Nov 30, 2018 | Featured, Insights
Jordyn Feingold, a third-year medical student, left, and Benny Laitman, MD, PhD, an Otolaryngology resident
Mount Sinai has released the sixth episode of the monthly podcast series Road To Resilience, which details how reframing stressful thoughts, playing to your strengths, and prioritizing your well-being can help you overcome stress and anxiety. In this podcast, Benny Laitman, MD, PhD, an Otolaryngology resident, and Jordyn Feingold, a third-year medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, explain how they use these resilience factors to cope with the stress they face every day as they explore their new world of medicine.
In the episode, “Managing Stress, Anxiety, and Fear,” Dr. Laitman talks about what it was like to feel stress on a daily basis when starting his residency. He explains how he copes with the pressure of being responsible for patients’ well-being for the first time in his life and performing his first surgeries—even with a rigorous schedule and as he and his spouse prepare for a new baby. Dr. Laitman talks about how he uses resilience to directly face these challenges instead of avoiding them.
“We see a lot of clinic patients, and I can look down the list and see which patients I want to take. For example, I can take the easy cases, like a patient who needs an ear wax cleaning, or I can take the one who needs a cancer workup. I need to deal with the discomfort,” says Dr. Laitman. “Every time you do that, you learn more, you feel less uncomfortable. You feel more confident, and you know how to approach it in the future. You’re supposed to be uncomfortable because that’s how we grow…If you don’t feel uncomfortable you’re probably not learning, you’re probably avoiding things that will make you better.”
Ms. Feingold addresses the issue of student burnout. She details what it’s like to feel immense pressure to succeed while in medical school while tackling a difficult course load. She explains how she uses positive psychology to deal with the stress and anxiety. Additionally she has taken unique steps to build resilience among her fellow students and leads courses on this at the School of Medicine to train and prepare them for challenges. She also emphasizes the importance of prioritizing your well-being, and how this has helped her persevere in times of stress.
“I have to practice self-care. One of the best things I’ve done is subscribing to workout classes…It gets me out of my own routine and doing things outside of my comfort zone. For 45 minutes when you’re in that space, you can’t think about the stress. You leave feeling renewed and ready to go on with your day,” Feingold says. “This is something I tell all of my friends both in and outside of medical school, even my patients and families going through hard times… We have to take care of ourselves so we are as equipped as possible to take care of other people.”
The “Road to Resilience” podcast is based on the well-received book Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges, co-authored by Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Steven Southwick, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University. It features thought-provoking insight from renowned experts as they explain the science behind resilience. The work has been so well received the book now has a second edition.
The book identifies 10 resilience factors to help anyone become stronger when facing life’s greatest challenges and they explain how these can be learned at any stage of life. Each podcast episode focuses on different factors including having optimism, a support system, and role models, along with physical and brain fitness. The monthly series features insight from different Mount Sinai experts as they explain the science behind resilience while sharing their personal stories and experiences.
Road to Resilience is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play (link works best in Chrome). New episodes of the series are released on the last Wednesday of each month. You can find more information on the Icahn School of Medicine website or on the Road to Resilience website.
Oct 31, 2018 | Insights
Mount Sinai has released the fifth episode of the monthly podcast series Road To Resilience, which details how playing to your strengths and altruism can help you overcome significant obstacles in life and achieve great success.
In this podcast, Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH, explains how she used these resilience factors to move forward after experiencing major trauma growing up. Dr. Diaz is the Jean C. and James W. Crystal Professor in Adolescent Health; Professor of Pediatrics, and Environmental Medicine and Public Health, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and Director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center.
“People always say, ‘You’re so resilient, how did you make it?’ I had such a challenging life, but because of my temperament, my optimism, and the many wonderful people I met along the way, I was able to overcome this,” explained Dr. Diaz. “When you’re traumatized, there’s always a scar. But you can learn how to cope and learn to move forward.”
In the episode, “A Resilient Journey from Trauma to Success,” Dr. Diaz details her difficult past, which includes growing up in extreme poverty, being separated from her family, going through a deep depression, and dropping out of high school.
Despite her upbringing and challenges, Dr. Diaz had the goal of becoming a doctor at a young age and never lost sight of that vision. She recognized her strength in math and physics.
