Current affairs that matter to you Save Humanity i really really not getting anywhere near. Being a physician we are encouraged to be strong but it becomes emotionally overwhelming when you are taking care of their ambitions providing support to the families who cannot see their loved ones and going to the brain of losing too many young lives. Here on my colleagues and i received it in the in the births of this it was a big sum of money and maybe they are only children it is important and it is so hard so. That the disk evolved in school work also leave these developments and. I know for me personally this is different and may experience in responding to evil outbreak in west africa in that situation i thought a lot about their rescue myself personally in a situation my mortality in this situation is different because i know i dont have the option of necessarily insulating my family from the associated risk because a it ideal. For the family in my life for us to put on top of a national or global recession we all need to see understand that our environment is called more as i use than want to use up as your baseline we can ensure to take the time it got to change in perspective that will help us cope. For fear of running out of people the fear of facing the death of a colleague several which is already happened and not even being able to attend the funeral because of cohered. And also this feeling of hopelessness and many of the case. Is that are coming because no matter what we do how long it can try to auction a farmer i mean bone in their mind of success over time repeatedly can be very demoralizing. You know watching this team im femi oke a we are medical professionals around the world how are you doing and what you heard is what they told us city day we are focusing on medical professionals on the front lines of the crown of i was pandemic and the emotional fallout that theyre experiencing the reason were doing that imaging this tweet if its a mistake part of that Online Community and he says another group of people whose Mental Health could be affected our Health Care Workers those in the front line who spend hours even days trying to tackle this disease i pray we emerge stronger after all the that was his suggestion for a discussion we should have an edgy were about to have that discussion if youre online and youre watching and streaming vineet you jumping the Comment Section we will try our best to put your comments into they said let me get the guests introduce themselves dishonest tell everybody who you are. Im mark upon flawless im a scholar in residence at Stanford University school of medicine i also recently spent 2 weeks volunteering in an intensive care unit. Good to have you and i dr west welcome to the strange tell everybody. Hello im calling west im a professor of medicine medical education and biostatistics at the mayo clinic and ive been working on physician wellbeing research for more than 15 years good to have here and dr ahmed. Makes a return visit to the strain get to have it back tell us hes iraq remind our audience. Remember mom of those who worked in terms of turn imagine some medicine a number was a journalist. Can i show this to you. Annette and its from one of our online humility and they knew that we were talking about you and your fellow professionals and colleagues around the world and steve writes no i cant hear the other guests this is not breaking no one cares about terrorists thats the message i am here in how do you feel. I think theres been overwhelming support from effect on wider Public Community as to whats going on with doctors and nurses as well in terms of the pressures that were under unfortunately this does support outside doesnt actually sometimes reflection whats happening and reality because we are suffering in terms of hours overworking the patients seeing that but the Emotional Trauma of seeing patients who should really be dying in any other situation who are. Not really being able to do that so they are now kind of reflection is something that we really need to consider how we can help support each other as doctors and medical professionals. This is a really disturbing headlines dr west about psychological trauma recent pictures of people in ice intensive care units looking incredibly distressed their colleagues are going into intensive care some of the family members their friends youve been studying the stress that medical professionals are under for some while now could you have put dictate what would happen in Something Like a Global Pandemic to medical professions. Absolutely and i think. This is one of the features that were dealing with is that this has all occurred on a baseline of some trouble in the medical profession this is an amazing profession all Health Care Workers are engaged in this deeply meaningful activity helping patients their families their communities live better lives the challenge with the pandemic is that the stressors that were leading to challenges even before the pandemic dont go away but then. As we as we just heard there are these additional stressors that can be overwhelming doctors other Health Care Professionals are highly trained to deal with stressful situations its sad but we deal with suffering we deal with deaths what the pandemic brings though is a magnitude that is different than what almost any other Health Care Professionals had to deal with but i think with that baseline that was well recognized the fact that those pandemic related stressors would would hit us in such a deeply emotional way i think was predictable. Other than you were on the sidelines and there hit the United States and that didnt sit well with you say you volunteer can you take us into thinking of when you volunteered when when you knew it was going to be and then what did you see. Sure so i as you mentioned im in this role which is a non clinical role as a scholar in residence so i dont currently see patients and when the demick hit the United