WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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Welcome to Prescription for Healthcare, a podcast collaboration between the WFHB Local News and Medicare for All Indiana, broadcasting the second Thursday of every month as part of the Local News at 5:15 PM.
This month we interview Diljeet Singh MD, vice president of Physicians for a National Health Program and a gynecologic oncologist and surgeon, about moral injury. This continues our conversation from our December interview with Dr. Carol Paris. Moral injury is described as a specific trauma that arises when people face situations that deeply violate their conscience or threaten their core values. Those who grapple with it can struggle with guilt, anger, and a consuming sense that they can’t forgive themselves or others. It may be related to but is not the same thing as burnout.
From our conversation with Dr Singh, “I think this issue of moral injury is really tied to trust and patients’ trust that I will do the right thing for them, that my moral compass will lead me to recommend the best things for them… I absolutely feel terrible when I do need to tell my patients, ‘I’m so sorry. You know, Mrs. Smith, I had told you we should do your surgery within a month, but we just can’t get it scheduled because we can’t get it approved’… On a bigger picture, I think that a patient who walks into my office today is less likely to trust me than a patient who walked in 10 years ago.”
Diljeet Singh MD
Physicians aren’t ‘burning out.’ They’re suffering from moral injury. By Simon G. Talbot and Wendy Dean July 26, 2018. STAT News
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Medicare for All Indiana is the Indiana Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program
“If Not Now, Tell Me When” by Carrie Newcomer is used with permission.
