Divorce Among Physicians and Medical Trainees

While quality of marriage has been found to correlate with physician wellbeing at all stages of career, peer-reviewed medical literature may lack guidance for coping when marriage ends, according to an FIT/Early Career column publish Jan. 28 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Joshua A. Daily, MD, describes his own experience with divorce as he shines light on the limited research about divorce among physicians and medical trainees, underscores the need for further study, and shares lessons he learned along the way. In the future, he hopes all take a nonjudgmental, humble and empathic approach to those experiencing loss, especially a divorce. In a response to the column, Wayne M. Sotile, PhD, comments that Daily calls attention to an important aspect of physician wellness that has largely been ignored: the coping challenges that come with divorce. He adds, "Collectively, we are ending the conspiracy of silence about physician suffering and ill-being that has pervaded our medical culture historically." Read more.