Dr. Danielle Ofri

Oct. 9, 2014 ; 8:00 pm

 

Dr. Danielle Ofri of Bellevue Hospital and NYU Medical School initiated the 2014-2015 CiM Symposia by delving into an omnipresent but oft-ignored component of medical culture: how emotions affect the practice of medicine.  In her talk, she broached the ways doctors engage with fear, anxiety, bias, hope, and even medical humor in their personal and professional lives.  Fear is a pervasive emotion that influences the actions and decisions of physicians, she noted.  "If we're not afraid, we lose the awe of what we're doing. We need to negotiate an armistice with fear."

 

She also described the ways physicians often confuse guilt with shame: while guilt drives individuals to want to do better, shame is rooted in a fear of "looking bad" or disappointing superiors. To ameliorate the crippling fear of shame that plagues some medical environments, it is important for higher-ups to establish a culture where mistakes are discussed openly, she said. "There are only two kinds of surgeons who don't make errors: those who lie, and those who don't operate," she joked.  

 

Ofri peppered her talk with excerpts from her latest book and many personal anecdotes, several of which related to the seemingly bizarre but ubiquitous use of crude humor to grapple with challenging situations in medicine. Jokes don't just make you feel like an insider, she said, they often "touch on a very genuine and vulnerable moment: humor can act as a signpost for things we need to talk about and address."

 

She concluded by describing how being aware of one's emotions in a medical environment can be both frustrating and liberating. For her, the key to remaining a dedicated, self-aware, and compassionate caregiver is "being interested in 100% of the patient." She explained that "hope is the beacon towards which patients arrange their life," so it's important to ask "what is hope for them?"

 

Dr. Danielle Ofri is an attending internist at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, as well as an Associate Professor of Medicine at New York University. She is also a prolific writer: she has published four books and penned numerous articles for The New York Times.  Her most recent book is titled "What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine."  Ofri's talk marked the inaugural Conversations in Medicine Symposia of the 2014-2015 academic year.

--Julie R. Barzilay

Conversations in Medicine Web Manager and Public Relations Co-Chair