Today, I worked with a new team on a different unit in my hospital, dedicated professionals willing to risk their own health – within reason – to look after some of the most vulnerable mental health patients in this city. They are coming together quickly, working at breakneck speed. We are building an entirely new …
This weekend has been lovely. There have been no critical messages from work. I’ve been able to prepare some meals for the week ahead and have been in touch with many of my family members and friends. I am living a very comfortable, very privileged life. Around me, however, there are cracks in people’s social …
I come from a family of medical women. Like most women my age, the medical women in my life were nurses. My father’s sister, my mother’s sister and sister-in-law, my own sister and her daughter are all nurses. At the time I became a doctor, my mother’s sister and sister-in-law were still nursing full time …
It is a beautiful early April day in Ottawa, not the kind of day you think about dying, but I am thinking about dying. Specifically, I am thinking of the news out of New York State about doctors and nurses dying. I have seen the tributes to these doctors and nurses on television. I have …
I have never worked from home as a Psychiatrist until two weeks ago. Now I am learning how to do this, what the advantages and challenge are. Facebook and Instagram have many cartoons and videos of people trying to work from home with varying degrees of success. Many reading will have seen the video of …
Today I closed the inpatient program in my department. The patients were discharged, their rooms are being cleaned and the nurses were sent to other programs. What was once a busy place with teenagers and music blaring, the television on and people making popcorn is now a shell of its former staff. Some doors still …
Does anyone else find themselves cooking lately? When I ask this question, I am not referring to the usual task of making family meals, but cooking more food that you‘ve ever made? For some people, this might be because of physical distancing and having extra time at home, but I am a doctor and I …
Sustainable products and practices provide social and economic benefits while protecting public health and the environment. Considering this, if you want to have one practice with respect to your health that is sustainable on many levels, having a full-service family doctor would accomplish this. This occurred to me when I went to see my new …
My prize for having the highest marks in my Grade 3 class at Joliette English School was a copy of the book Florence Nightingale by Jeannette Covert Nolan. At about the same time, my mother began to decide that I should become a nurse. Her sister was a nurse, as was her sister-in-law and my …
With everyone concerned about burnout lately, and since I wanted to write something to promote personal mental health for Bell Let’s Talk Day next week, I reread one of my favourite Harvard Business Review articles from 2013. I have been remembering this article lately and wondering how it might inform our discussion about burnout, so …