Even after quitting school at the age of 15, she knew she needed help to get back on the right track. She went to the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, which provided her with the necessary counseling to move forward. Dr. Diaz went on to graduate on time, attended The City College of New York and then pursued her medical education at Columbia, Harvard, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Diaz has also used altruism to build resilience in herself and thousands of at-risk teens. She now runs the renowned Adolescent Health Center, the same unique program that transformed her life.
“This is not like work for me, this is a calling. To be able to work in the same place that helped me when I was a teenager, and then for me to be able to do the same thing for other young people, is truly a gift,” Dr. Diaz says. “Every time I talk to a young person—they may be suicidal or feel bad about themselves—we sit down with them and try to help them cope and stay in school. Just seeing how that young person evolves is so rewarding. And it doesn’t just help them become more resilient. Every day I get more resilient from this work and giving back to them.”
The podcast, created by the Mount Sinai Health System, is based on the well-received book Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges, co-authored by Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Steven Southwick, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University. Their research in resilience spans 25 years, and their book has been so well received it is now in its second edition.
In the book they present 10 resilience factors to help anyone become stronger when facing life’s greatest challenges, and they explain how these can be learned at any stage of life. Each podcast episode focuses on different factors including facing your fears and having realistic optimism, a moral compass, and a support system, along with physical and brain fitness. The monthly series features insight from Mount Sinai experts who explain the science behind resilience while sharing their personal stories and experiences.
Road to Resilience is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play (link works best in Chrome). New episodes of the series are released on the last Wednesday of each month. You can find more information on the Icahn School of Medicine website or on the Road to Resilience website.
Oct 19, 2018 | Insights
The fourth episode of Mount Sinai’s monthly podcast series Road To Resilience details how drawing on faith, spirituality, and mindfulness during times of stress and trauma can help you better cope with challenges and ultimately lead to a better quality of life. You can learn how a core belief system, even if it isn’t tied to religion, can help you build inner strength and mental toughness.
“People are looking for meaning and for inner resources for helping them deal with everything from burnout to not feeling well,” says Deborah B. Marin, MD, the George and Marion Sokolik Blumenthal Professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Director of the Center for Spirituality at Mount Sinai. “Those who have faith tend to be more resilient. When somebody is spiritual, they tend to feel connected to something bigger than themselves, so they’re also able to draw on resources that give them meaning. ‘Meaning making’ is important for people to tolerate the vicissitudes of life, and those that are resilient have a sense of ‘meaning making.’”
In this episode, “Faith, Spirituality and Mindfulness,” Dr. Marin details how this works and how she applied this resilience factor to cope with the death of her parents when she was young. She also discusses how her parents, who were Holocaust survivors, relied on their own faith to recover from this traumatic past.
Deborah B. Marin, MD, the George and Marion Sokolik Blumenthal Professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Director of the Center for Spirituality at Mount Sinai discusses how her parents, who were Holocaust survivors, relied on their own faith to recover from this traumatic past.
You can also learn about a unique program within the Mount Sinai Health System called “Chi Time.” Every week, chaplains visit different floors of the hospital and offer tea and snacks for doctors and nurses in a quiet area. This provides them a welcome break and a place where they can decompress after difficult and emotional cases. By taking their mind off stress, they can build resilience and stay more focused.
The podcast, created by the Mount Sinai Health System, is based on the well-received book Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges, co-authored by Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Steven Southwick, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University. Their research in resilience spans 25 years, and their book has been so well received it is now in its second edition.
In the book they present 10 resilience factors to help anyone become stronger when facing life’s greatest challenges, and they explain how these can be learned at any stage of life. Each podcast episode focuses on different factors including facing your fears and having realistic optimism, a moral compass, and a support system, along with physical and brain fitness. The monthly series features insight from Mount Sinai experts who explain the science behind resilience while sharing their personal stories and experiences.
Road to Resilience is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play (link works best in Chrome). New episodes of the series are released on the last Wednesday of each month. You can find more information on the Icahn School of Medicine website or on the Road to Resilience website.
Oct 11, 2018 | Insights
Dennis S. Charney, MD, and his son, Alex Charney, MD
The third episode of the monthly podcast series Road To Resilience details simple steps you can take to raise a resilient family and train your kids to become stronger so they’re prepared to deal with life’s greatest challenges. Research shows exposing children to manageable amounts of stress while putting them in uncomfortable situations can build resilience and confidence.