States i really felt a deep sense of guilt that i wasnt caring for patients and not on the front lines and really wanted to help im so i looked into it weighs a voluntary locally here in california where i live and what quickly we sheltered in place very early here and didnt end up having the big stressors to the Healthcare System here that have happened in other places like new york in detroit and chicago so to me it was kind of a no brainer that i wanted to help i needed to be able to go d to one of those places and so i decided to volunteer in new york. And how do people manage how do they cope with the stress of a Global Pandemic where people who were dying and certainly from new york the fetus went up and up and up and up and then now beginning to stabilize somewhat in thames the people passing away. Yeah it was a very challenging situation to walk into but i always try to emphasize that as a volunteer i chose to go there and i was only there for a limited amount of time and could leave basically whenever i wanted to which is a pretty different mental space and have it from the people who live and work there and have this all drop in their laps and they really have no choice but to show up every single day and try to get care patients and as was described in the package one of the things thats really challenging is when people the people who get really sick from throwing a virus its almost like we cant help them if we only have a limited set of tools which are you know our ventilators and about it and other medications typical Critical Care that we provide and they just seem to be insufficient in this situation and sometimes we cant get enough oxygen and theyre lying sometimes attack and the Carbon Dioxide out of their lines their kidneys start to fail and then were left in this position where we as helpers as people who like to solve problems find ourselves without the tools that we need to solve this problem and then we see people dying day after day so i was there for 2 weeks and in the entire time that i was there there was one patient who left the i. C. U. And went to a different part of the hospital because he was well every other patient who left went to the court. Guilty to im just im just looking at you face right now and if i could just read you know face its just pure all. The intense if you will mood what you need how you doing. I think its in terms of i mean im able to like. Kind of distress when i do get a woman like im like a ship but in terms of exhaustion you know exist the hours are long and its just kind of go to work go home sleep go back to work and its just kind of like a repeat cycle. Question here a peak time when that was literally the most intense i guess periods of my work across the world before and so seeing it here in london that this bad it was quite an intense period so in terms of the mood for me ive been able to manifest as the mood when youre working is when its really difficult some of the patients that youre seeing whom you can even get their families to come visit them and then just dine alone and it sometimes can even grasp how unwell they are they feel like there were when you telling them that there may be a chance that theyre going to die in the next few days they can really grasp that and that was really strange about this disease as well. And i remember one patient who he was an elderly gentleman and i had to call his wife to tell him. And this this is some of the really like kind of got to me and theyve been married for 60 years and i just ill tell her that he was an apostle and shes never going to be able to see him and she just sat there on the phone norman and his patient solemn face to face give him a tissue i put your hand on the shoulder or Something Like that this patient was just crying on the phone and i had literally nothing i could say or do in that situation and that really just took a toll on me at the time. Doctors let me put this into all of you because it is its this is a conversation on egypt right now so not trying says is is is watching all of you doctors other plans to have periodic psychological exams during the crisis. Dont do unhandled. Is not a venue wants. Me to do yes so i think from a formal standpoint im not aware of the you know sort of mandated psychological assessments that said i think what were talking about here are some of the unique features of this virus and this pandemic in isolating people and patients and Health Care Workers in the midst of a really severe illness and so whether its formal or informal i think there certainly is discussion about how do we restore that sense of community that sense of connection for our Health Care Teams medicines a team sport so as were being pulled apart as were hiding behind personal protective equipment as were maintaining physical distancing how do we ourselves maintain a sense of connection that sense of social connection and so if thats informal. Thats wonderful for more serious sorts of events of the the suffering the dealing with waves of death and the uncertainty thats being described more formal processes may definitely be helpful there are some hospitals that are talking about you know deep briefing sessions after shifts or after particular traumatic events with the idea being that rather than internalizing these and allowing them to fester we can try and share those experiences and and bear some of the burden together but ultimately this is about the environment and how do we sustain ourselves and our colleagues with a in an environment thats filled with so much uncertainty so much suffering bring our skill sets to bear to be able to help our patients and do whats so meaningful to us as well. Theres a little bit and. Peace go ahead. I just want to climate one thing which is that ive seen a number of Centers Medical centers that have added after hours Psychiatric Care thats available or there thats available and i think thats a great 1st step but one of the challenges that i saw