On Moral Injury and Emotions in Medicine (with Dr. Danielle Ofri)

The Doctor's Art

Henry Bair and Tyler Johnson

Medicine, Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Philosophy

5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 November 2022

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As one of the most prolific and acclaimed physician writers today, Dr. Danielle Ofri is the author of seven books on the intricacies of modern medical practice and the doctor-patient relationship. Her other writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, in addition to various leading medical journals. She is also the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Review, a literary journal that publishes works focusing on the human body, illness, and health. In her writings, Dr. Ofri uses vivid narratives to shed light on the highs and lows of being a doctor. In this episode, she joins us to share her path to medicine, how doctors can mitigate the moral injury they experience in their work, and how storytelling can comfort us in times of suffering.

In this episode, you will hear about:

How Dr. Ofri was initially drawn to internal medicine through the patient stories she encountered - 1:54
A discussion of the tension between the business and art of medicine - 6:07
Dr. Ofri’s advice on how clinicians can combat the moral corrosion that broken medical systems can induce - 11:29
How Dr. Ofri’s medical residency during the AIDS epidemic led to her passion for writing - 16:33
Dr. Ofri’s writing process - 23:30
A discussion of the moral philosophy of medicine and why doctors do what they do - 27:09
Dr. Ofri reflections on how her writing has impacted her clinical practice - 31:47
The wisdom that physicians who encounter suffering every day can share with a world experiencing collective grief from the COVID-19 pandemic - 34:38
A discussion of the emotional toll on clinicians of delivering bad news and confronting grief, and an exploration of guilt and shame - 42:25
Dr. Ofri’s advice to clinicians on how to stay connected to meaning in medicine - 48:44

Dr. Danielle Ofri is the author of the following books on being a doctor:
Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue

What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine

When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error

What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear

Medicine in Translation

Intensive Care: A Doctor’s Journey

Incidental Findings

Follow Dr. Ofri on Twitter @DanielleOfri.

This episode included an excerpt from Jacqueline du Pré and Daniel Barenboim’s performance of the Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99 by Johannes Brahms, recorded live in West Berlin in 1968.

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Henry Bear.
0:03.4	And I'm Tyler Johnson.
0:04.8	And you're listening to the Doctors' Art, a podcast that explores meaning in medicine.
0:09.9	Throughout our medical training and career, we have pondered, what makes medicine meaningful?
0:15.2	Can a stronger understanding of this meaning create better doctors?
0:18.8	How can we build healthcare institutions that nurture the doctor-patient connection?
0:23.1	What can we learn about the human condition from accompanying our patients in times of suffering?
0:28.0	In seeking answers to these questions, we meet with deep thinkers working across healthcare,
0:33.1	from doctors and nurses to patients and healthcare executives, those who have collected a career's worth of harder and wisdom.
0:40.2	Proving the moral heart that beats at the core of medicine, we will hear stories that are by turns heartbreaking,
0:45.6	amusing, inspiring, challenging, and enlightening.
0:49.3	We welcome anyone curious about why doctors do what they do.
0:52.9	Join us as we think out loud about what illness and healing can teach us about some of life's biggest questions.
1:03.7	As one of the most prolific and acclaimed physician writers today, Dr. Danielle Ophrey is the author of seven books on the intricacies of modern medical practice and the doctor-patient relationship.
1:15.2	Her other writings have appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the New Yorker, and various leading medical journals.
1:22.7	In addition, she is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Review.
1:28.5	In her work, Dr. Ophrey often uses vivid narratives to shed light on the highs and lows of being a doctor.
1:35.4	In this episode, she joins us to share her path to medicine and to writing,
1:40.1	how doctors can mitigate the moral injury they experience in their work,
1:43.7	and how storytelling can help comfort us in moments of suffering.
1:48.3	Dr. Ophrey, thank you so much for joining us and welcome to the show.
1:52.0	Thank you. It's really a pleasure to be here.
	...

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