Writing Clips

Healthcare Articles

Practice Manager, quarterly publication for medical practice professionals

• Reaping the Rewards of Personal Mastery (March, 2007)

• Ten Steps to a Safer, More Secure Practice (June, 2007)

• A Happy Medium: Work/Life Balance for Busy Practice Managers (Sept, 2007)

• Setting Goals for a Successful 2008 (December, 2007)

• The Road to Wellville (March, 2008)

Unique Opportunities, bi-monthly publication for physicians in training and those interested in new practice opportunities

• The Trailing Family (Sept/Oct, 2007)

Your Best Practice, supplement to Consultant for Pediatricians

• Making Vaccines Pay (October, 2007)

Physicians Practice: America's Leading Practice Management Journal 

• Drug-Seeking Patients: How to Spot Them, Treat Them, and Protect Your Practice  

• Play It Safe: Manage Risk, Improve Safety in Your Office

• Caring for the Worried Well

The Patient-Centered Practice Newsletter Series

• Beat Burnout (Endocrinology, page 1 story)

• Building a Patient Community (Endocrinology, page 1 story)

• Depression and Diabetes (Endocrinology, scroll to page 5)

• The Older Endo Patient: Great Challenges, Great Rewards (Endocrinology, page 1 story)

• More Time for Patients (Dermatology, scroll to page 3)

• Improving Education: Engaging Patients in Care for Optimal Results (Dermatology, page 1 story)

• Improving Patient Adherence: Help Your Patients Cope with  Complex Treatment Regimens (HIV/HCV, scroll to page 3)

LocumLife: Monthly column for NALTO (National Association of Locum Tenens Physicians)

Doctor's Digest: Personal and Professional Growth, Nov/Dec, 2007. This 30,000 word magazine is distributed to physicians nationwide. Read this and other issues at www.doctorsdigest.net. I also wrote on this same topic for Clinician's Digest and Pharmacist's Digest (15,000 words each).

Humana's Your Practice
Front Desk on the Front Line: Helping Your Staff Deal with Difficult Patients

Available for Reprint

When the Dx is Burnout, the Rx is Connection 
Originally published in the Maricopa County Medical Society member magazine.

When was the last time you described yourself using words like exhausted, frustrated, irritated, overwhelmed, stressed, depleted, isolated, or trapped? Last month? Last week? This morning? As a physician working in a complex healthcare environment, it’s likely that you tap into this vocabulary on a fairly regular basis in reference to your professional life. Some of this terminology may find its way into your personal life as well. 

Definitions of medical career burnout vary from expert to expert, but it is usually characterized as a collection of symptoms and feelings. Others words that crop up in these definitions include boredom, impatience, indifference, resentment, negativity, and cynicism. Left unchecked, burnout can produce physical symptoms and cause problems in a physician’s personal life. At the extreme, it can advance to include feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, trigger addictions, and even lead to suicidal ideation.

Treatments for burnout are as diverse as the physicians who experience it. For one doctor career burnout will require therapy or professional coaching. For another a sabbatical may be in order. For yet another cutting back on work hours is the answer. There is one often overlooked remedy for burnout, and it is the focus of this article. We’ll call it the ‘cure of connection.’

Please contact me about reading and purchasing this 1,250 word article for reprint in your medical staff publication.

Website Content

Beyond Practice Management - Dr. Shelley Simon coaches chiropractors, dentists, and other healthcare practitioners toward sustainable practice growth.

The Center for Eating Disorders - Dr. Carolyn Piver Dukarm is the author of "Pieces of the Puzzle: The Link Between Eating Disorders and ADD."

Fertility and Surgical Associates of California - Medical group in Southern California.

SHR Associates, Inc. - Baltimore-based medical practice management consulting firm.

Articles on this page are copyright protected by either me or the publisher. Contact me for reprint information.