I was part of a study that came to an end a few weeks ago. Some of my colleagues at Mayo are interested in physician burnout and conducted a study that lasted about 8 months. Physician volunteers were recruited to be part of the study and the volunteers were divided into two groups, the study group and the control group. I volunteered and was assigned to the study group and so every other week I met over lunch with a group of up to seven other physicians and two facilitators (there were three other such small groups). For the record, my group included three general internists, a cardiologist, a gastroenterologist, a pulmonologist, a rheumatologist, and a hematologist. The facilitators were both general internists. At each session the facilitators introduced a topic by asking a particular question or showing a brief video and then discussion would follow. The discussions were always about some aspect of what could be considered the art of medicine, such as dealing with medical errors, the death of a patient, prejudice, &c.
Almost every time I was encouraged by the comments of my colleagues. For one thing, I learned first-hand that I wasn't the only one struggling with certain thoughts or experiences. In addition, my colleagues often spoke of ways they dealt with certain challenges, ways that I could adapt for my own use.
Almost from the first, the time I spent with my colleagues in these sessions was precious to me. Because of the location of my office, an extra effort on my part was required in order for me to attend the meetings. I gladly made the extra effort. The only two times I missed a session was when I was out of town. Even my nurses noticed some sort of effect on me. At one point, one of them asked me, "So, you're going to therapy today?"
Over the years, I've participated in a number of small groups through my church. I'm sure they were of value, but I don't recall ever looking forward to the meetings as much as I looked forward to these meetings, nor did I consider them as helpful at the time. A feature of almost every church small group I've attended is that they've been scheduled in the evening, after a busy day. By virtue of the fact that none of us had anything scheduled after the group, the meetings tended to go beyond the previously-agreed-upon ending time, sometimes quite a bit beyond. I'm wired in such a way that I don't tolerate small group sessions that go beyond their scheduled ending time. One of my many faults. Content was another problem in some of the church small group meetings I've attended: there wasn't much.
At the last session of the study group, I learned how the physicians in the control group were treated. Whereas a certain amount of time was carved out of my schedule so I could attend my group session, physicians in the control group were simply given the same amount of time every other week to spend however they wanted. Someone in my group asked in effect, "So what was the intervention?" To this one of the facilitators replied, "You were the intervention."
I was struck by that statement and realized that God in his grace & in his providence did a work in me through some of my colleagues, some of whom were not Christians. It further dawned on me that that's how he works in the world most of the time: through sinful, flawed, human agents. On any given day, at any given moment, God in his providence may use even me to "intervene" with another person, or vice versa, to proclaim the gospel, to encourage, to be an agent of reconciliation, &c.
I'm even looking forward to my next church small group.
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