Each video is 10 to 30 minutes long and discusses one element of FIRST AID, which are some of the most vexing challenges we face in our work and yet have remarkably little preparation or strategies for metabolizing.

After enrolling, you’ll get access to this 10-part program comprised of self-paced video content. By examining my own 30 years of clinical experience and through conversation with many other physicians and medical students, I realized that some of the things that make our work really difficult are rarely discussed. Failure to work with these issues gracefully is often regarded as a a sign of personal weakness, evidence of a character flaw, or the residue of counterproductive family dynamics. To be sure, all of our individual shortcomings or challenges can show up in our professional performance, but they’re also perhaps more likely to emerge in the threadbare places of our preparation for this demanding work ongoing, conscious pursuit of the art of practice. I had observed that many time-honored coping strategies employed by physicians are maladaptive even if they have became hallmarks of the personalities attributed to the different specialties and to medicine as a whole. It occurred to me that the so-called Hidden Curriculum is really just the acculturation that happens in the vacuum left by the Missing Curriculum.

Some of the topics included in FIRST AID are Failure, Fatigue, Isolation, Insignificance, Rage, Sadness, Trauma (both primary and secondary), Anxiety, Disappointment, Detachment and more. It’s a pretty daunting list, but there’s good news in deciding to attend to these formidable challenges. One of my heroes, Dr. Dan Siegel, an interpersonal neurobiologist (and pediatric psychiatrist) coined the expression “Name it to tame it.” Once we can name these feelings and experiences, we’ve taken the first steps toward reducing the stress they cause, and we can begin then to harness our own thoughtful and compassionate diagnostic and therapeutic orientation to care for ourselves. Which ends up being pretty good for everyone.

Enrolling in this program also provides access the Metamorphosis Medicine community forum.