Just want to comment with an alternate point of view, and in no way intend to demean to diminish the emotional impact like those described in the article. Just how I feel:
I'm an intensive care physician and also function part-time as a hospitalist (acute care medical floor patients). Yes, there have been some stressful, uncertain, and fear-driven moments. But I also chose to work at a place that has a physician-led and supportive administration, and I investigated those things as part of the interview process. We had adequate staffing, a robust peer-support system (look up the "second victim" phenomenon), and my colleagues and I seem to have good coping mechanisms in place, which I assumed doctors in these kinds of specialties needed as a basic requirement.
Bottom line, I'm doing just fine, and my inpatient physician colleagues, with some exceptions, report the same. This is a difficult job at baseline without COVID. It didn't change my approach at all.
I'm an intensive care physician and also function part-time as a hospitalist (acute care medical floor patients). Yes, there have been some stressful, uncertain, and fear-driven moments. But I also chose to work at a place that has a physician-led and supportive administration, and I investigated those things as part of the interview process. We had adequate staffing, a robust peer-support system (look up the "second victim" phenomenon), and my colleagues and I seem to have good coping mechanisms in place, which I assumed doctors in these kinds of specialties needed as a basic requirement.
Bottom line, I'm doing just fine, and my inpatient physician colleagues, with some exceptions, report the same. This is a difficult job at baseline without COVID. It didn't change my approach at all.