One of the most unexpected challenges we face is the interaction between psychologists and physicians. Physicians are not accustomed to collaborating with psychologists, and they don’t have established communications channels to articulate their personal support needs. Nevertheless the demand for support is immense and will only grow.
How might physicians cope with overwhelming workload and combat burnout? How can they communicate with individuals affected by war without causing further harm to their patients and themselves? Traditional training often taught them to disregard their own fatigue: burn out to brighten others. Physicians all too often avoid seeking psychological support, working through exhaustion as their training demands, ignoring the signs, until they simply can’t work anymore.
This is why an incident at one of our locations proved to be a valuable teaching moment: an ambulance team’s paramedic approached one of our groups starting work at the new site and asked if there was a psychologist on staff and, if so, would it be possible to speak with them?
We were happy to assist with such a rare inquiry; after all, that’s exactly what we’re there for. Our psychologist, Inna Kupriy, assessed the situation and then prepared and conducted training sessions for the Nedryhailiv emergency medical personnel.
