Page 11 - Christiana Care Focus October 2018

‘Do No Harm’ film screening sparks powerful conversations about physician burnout
Documentary filmmaker Robyn Symon’s film “Do No Harm” takes a hard look at the growing problem
of physician burnout — job stress and fatigue in the medical community that can lead to mental and physical exhaustion, and in some cases even suicide. The film highlights painful truths and poses difficult questions, especially to medical schools and health systems that, according to some in the film, are contributing to the problem.
Heather Farley, M.D., FACEP, MHCDS, who directs Christiana Care Health System’s Center for Provider Wellbeing, saw the film’s creation as an opportunity to send a message to providers that their well-being is important, and to give them permission to acknowledge when they need help.
Christiana Care, credited as an associate producer, was the only health care system to support the film. “It really takes a brave organization to actually want to share this,” Symon said.
She said that Christiana Care is one of the few institutions in
the United States that is ahead of the curve in reckoning with
the epidemic of physician burnout. Christiana Care's Center for Provider Wellbeing was founded in 2016, and it helps providers find joy and meaning in their work by mitigating causes of stress and burnout.
At a Sept. 11 film screening and panel discussion at
the Medical Society of Delaware, mental health professionals were available to help the 100 physician attendees process feelings raised by the subject matter’s raw emotional resonance.
“Do No Harm” follows three perspectives of the burnout epidemic:
• Pamela Wible, M.D., an activist and family physician seeking to draw attention to the crisis.
• Hawkins Mecham, D.O., a young doctor who attempts to take his own life.
• Michele and John Dietl, a couple whose son died by suicide shortly before his medical school graduation.
Their stories interweave as they search for answers and offer each other support. The relationship between Dr. Mecham and the Dietls provides some of the most poignant moments in the film, as when the couple attends Dr. Mecham’s graduation ceremony. C O N T I N U E D
| Center for Provider Wellbeing
Heather Farley, M.D., FACEP,
MHCDS
FOCUS • OCTOBER 2018 9
A screening of the film “Do No Harm,” about the sometimes terrible consequences of
physician burnout, brought together Delaware physicians to talk about this very real problem — and solutions that are emerging at Christiana Care’s Center for Provider Wellbeing.