by Matt Loscalzo along with Marshall Forstein called “Loss and Grief: Personal Stories of Doctors and Other Healthcare Professionals”.  It’s a collection of personal stories of a small number of health professionals, including Craig Blinderman and Susan Block, who have been struck by personal illness and loss.

On today’s podcast, we’ve invited Matt Loscalzo and Craig Blinderman to talk about their book and the process they used to create these stories, which all stood out for their openness in talking about things that we as healthcare professionals often keep so very private.  

We also brought in Vickie Leff to talk about the work she does with Wellness Debriefings.  These debriefings create a safe outlet for health care professionals to talk about the feelings resulting from their work.  Vickie worked with CAPC to create tools, including a facilitator guide, to encourage clinicians and their organizations to adopt debriefings. 

So take a listen and check out some of these resources for healthcare provider loss, grief, and wellness:

• Loss and Grief: Personal Stories of Doctors and Other Healthcare Professionals
• Dates & registration info about debriefings offered by CAPC
• The CAPC Debrief Facilitator Training Manual we developed: PDF Download.
• Jared Rubensteins' "Token of Appreciation" video
• A great website for dealing with loss and grief: refugeingrief.com

SPONSOR:

This episode of the GeriPal Podcast is sponsored by UCSF’s Division of Palliative Medicine, an amazing group doing world class palliative care.  They are looking for physician faculty to join them in the inpatient and outpatient setting.  To learn more about job opportunities, please click here: https://palliativemedicine.ucsf.edu/job-openings