Great Read: What Doctors Feel (How emotions affect the practice of Medicine) by Dr. Danielle Ofri

Several years ago, a colleague was cleaning out his bookshelf and gave me copies of Dr. Danielle Ofri's books Singular Intimacies:  Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue and Medicine in Translation:  Journeys with My Patients.  The first took me back to my early years of training and practice and reminded me of the many beautiful (and stressful) experiences of the time.  The second was a more inspirational read, focused as it is on patient resiliency and courage.  Both reminded me of the power physicians have to tell powerful, educational, and emotional stories that can influence others to stretch, grow, and learn.

Dr. Ofri is an internist at Bellevue Hospital and an associate professor at New York University School of Medicine.  Her latest book, What Doctors Feel (How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine) was a great long weekend read...full of vivid storytelling that captures the not so obvious emotional journey of physicians as they care for their patients (and, to a degree, each other and themselves).

We never really know what a physician is thinking or feeling as they care for their patients....if they have just been yelled at by a hostile colleague, experienced a frustrating patient death or complication, are worried about their marriage or kids, are mind-numbingly tired (or depressed), or...yet, that world can have a profound impact on the quality of the care they deliver.

Dr. Ofri does a great job illustrating the complexities of this inner world of physicians and peppers her narrative with reference to what evidence exists in this unexplored corner of physician health.

Grateful to Dr. Ofri for making a weekend on call much more interesting (a real page turner in between cases); she reminds us of the powerful role the humanities play in enhancing our resilience, insight, and motivation.