Valerie Brooke, MD
The Big Leap
“When we get quiet enough, for long enough, we can hear the whispers, of what is right, of what is true, and most importantly, which way...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
- May 4
- 3 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...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
- Apr 24
- 3 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...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
- Dec 6, 2022
- 6 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...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
- Aug 28, 2022
- 5 min
Perfect Versus Good
It was Voltaire who is attributed with the aphorism “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” I have been contemplating this...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
- Aug 21, 2022
- 4 min
Make Friends with Reality
I had been looking forward to going to Yosemite for years. We finally lived in a place that was within easy driving distance. I could...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
- May 9, 2022
- 5 min
Love and Money
It took me many drives to work to realize what bothered me about this billboard. At first, I thought it was because I could not for the...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
- Apr 10, 2022
- 3 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 8, 2022
- 3 min
The Health Benefits of Yoga
In one corner of my vision board for 2022 are the words yoga, flexibility, and keep moving forward. Right next to them is a photo of a...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
- Mar 1, 2022
- 3 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...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
- Feb 14, 2022
- 3 min
Imposter Syndrome
I will never forget the first medication I ordered as newly practicing physician. It was my first internal medicine rotation of...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
- Feb 7, 2022
- 4 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...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
- Jan 31, 2022
- 3 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...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
- Jan 23, 2022
- 4 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, 2022
- 3 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...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
- Jan 2, 2022
- 5 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, 2021
- 2 min
Professional Accomplishment
In addition to emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, not having a sense of personal accomplishment is the third symptom of burnout....
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Valerie Brooke, MD
- Dec 5, 2021
- 3 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...
91 views1 comment
Valerie Brooke, MD
- Nov 28, 2021
- 2 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...
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Valerie Brooke, MD
- Nov 21, 2021
- 3 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...
32 views0 comments
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