To Fight Burnout, Organize

by Leo Eisenstein

N Engl J Med. 2018 Jun 20  Free Full Text

Leo Eisenstein is a fourth year medical student at Harvard.  His essay is an impassioned cry for solidarity with his colleagues as they approach the hardships of those in need; with particular attention to the social determinants of health (SDH).

From my vantage point of decades of private practice, I applaud Leo’s passion and idealism.  In my community and across the country, private practitioners rarely accept poor people (Medicaid) as patients.  These patients, when they are lucky, serve as teaching material for medical students and residents.  It’s been the same for centuries.

Private physicians who turn their backs on the poor, may suffer more burnout that those of us who welcome the underprivileged into our offices.  That topic has not been investigated, to my knowledge.

Emily Dickinson has articulated our calling more succinctly:

If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain

Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in Vain

Thank you, Leo, for giving us hope in yours, the next generation of healers.