In a special event as part of STAT’s Open Doors initiative, the “First Opinion Podcast” was recorded live this week in front of an audience with returning guest Jay Baruch.
Not long after being a guest on the first episode of the “First Opinion Podcast” in February 2021 on the many essays he’s written for STAT in his time working as an emergency room physician, Baruch penned a letter to his boss spelling out his intention to leave medicine behind. He was feeling “pancaked” by two surges of the pandemic, and burned out. But the simple act of writing the letter transformed his understanding of his work and hooked him back in.
Baruch joined host Pat Skerrett for a live discussion of his First Opinion essay on the topic, “Trying to quit my job as an ER doctor gave me reasons to stay.”
On trying to communicate important messages to everyone, including physicians, Baruch said, “We have studies and they have to be proven statistically significant — but we believe stories. And the story is experience, packaged in emotion.”
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