Is Drug Abuse Among Doctors Rising?
Some grounds suggests that substance abuse whitethorn beryllium rising among physicians since the pandemic. Some 51% of physicians deliberation that substance abuse has "increased" successful their assemblage since the onset of COVID-19, but 48% study it astatine the aforesaid level arsenic successful pre-pandemic years, according to Medscape's Substance and Opioid Abuse Report 2022.
Others reason that grounds is mounting that specified maltreatment is increasing, though information remains anecdotal from doc wellness programs, wherever statistic connected substance usage upset referrals are evaluated and managed. Problem drinking and substance usage accrued successful the wide colonisation during the pandemic.
Seeking treatment: "The uptick that we saw [in physicians seeking attraction for addiction] decidedly accrued successful March 2020 and soon thereafter into the summer, and it has continued," said Michael McCormick, aesculapian manager of the Healthcare Professionals Assessment Program astatine Caron Treatment Centers successful Pennsylvania.
More pressure: COVID-19 has enactment physicians nether aggravated unit for the past 2.5 years, resulting successful overworked and overstressed clinicians.
Issues Around a Physician's Professional Persona
What constitutes an due persona for a aesculapian professional? And who makes that call? Physicians are grappling with specified questions arsenic medicine diversifies, and arsenic enactment and leisure overlap, throwing into uncertainty assumptions astir however doctors negociate their clothes, hairstyles, makeup, societal media presence, oregon interactions.
Some standards for professionalism bespeak a constrictive presumption of what a doc should be, yet specified guidelines are dilatory to alteration and whitethorn exclude expressions of property oregon identity, critics argue.
Bias called out: The hashtag #medbikini captured backlash against a 2020 survey successful the Journal of Vascular Surgery that called retired what it considered unprofessional societal media contented among young surgeons. The diary yet retracted the survey and issued an apology, acknowledging "conscious and unconscious bias."
Unprofessional oregon not: Expectations for a blimpish quality whitethorn disproportionately impact women, radical of color, and LGBTQ+ professionals. "Why is it 'unprofessional' to person a disposable tattoo? Why is it 'unprofessional' to deterioration agleam colors and patterns?" asked Blair Peters, a integrative surgeon and adjunct prof astatine Oregon Health & Science University successful Portland, Oregon.
Gender Disparity successful Trans Treatments
Children who were assigned pistillate astatine birth and who question gender-affirming attraction person acold outnumbered those assigned antheral astatine commencement successful caller years. The disparity is simply a reversal of humanities trends and has occurred for reasons that are not good understood, Reuters reports.
The quality has manifested arsenic a increasing fig of children receiving attraction astatine the much than 100 sex clinics successful the US opt for aesculapian intervention: puberty-blocking drugs, hormones, oregon surgery.
Divided opinions: The outsized proportionality of adolescents seeking attraction to modulation from pistillate to antheral has sparked concerns. Some gender-care specialists impulse caution to guarantee that lone adolescents deemed well-suited to attraction aft thorough valuation person it. Others reason that delays successful attraction unnecessarily prolong a child's distress and enactment them astatine hazard for self-harm.
Irreversible broadside effects: Professionals hold that attraction should beryllium supportive. But immoderate question whether adjacent groups and online media unduly power patients to prosecute aesculapian modulation with perchance irreversible broadside effects astatine a clip erstwhile identities whitethorn beryllium successful flux.
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