Content warning: mentions of suicide ideation and suicide.
Physicians may appear to be flawlessly composed in their dapper white coats and clean stethoscopes swung around their necks. Their seamless discussion of medical jargon coupled with their collected appearance creates a powerful perception of excellence. However, physicians’ portrayal of perfection couldn’t be farther from the truth.
2022 has been both a grueling and devastating year for physicians with nearly one in ten physicians experiencing suicidal thoughts. In September of 2022, resident physician Dr. Jing Mai took her own life after battling struggles with her mental health as a first-year physician. It pains me to watch another young and spirited physician fall into the cracks of an inherently broken system. I hope for Jing to find peace, and hope this tragedy propels change within the medical field.
Jing’s story is not uncommon. The statistics regarding physician suicide are alarming. Around 300 physicians die by suicide every year. The medical profession has repeatedly failed its own, reporting high suicide rates among doctors since 1858. The pressures of the medical field have pushed distraught physicians to the limits of their emotional resilience. As we lose nearly one doctor per day to suicide, the neglect of physician mental health has caused tragic and irreversible consequences that can only be ceased with a dramatic cultural reset in the medical field’s current approach to wellness.
Medical schools and residency programs have acknowledged the emotional toll of medical training. Medical students have wellness seminars embedded into their curriculum as institutions have begun to offer courses in mindfulness and self-care. For instance, the University of California San Diego’s School of Medicine provides its students with web-based screening along with educational resources centered around mental health and wellness. In 2003, residency hours were capped to 80 hours a week to alleviate physician burnout. Despite these efforts, there has been no significant improvement in physician suicide and mental health outcomes. The exhaustive and pressurized nature of medicine continues to push physician emotional boundaries beyond its limits. The medical community is in need of a necessary cultural shift. The healthcare field owes it to its physicians to not only recognize its shortcomings, but to also generate tangible and impactful changes in the mental health sector.
The root of the problem lies in the healthcare industry's general and stigmatized approach to mental wellness. Doctors feel pressured to display a facade of physical and emotional competence.Stoic culture has been encouraged in medicine since the 1800s, with the first residency program at Johns Hopkins Hospital stressing the importance of emotional detachment among physicians. While a physician’s composure is of great value, the appraisal of immense poise has resulted in the creation of an ultimately dehumanizing system that deprives its workers of raw emotion. Healthcare workers often suffer in silence due to the stigma associated with experiencing stress and mental illness. Nearly 50% of female physicians have disclosed that they have not sought out treatment despite meeting the criteria for mental illness. Physicians are dissuaded from seeking necessary treatment due to the fear of reporting their diagnosis to the medical board as well as worries that their diagnosis would be perceived as shameful. In a community that has grown to shame emotion, physicians work to masquerade as unblemished professionals at the cost of their own mental health. With only 13% of medical providers seeking treatment for their pandemic-related mental health concerns, the medical community's current approach to wellness fails to dismantle the stigma surrounding mental illness in medicine.
In order to effectively address physician mental health concerns, we must first work to eradicate the shamefulness that surrounds mental illness among physicians. Healthcare institutions fail to recognize that depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation can not simply be resolved through generalized wellness seminars. Mental health is distinct to the individual. The standardization of mental health education not only fails to effectively address one’s personal journey, but it also fails to ignite honest and open conversation. To combat a culture that suppresses both the discussion and expression of sentiment, we must allow individualized treatment to become the center of our approach to improving physician mental health.
To destigmatize mental illness among the medical community, healthcare institutions must foster personalized and authentic discussions regarding one’s mental wellbeing. Doctors are not exempt from the complexities of human emotion. Physicians should feel encouraged to share their vulnerabilities. The mere verbalization of fears and anxieties can improve one’s ability to better regulate their emotional experience. Likewise, encouraged discussion of personal burdens dismantles facades of composure and empowers physicians to seek necessary support. As medicine is inherently an emotionally taxing profession, the medical community must be unflagging in its efforts to encourage the honest discussion of mental health.
As we reflect upon the countless number of physician lives lost to suicide, let us remember and honor the life of Jing. Jing’s life was both beautiful and impactful. Her life embodied a young woman, driven and passionate, who had chosen to devote herself to medicine and patient care. A cherished life, that tragically fell victim to the hostility of medicine. May we forever honor Jing's story and memory. Life is so precious, and it's sobering to say that we may see little change in physician suicide rates with the current mental-wellness systems in place. The medical field cannot claim to be an industry of healing when it continuously fails to remedy its healers. Hundreds of our physicians have died at the hands of the medical community.
Our physicians deserve better. Jing deserved better. We owe it to Jing, and the hundreds of doctors whose lives were also lost to suicide, to ignite the change that allows us do better.
Trisha Minocha (24C) is from Long Island, New York.
