I have personally experienced the worst case scenario with Physician disillusionment, compassion and burnout. In Nigeria, in 2011, my father had a stroke which left him in a coma. During his coma, the physicians went on strike. All the patients in the hospital including my still comatose father in the ICU were discharged. Needless to say, my father, who was brilliant individual, educated in Russia and London, died unceremoniously in a makeshift rural clinic.

That same year, a family friend, jumped off a bridge to her death half-way through her intern year of residency.

Then, a burning-out resident physician reached out to me for help on facebook using a fake name to protect herself. as she shared her story.

I knew I had to do something…

Ironically, I am a US trained medical doctor who left medicine under similar circumstances.

I was the classic idealist medical student. Born in London, raised in Nigeria and the United States, I saw the impact of access to health care and health infrastructure, human rights. I wanted to be a medical missionary.

In medical school, I made a pact with Albert Schweitzer that if I made it through my first year, I would serve the underserved, marginalized and disenfranchised in his honor. I successfully implemented HIV PACT (HIV Prevention via Awareness, Counseling & Testing) as a 2005- 2006 NC Albert Schweitzer Fellow and a finalist in the Labarene Schweitzer fellowship selection. After implementing a pioneer HIV outreach program which served over 2500 people and trained over 75 medical students to provide HIV outreach for the rest of my medical schooling until graduation, I won several awards including a Humanitarian Award and 2 service awards. I was on my way to being my hero Albert Schweitzer.

During 4th year, I had my first child and relocated to Baltimore to begin my Internal Med-Pediatrics combined residency. Having matched in Baltimore, without family or friends for social support, I began in earnest. Alas, 80 hour weeks and a 5 month old infant do not go hand in hand. I was in crisis. Usually an easy going, bubbly personality, I went for 6 months without smiling. On the verge of burnout, I stopped sleeping for days to cope with the demands of the profession. I began experiencing palpitations and chest pain. I reached out, but was sent to a psychiatrist who said I didn’t need a psychiatrist but needed support and tools to help me thrive.

Reaching my breaking point, I decided it would be best to resign. Old habits die hard – I immediately enrolled at the Masters of Public Health program at Johns Hopkins which I completed. With my new public health skills, I began to notice and encounter the trend of an alarming number of health professionals going through compassion fatigue and burnout.

Because of my own burn-out experience and after interviewing several physicians, I sense we are on the verge of a revolution in medicine. With the current levels of disillusionment and burnout in the US, I have become convinced that we are going to start seeing physician strikes here. I learned about physicians unionizing in Oregon in 2014. Then, my fears were confirmed in January 2015, when during a personal trip to San Diego, the first Physician strike in decades occured at multiple campuses of the University of California.

I am concerned that there will be more physician strikes in the United States and my personal experience with my father will become more common if we do not make physician well-being and vitality a priority.

Please join me in the Wholehearted PACT (Wholehearted Physicians Aligned, Connected & Thriving) to prevent physician burn-out, heal the doctor-patient relationship & help burning-out physicians thrive by participating today.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,
Yvonne Whitelaw, MD, MPH