October 26th, 2020
Futility as a Cause of Burnout in Residency
Holland Kaplan, MD
At the beginning of my residency training, one of our program leaders defined burnout as “work out of proportion to meaning.” In a sense, I think this also defines futility – performing a disproportionate amount of work compared with the results or meaning you are deriving from the work. The proposed causes of burnout in […]
October 16th, 2020
Advancing Patient Safety in the COVID Era and Beyond
Frances Ue, MD, MPH
The U.S. continues to lead the world with almost 8 million COVID-19 cases and rising. The resurgence of coronavirus cases in areas previously unaffected or with cases under control shows how vulnerable our society is to the ravages of this disease and the devastating toll it can take on affected livelihoods and communities. It can […]
October 7th, 2020
“We Did Everything We Could.”
Vivek Sant, MD
Can we do better when delivering bad news in trauma? On a recent trauma call, we had a busy night, culminating in a horrific motorcycle trauma that came in early in the morning. The patient had devastating injuries and ended up dying. The detectives finally tracked down the patient’s family. I cleaned myself up, put […]

