TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Health Care Professional Stress A1 - Duffy, James D. A1 - Sapire, Kenneth A1 - Chaoul, M. Alejandro A2 - Duffy, James D. A2 - Valentine, Alan D. PY - 2016 T2 - MD Anderson Manual of Psychosocial Oncology AB - Caring for cancer patients is challenging work. There can be very few professions that demand so much of their practitioners. It is important that we acknowledge this fact. Every day we are faced with clinical situations that demand both our professional expertise and our personal compassion. All of our patients are confronting a potentially life-threatening disease that, together with our intrusive therapies, very often produces tormenting physical symptoms and devastating psychosocial repercussions. Although our professional training may have prepared us well to master the technical challenges of our work, our professional schools have not prepared us to understand and navigate the human dimensions of our work as healers. Each of us has typically needed to find our own way through to navigating the experiential aspects of our work. Unfortunately, recent research demonstrates that despite our best efforts, the task of caring for cancer patients is exacting a substantial toll on our wellness and is also negatively impacting our ability to provide optimum care for our patients. As wounded healers, we often find ourselves emotionally and physically deplete and therefore unable to meet the needs of our patients, and ourselves. In this regard, recent research reveals a dispirited profession. Suicide rates for physicians are estimated to be as high as six times that of the general public, and 17% of physicians reported their mental health as fair or poor (more than twice the national average) and 46% described their medical practice as very or extremely stressful.1,2,3 SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/11/01 UR - hemonc.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1125786765 ER -