Walter J. O’Donnell is a pulmonary and critical care physician.
Leanne, a nurse, sits next to me in the ICU. She says into the phone, “Now, Johnny, you be good for Nana.” We’re only halfway through another 12-hour shift, and she won’t be home until after her 5-year-old son is ready for bed.
Such calls to palliate separation have long been part of the fabric of health care families’ lives. But the pandemic has magnified the frequency and pain of these absences.
Much …
I’m still trying to figure out what happened. I don’t want to be put on suicide watch by the wellness office. It definitely began during our weekly noontime mindfulness session. I came in late, furtively signed in (gotta make that metric) and slipped into a back corner seat. I went zero to REM in 10 seconds, thanks to last night’s click-boarding my panel into their patient-centered medical i-homes.
I awoke to …
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