“You don’t become resilient by living a stress-free life—then you’re not prepared. There’s a term called stress inoculation which means if you expose people to manageable amounts of stress they can handle and learn from, over time a person can handle more and more stress,” says Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “That has implications on how you raise your children. You want to give them experiences outside of their comfort zone that they become confident they can handle. Then you present them with another experience outside of their comfort zone…then eventually they’re prepared.”
In this episode, “Building a Resilient Family,” Dr. Charney explains how he successfully achieved this with his own family, and his son and fellow psychiatrist, Alex Charney, MD, Instructor of Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine, joins the conversation. While sharing their personal stories, they also discuss the importance of having role models starting at a young age and how this can also help build resilience.
“When you have to handle a trauma, disappointment, grief in your life, usually the way you determine how to handle it starts with a role model or role models. In part it’s related to memories…you learn from your role models. They become memories in your brain. You recall those memories when you’re facing something traumatic, and those memories will stay with you forever,” Dean Charney says.
The podcast, created by the Mount Sinai Health System, is based on the well-received book Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges, co-authored by Dean Charney and Steven Southwick, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University. Their research in resilience spans 25 years, and their book has been so well received it is now in its second edition.
In the book they present 10 resilience factors to help anyone become stronger when facing life’s greatest challenges, and they explain how these can be learned at any stage of life. Each podcast episode focuses on different factors including facing your fears and having realistic optimism, a moral compass, and a support system, along with physical and brain fitness. The monthly series features insight from Mount Sinai experts who explain the science behind resilience while sharing their personal stories and experiences.
Road to Resilience is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play (link works best in Chrome). New episodes of the series are released on the last Wednesday of each month. You can find more information on the Icahn School of Medicine website or on the Road to Resilience website.
Oct 3, 2018 | Insights
Mount Sinai Health System has released the second episode of the monthly podcast series Road To Resilience. In the latest episode, “The Prescription to My Recovery,” Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, takes us further into his emotional recovery after he became the target of an attempted murder.
Dr. Charney talks about facing the man who tried to kill him during the highly publicized trial. Listen as he takes that courageous step and explains the different resilient factors he used to stay strong during this challenging time. Learn how reframing stressful thoughts, a support system, and letting go over anger helped him move forward.These are steps anyone can apply to build resilience and bounce back from adversity.
“Keep looking forward. There will be bumps in the road, there will be reminders that will give you some anxiety and fear, but if you keep moving forward with your life and aspirations you can get past that,” Dr. Charney says.
This latest podcast picks up where Dr. Charney left off in the inaugural episode, where he takes us back to the traumatic day when a disgruntled former employee shot him more than a dozen times outside of a popular deli on his way to work. Dr. Charney, a scientist known around the world for his research on resilience, explains how he used simple steps to overcome the greatest obstacle of his life. These include setting goals, having role models, and the power of optimism.
The Road to Resilience podcast series is based on the well-received book Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges, co-authored by Dr. Charney and Steven Southwick, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University.
In the book they present 10 resilience factors to help anyone become stronger when facing life’s greatest challenges, and they explain how these can be learned at any stage of life. Each podcast episode focuses on different factors including facing your fears and having realistic optimism, a moral compass, and role models, along with physical and brain fitness.The monthly series features insight from different Mount Sinai experts as they explain the science behind resilience while sharing their personal stories and experiences.
Road to Resilience is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play (link works best in Chrome). New episodes of the series are released on the last Wednesday of each month. You can find more information on the Icahn School of Medicine website or on the Road to Resilience website.
Oct 2, 2018 | Featured, Insights
In an interview with LEADERS magazine, Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, talks about the keys to Mount Sinai’s consistent strength and leadership in the industry, how the role of the hospital is evolving, and other current topics.
“The brand has always stood for consistent quality, even when faced with the most complex conditions. We continue to make that the highest priority as we take care of the sickest people, regardless of their backgrounds, and get the best possible outcomes,” Dr. Davis says in the interview. “Innovation goes hand-in-hand with that. Our innovation is fostered by the fact that our hospital gave birth to our medical school. The dean of the medical school doesn’t report to a university but to a health system. It’s easier to keep innovation at the forefront of the health system when there is a medical school right behind it.”
See the full interview in LEADERS magazine
Read the article [PDF]