when i was in new york was that the doctors who are in such long hours that when they went home they really were not what the last thing they needed was to talk to someone on the phone about what theyd experienced at work what they needed and its time away from him so we can figure out a way to incorporate those types of sessions in so i think that would be more manageable for all of you logistically challenging but i think it would be better than asking people to spend their nights and weekends reflecting back on all the trauma they witness hide recently have excellent point. Let me bring in dr king she is a psychotherapist and we asked her about this idea of the emotional fallout of medical professionals this is what she told us my greatest insight from working with doctors do independent has been that we need to stop wanting them more years and boards and even eating them from the rest of us by placing them on the desk to we make it impossible for them to eat or drink their own anxieties and we do a simile demist part of the same decided we belong to and how did to feel sad. At any time and to be able to offer them the same head did we expect harassment. Ok Health Care HeroesHealth Care Worries are you sick and tired of those titles are given you stuff thats a much even looking not an option but youre right Health Care Workers arent just here as were also scared and exposed telling some truth telling a give and continue hes sick of of the way that youll get. Used because youre getting a lot of love on you tube as well i have to say people are really admiring you and thanking you. And you say back to them what. Oh i say and i think 1st of all i am not a hero i really dont think of myself that way and i dont think as i wrote with dr jesse gold in that piece i dont think it helps us like fully agree with that person that you had commenting there when we called doctors here as our Health Care Workers heroes were making it difficult for them to have space to express their emotions and fear and anger and sadness and we cant cope with everything that were seeing for not allowed to express emotions i think were doing a job that weve been trained to do in very difficult circumstances that that doesnt mean that thats what we want it to be doing you know i obviously i volunteered that was my choice that many other Health Care Workers are just thrust into a difficult situation and i think we need to ever suspect and acknowledge. Thats tonights. Yeah i think has made a very interesting point because its not of the essence of being as he rose up as an extra added pressure and burden on you we are just doing our job but the problem with having that burdens that doctors almost feel like doesnt have to kind of take just a moment to to do more ships and all that stuff the reality is that should be the governments responsibility while there are so many reasons but if you see some thought thats why do we have 100 for Health Care Systems and and when im not spittles why all this talk of many jobs and it really shouldnt be the kind of doctors shouldnt be having to do extra hours ition to be working 12 hour days for 7 days 7 days a week but those jobs should have been filled in thats a Government Program not the doctors so doctors as heroes extra pressure and they do understand those stepping up and kind of always together we are also human we do need our rest breaks we do need our i want time or just like everybody else. Yeah i think another yeah any point is yeah im sorry im sorry doc. I was just going to say let me point around this. Is so much of the issues with the balance between distress and wellbeing and Health Care Professions has been around the stigma thats associated with admitting that there might be stressors that we sometimes need help with and its also news to some doctors by the way that theyre human they dont like to admit that sometimes and so i think the more that we separate our Health Care Workers and not just doctors our nurses our cussed odile staff our cafeteria workers who are also taking personal risks being involved in these pandemic environments to serve others the more we separate those individuals and suggest that theyre different than other humans who are dealing with the same societal stressors and anxieties the more difficult it becomes for us to allow those people the space as dr silas mentioned to process whats going on. Something curious expected certainly when it got us commenters on you tube is that some people dont believe theres a Global Pandemic happening some people are. Skeptical and then youre having to do as well as having to deal with the Health Care Issues and treating people youre having to deal with things like this let me show you this is what chase would draft have stayed and he was looking at Health Care Workers out on the street they these particular ones were in denver reminding people why they should stay at home and who and Pay Attention to the stay at home mandates and not be asking to go out go to the gym go to clubs go back to work see theres this is added pressure of can i call it politics a common sense lack of common sense i dont even know how to frame it other than you know youre in the states how do you understand what is happening with that pressure on Health Care Workers as well as the pandemic. Yeah i think its so hard especially in places that have been hard hit that Health Care Teams have really been traumatized by the volume of death and dying that theyve seen and the loneliness that theyve seen with their patients and everything that was described earlier with the phone calls and trying to video chat with me since amys its really traumatizing i think that is the best word for it and then when you see in the streets that there are people gathering you know a couple weeks ago there were massive protests about the shelter in place orders and all i was thinking about im sure that like many of us was oh my gosh how many people are now going to be infected because they