Valerie Brooke, MD
Last Call
By last call I don’t mean the last call for alcohol before a bar closes; those nights are long behind me fortunately, way back to my...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
Nov 27, 20234 min
The Science of Gratitude
Many years before I studied to become a physician, giving thanks for the blessings in my life was the first part of my morning prayers. ...
85 views3 comments
Valerie Brooke, MD
May 4, 20233 min
Responding to Suffering
Last year I started attending monthly lectures put on by the Nevada Physician Wellness Coalition (NPWC), an organization in line with my...
98 views0 comments
Valerie Brooke, MD
Apr 24, 20233 min
Restoration
It's been a long time since I've written, too long for sure, but a lot has happened in my personal and professional life in the last...
107 views0 comments
Valerie Brooke, MD
Dec 6, 20226 min
Things that Get in the Way
I recently picked up a dusty book from the overflowing self-help shelf on my bookcase: The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown. I’d had...
88 views1 comment
Valerie Brooke, MD
Apr 10, 20223 min
Pretzel Twists and Introspection
When I first stepped onto a yoga mat in my late twenties, I had no idea yoga entailed so much more than just moving my body into more and...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
Mar 1, 20223 min
I Wish I'd Known
Yesterday I was invited to give a talk to a group of about fifty freshmen undergraduates at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). These...
104 views0 comments
Valerie Brooke, MD
Feb 7, 20224 min
The Stigma of Mental Health Illness in Medical Professionals
The other day one of my physician colleagues shared a story with me about some seemingly helpful advice he was given during the first...
107 views1 comment
Valerie Brooke, MD
Jan 31, 20223 min
Personal and Professional Perfectionism
To be perfect means to be “excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement.” Perfectionism is multi-dimensional and can...
125 views0 comments
Valerie Brooke, MD
Jan 23, 20224 min
Moral Injury
The term moral injury popped into the conversation about physician burnout back in 2018, when an article was published entitled...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
Jan 16, 20223 min
Balancing the See Saw
On the way home from skiing last weekend my husband and I were humming along to the familiar 1968 Moody Blues song, “Ride…Ride my…blah...
48 views1 comment
Valerie Brooke, MD
Jan 2, 20225 min
Doctors Don't Do Lunch
As part of my research on physician burnout, I have been reading books by other physicians who suggest multiple different strategies for...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
Dec 19, 20212 min
Professional Accomplishment
In addition to emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, not having a sense of personal accomplishment is the third symptom of burnout....
92 views0 comments
Valerie Brooke, MD
Dec 12, 20213 min
Resilience
What type of person comes to mind when you think of the characteristic of resilience, the ability to continuously bounce back from...
64 views0 comments
Valerie Brooke, MD
Dec 5, 20213 min
Depersonalization
The meaning of depersonalization has always alluded me. How can one not feel like a person? I finally understood it when I experienced...
94 views1 comment
Valerie Brooke, MD
Nov 28, 20212 min
Compassion Fatigue
When I realized last year I was feeling burned out in my job as a physician, I dove into learning as much as I could about the symptoms...
43 views0 comments
Valerie Brooke, MD
Nov 21, 20213 min
Permission To Feel
I recently had an interaction with a patient that had suffered a stroke and it got me thinking about emotions. I was asking this patient...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
Nov 14, 20213 min
Emotional Exhaustion
This was a vivid dream I had in August of 2020, after a 10-hour day of work, on day 4 of a 12-day stretch at the rehabilitation hospital....
116 views0 comments
Valerie Brooke, MD
Oct 17, 20213 min
Death by a Thousand Cuts
That was the last line of a frustrated email from a physician in our medical group. She was responding to yet another notification from...
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