Is it OK to Cry?
By Tina Runyan, PhD, ABPP Tend Health Co-Founder Every healthcare professional can recollect the first time they were brought to tears about a patient. How they and others around them reacted likely defined their relationship with crying at work. I’ve listened to countless physicians tell …
Beyond Assimilation Beckons Belonging and Progress
By Tina Runyan, PhD, ABPP Tend Health Co-Founder As humans, we have an innate drive, even need, to belong. Yes, this persists even after middle school! So I’ve been thinking about how belonging is different from fitting in or objectively being a member of a …
Well-Being and Chronotype Awareness
Are you a Lark, Third Bird, or Owl? By Tina Runyan, PhD, ABPP Tend Health Co-Founder Attention management is the “new” time management. That’s right, managing our attention is more important than managing our time. In today’s fast-paced world, effectively managing our attention is crucial—so …
When (not if) Bad Things Happen
By Tina Runyan, PhD, ABPP Tend Health Co-Founder Most of us have experienced at least one, and perhaps several, unfortunate and upsetting experiences and outcomes with patients. These include family tragedies, diagnosis of disease, and death of patients who have become dear to us. These …
Connection is Protection: Not One More Physician Suicide
By Tina Runyan, PhD, ABPP Tend Health Co-Founder Soon after starting Tend Health, I received an e-mail from the sibling of a young surgeon who died by suicide. She was both distraught and motivated to understand her brother’s experience – why was he so reluctant …
Gratitude is both a feeling and an action
Fatigue, stress, frustrations, irritability, and unmet expectations are all very real. They are like loose threads in an otherwise tightly knit sweater. Threatening to unravel into a pile of worn yarn if pulled. Despite knowing this, we can all have the inclination and impulse to …
What the world needs now
We all have biases, opinions, beliefs, convictions, and ideas about what is morally right and wrong. We bring that piece of our humanity to our patient care. If we are self-aware and willing to acknowledge that our beliefs help guide our own lives but should …
Sometimes, It’s Okay not to be Okay
There are no silver linings with this pandemic. There are, however, insights, opportunities, and new perspectives being realized as this virus continues to ravage our country and healthcare resources. COVID-19 has undeniably and understandably strained healthcare workers - the armor of invincibility is wearing thin. …
The second arrow
The parable of the second arrow is a well-known Buddhist story about skillfully dealing with painful events in life. The Buddha once asked a student, “If a person is struck by an arrow, is it painful?” “Yes,” replied the student. “If the person is struck by a second …