were just at this protest and then how much strain is there going to be on the Health Care System as they circle in to get their care and are we going to have enough of everything we need to take care of those people and its almost like putting salt you know who are already really struggling to keep up and to do the best that we can in a limited resource setting and then people are saying that were making it up people have accused doctors of creating the coronavirus so that we could i dont know what i mean who would who would want this who would want to see people dying every single day i would say literally none of us its absurd. I want to bring into the conversation dr peter lou hes a surgical resident at new york presbyterian and Columbia University is a pretty mean piano player as well and the doctors nurses know health care. At new york presbyterian and Columbia University and using music as a healing element to listen to what hes up to some of our colleagues and loved ones have become our own patients in the midst of these unpredictable and difficult days a few of us have found comfort in the unifying and healing power of music so we organize these concerts to share some of that music with our patients and colleagues in hopes that it might offer the comfort that is so desperately needed. I really want to see what they say looks like when staff are helping each other say this is dr kato who until recently was on a ventilator he still having trouble breathing but apparently hes having no trouble singing have a listen have a live chat. Room where. I. Am a was. Far as. The to h. The reason why dr kato sing in a whole new world was because he was so close to passing away and hes now existing in this whole new out of having to fight the crane a virus and that was why a he sang that song it was a really its really hard not to well up when you when you watch that how do you do what do you and your colleagues do to keep while the to stay sang to to look after yourselves. I think theres Little Things that really positive for us to be able to do it turns out. I was previously mentioned very few end up in high seeded but those that do eventually need the nerves thats in them they do like a card on a patient and those little moments where you can see some sort positive by the end of the time office for these patients it does motivate you to keep going for that but with the other patients because some of them do turn around and thats one thats difficult to predict which patients will turn around but some of them do so those little moments that i guess positivity is something thats nice unfortunately there in a lot of political commentators in the u. K. One of them straight out and for example she shes actually for those going to like the one that youve just shown will insult doctors and nurses saying why are you wasting time and hospitals and singing songs and making dancing with us when you should be treating patients and their own doctor told him you know what im so glad you mentioned that because weve had those comments also a new chip and people like well you cant be that bad off because youre singing or dancing eating to it took 30 s. Yeah exactly so those kind of comments are coming are no needed as respectful as it was suggests that doctors and nurses are putting their best efforts to treating patients but also demotivating because at the end of the day he is there doing his videos to almost celebrate how we are progressing and how we are trying to is to strive to do our best and theres no positive moments are what motivates doctors and nurses to keep going on as a team process just like you would in any other profession where you do Team Building exercises that this is one of them. But it was a line like that just for the government to write about the end of the show so it makes one sentence make it count. I was just going to say those videos celebrate our shared humanity and its hard for me to understand people who would tear that down. Beautifully said. And. Thank you so much for being on the show to sell us dr west dr twice and then let me just tell you what some of our audience is saying thank you so much from french vanilla on you tube to all the front line as well as the worlds many states healthy and sweet and not only physically but also unventilated now swear to me the community actually shares continued in the next episode of the street antibody sleestak. What impact will covered 19 and the drop in the oil price have on the race to the white house can donald trump survive these historic setbacks and does joe biden have what it takes to beat a. Special coverage on aljazeera. A story of love family and freedom go into my living years old you were at school we heard the sound of large explosions. And the hardships faced in captivity they came for me at midnight they told me to leave my son i said how can i contact him i saw so much pain in the eyes of the other female prisoners. And the our pricing. On aljazeera. I was sitting at a prison that i was belittling 20 years or just me of motherly the father of my daughter 8 months here. When parents are in prison and the government doesnt have any plans for the trigger lifted behind these children need for they need shelter they are searching for love. My passion is to see that these shooting of prisoners are also given another chance to live like none which it is because theyre not a party to the cranes committed by their parents when i finally get to the place to build a home for these children and they see them become somebody used to fall into society fending for themselves. To give me satisfaction. They have taken it for about a week after and im still here the u. S. President says his taking an antimalaria drug to prevent coronavirus despite his own experts warning against it and donald trump puts more pressure on the World Health Organization threatening to pour over 400000000. 00 in u. S. Funding. 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