Exploiting Doctors and Nurses; ‘Dignity in Grief’; Curbing Compassion Fatigue

• Danielle Ofri, MD, discusses how the business of medicine places ridiculous demands and restrictions on doctors and nurses, making it harder to provide care ~ The Business of Health Care Depends on Exploiting Doctors and Nurses (The New York Times)
• “Sometimes the idea of choice is just a lie. And sometimes all you can provide is compassion. Dignity in grief is the gift,” writes a physician who explores how to help patients heal after a miscarriage ~ The Myth of Choice (Annals of Internal Medicine)
• Compassion fatigue can affect families and friends who help care for those with critical illnesses. Steven Petrow explores how these caregivers can reduce the emotional toll of taking on this role ~ Compassion fatigue hits not only professional caregivers. Other people get it, too. (The Washington Post)
• Lauren J. Ralph, PhD, and colleagues analyze long-term health in women with unwanted pregnancies who gave birth or had abortions ~ Self-reported Physical Health of Women Who Did and Did Not Terminate Pregnancy After Seeking Abortion Services: A Cohort Study (Annals of Internal Medicine)
• “Let’s all hold up our half of the sky,” writes Barbara J. Stoll, MD, who reflects on her leadership path and encourages women to seize more of these opportunities ~ Reflections on Leadership (JAMA)
• Pieter A. Cohen, MD, and Joshua Sharfstein, MD, discuss whether the FDA’s stance on including cannabidiol in supplements or foods provides an opening to focus more attention on ensuring the safety of supplements and food additives ~ The Opportunity of CBD — Reforming the Law (New England Journal of Medicine)
• Patient stories can be a “powerful tool” to help the healthcare team bond with and understand patients and families, Bram Sable-Smith writes ~ Mini-Biographies Help Clinicians Connect With Patients (Kaiser Health News)

Fred N. Pelzman, MD, of Weill Cornell Internal Medicine Associates and weekly blogger for MedPage Today, follows what’s going on in the world of primary care medicine. Pelzman’s Picks is a compilation of links to blogs, articles, tweets, journal studies, opinion pieces, and news briefs related to primary care that caught his eye.