068 - Wearing a Bullet Proof Vest at the Hospital - A Crazy Medical Story to Decrease Your Stress & Burnout In Medical Practice

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to wear a bulletproof vest while treating a patient in the ICU?

As a physician, you might face extreme stress and unexpected challenges in your practice. This episode dives into a real-life story of a medical resident navigating a high-risk situation, highlighting the intense and unpredictable nature of patient care.

Gain insight into the pressures and dangers faced by medical professionals in high-stakes environments.

1. Learn how sharing and hearing crazy medical stories can provide a sense of solidarity and support among healthcare workers.
2. Discover strategies to cope with stress and burnout by understanding that you're not alone in facing these challenges.

Listen to this gripping episode now to uncover the incredible true story and take away practical tips for managing stress in your own medical practice.

Discover how medical graduates, junior doctors, and young physicians can navigate residency training programs, surgical residency, and locum tenens to increase income, enjoy independent practice, decrease stress, achieve financial freedom, and retire early, while maintaining patient satisfaction and exploring physician side gigs to tackle medical school loans.

Transcript

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Welcome back to another episode where I help younger physicians decrease stress and increase income by transitioning from corporate to independent practices, even without any business experience. Today we're launching a new weekly series where we present crazy medical stories, tales so unbelievable that you may not hear them on the news. Some you might. Only the doctors in the know can reveal some of the astonishing stories that you'll hear. Ever thought about wearing a bulletproof vest at work? So happens I did as an internal medicine resident. My crazy story is about me during residency. I must have been a second or third year resident at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where we used to care for a lot of inmates from the federal jail that was nearby. I got a call from the emergency room to admit a patient with a hypertensive crisis, and he needed an ICU bed that happened to be the resident. on the unit that month or one of the residents. And I remember going to the code room in the ER and I was trying to figure out why the patient was in the code room. And when I got there, there were armed guards everywhere, machine guns inside and outside of his room, outside the door. And I found out that this patient was actually a drug dealer, turned informant and that the US marshals were actually protecting him. and the ER had no desire to keep him in the emergency room. And so he was transferred to the ICU and all the marshals had bulletproof vests on, stationed outside the door requesting the show ID. And me as a resident, I'm like, wait a minute, this is our ICU and you're asking me to show my ID? Well, that's what happened. And after realizing what could have potentially happened, probably because I had visions of Miami Vice in my head, I did not want him. in my ICU as well. So all I kept wondering was, if someone tried to take him out, we would be in the crossfires and we had no bulletproof vests on. So I guess that wasn't in the budget for the medical residents or nurses for that matter. So why am I sharing this story? Well, just like alcoholics anonymous and narcotics anonymous, part of healing from stresses of addiction. or burnout is to share stories. Hopefully this helps you know that we are not alone in the struggles of patient care. And someone may be in a bit more stressful situation than you are. Do you want to hear more stories like this? Subscribe to our podcasts and never miss an episode.