Trauma

In viewing trauma through a wider lens we see its detrimental impact.

Avoiding implicit bias starts with a conscious knowledge it exists within you.

Pushing through is an important and necessary survival tool. All of us had some form of “pushing through” at the height of the pandemic.

At our state capitols and in the Washington, D.C. area, countless individuals are coping with what could happen (and what could have happened) between January 6, 2021 and Inauguration Day on January 20.

Already struggling in a system-wide burnout crisis, COVID-19 responders in healthcare now have reason to worry.

Though burnout and trauma exposure have different causes and symptoms – and require different interventions and remedies – it’s well established that both are highly toxic to the wellbeing, resilience, and health of employees.

Imagine you and a friend are going down a sidewalk and a dog lunges at both of you. For you, the incident may be forgotten in a matter of minutes. Your friend, however, has heart palpitations and then he stays in a funk for an hour. Why is this?

Trauma. We encounter it just about everywhere we look these days. We absorb it through news stories of victims and from witnesses of violent plots, shootings, and cruelty. We feel it through natural disasters, poverty, and homelessness. You don’t have to be someone’s mother to ache with empathy and compassion for those suffering from such horrific experiences.

Although it’s been two weeks since the anniversary and remembrances of 9/11, I find myself still reflecting on how it changed the lives of so many, including my own. The horrors of that day occurred only two months after I started my residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC.