JOURNAL OF PALLIATIVE MEDICINE Volume 18, Number 1, 2015 ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/jpm.2014.0115 ‘‘Why Are We Doing This?’’: Clinician Helplessness in the Face of Suffering Anthony L. Back, MD,1 Cynda H. Rushton, PhD,2 Alfred W. Kaszniak, PhD,3 and Joan S. Halifax, PhD4 Abstract Background: When the brutality of illness outstrips the powers of medical technology, part of the fallout lands squarely on front-line clinicians. In our experience, this kind of helplessness has cognitive, emotional, and somatic components. Objectives: Could we approach our own experiences of helplessness differently? Here we draw on social psychology and neuroscience to define a new approach. Methods: First, we show how clinicians can reframe helplessness as a self-barometer indicating their level of engagement with a patient. Second, we discuss how to shift deliberately from hyper- or hypo-engagement toward a constructive zone of clinical work, using an approach summarized as ‘‘RENEW’’: recognizing, embracing, nourishing, embodying, and weaving—to enable clinicians from all professional disciplines to sustain their service to patients and families. Case this, maybe I should give up.’’ They might be feeling hopeless, angry, resigned, or even ashamed. They might notice sensa- Ms. R is a 40-year-old female with metastatic melanoma with tions of bodily heaviness, lethargy, or a sinking feeling. brain metastases that have caused new blindness. The mela- 1,2 noma has progressed despite first- and second-line targeted Helplessness is known to be an occupational hazard, and therapy, and she is despondent. When the inpatient attending probably contributes to burnout. But ‘‘low personal accom- physician discussed with her that she was unlikely to regain plishment,’’ a component of burnout, seems inadequate to her sight, and that her melanoma was very unlikely to respond describe a moment of hopelessness like the one above. to further anticancer therapy, she began to weep so intensely Is it time to rewrite our story of helplessness? Although our that further conversation was impossible. The physician and first reaction to helplessness is often to remain silent, to push it nurse looked at each other; the physician gave a tiny shrug away, to keep it at a distance—we think that another path is that no one but the nurse would catch, and the nurse looked up possible. Instead of seeing helplessness as something to avoid, as if to say, ‘‘This is a fine mess.’’ The patient’s husband, and if that’s not possible, as a pathology that must be extirpated, appearing stricken, looked at the team and said, ‘‘We have to do something—could she have some Ativan?’’ could we first reframe it as an indicator about our internal state, and second, reexperience it as a moment characterized by Introduction a particular state of relationality with our patient? We are hoping to stimulate more dialog, and more research hen the brutality of illness outstrips the powers about helplessness by drawing on developments in contem- Wof medical technology, part of the fallout lands plative practice, neuroscience, and psychological research on Downloaded by Univ Of Washington from online.liebertpub.com at 08/24/17. For personal use only. squarely on front-line clinicians. Being a nurse or physician for attention and affect. a patient like Ms. R is a difficult assignment—she’s despon- dent, her husband is desperate, and there isn’t anything in the Helplessness as a Self-barometer clinical toolkit that seems remotely up to the task. In our ex- perience, this kind of helplessness has cognitive, emotional, The first part of our rewrite, reframing, involves our un- and somatic components. The nurse and physician in the case intentional reaction to helplessness. Could we reframe our might be thinking: ‘‘Nothing will fix this, there’s no way out of unintentional reaction to helplessness as a self-barometer that 1Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington. 2Berman Institute of Bioethics; School of Nursing & Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. 3Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. 4Upaya Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Accepted October 5, 2014. 26 CLINICIAN HELPLESSNESS 27 gives us a reading on the quality of our engagement with a attentional biases away from positive events.6,7 Interestingly, particular patient? The value of reframing our unintentional attentional biases appear to be modifiable over time, with reaction as a self-barometer is that it enables us to see how specific training.8 Extrapolating from this research, we think it challenges push us off balance constantly as a normal feature is likely that a clinician in the grip of helplessness is likely to of clinical work. We don’t expect the barometer readings to proceed with a constricted view of a clinical situation, meaning be unchanging, stable, and static—we expect them to fluc- that important facts will be missed, conclusions drawn pre- tuate with our circumstances, and to vary with our capacities maturely, and that the patient’s views, values, and stories will for ambiguity, uncertainty, empathy, and compassion on any be insufficiently seen2,9,10—distorting even palliative care into given day. With some patients, we find ourselves behaving in a series of medical treatments and procedures. a hyperactive mode. With other patients—even in the same As illustrated, these initial reactions of hypo-engagement day or hour—we find ourselves in a hypoactive mode. and hyper-engagement span professional roles. In the ex- ample above, we have illustrated hyper-engagement with a After the family meeting, the physician was talking to a col- league, and said, ‘‘I’m not even sure why we’re doing this— nurse, and hypo-engagement with a physician. However, it’s such a sad situation, it just seems futile. This sounds their responses could easily be reversed. A physician who terrible, but should we even bother with rehab?’’ Meanwhile, feels helpless might react with a hyper-engaged series of the inpatient nurse was telling her colleague, ‘‘She is suffering diagnostic tests (‘‘If we know as much as possible, we’ll find terribly. Why are we doing this—all these tests and treat- a treatment.’’). A nurse who feels helpless might react in a ments? I’m not sure that more tests are going to relieve her hypo-engaged way by spending less time at the patient’s suffering. I feel frantic: I called the psychologist; I called the beside, avoiding conversation (‘‘I’m so busy today.’’), and social worker; I talked to the occupational therapist—what requesting a different assignment. else should we do?’’ Both hypo- and hyper-engagement overlap with other is- The physician’s thoughts suggest a kind of engagement that sues in the clinical literature. For example, chronic, sustained we would call hypo-engagement, because it feels resigned, hypo-engagement may be related to empathic distress, 11,12 passive, and apathetic. In contrast, the nurse’s thoughts vicarious traumatization, or burnout. Alternatively, above suggest a kind of engagement that we would call hyper-engagement may be related to moral distress that is 13,14 hyper-engagement—because it feels anxious, pressured, characterized by ‘‘empathic over-arousal’’ in which the vigilant, even desperate. The physician’s and nurse’s reac- nervous system is stuck on high alert. tions both represent a common way of dealing with the feeling of helplessness, and a common assumption: Don’t Reexperiencing Helplessness as a Moment talk about it, and don’t allow yourself to experience it, be- of Relationality cause that will make the helplessness more real—and worse The second part of our rewrite involves using the reading than it is already. taken by the self-barometer, and reexploring our experience of helplessness. Could we change the experience of help- Hypo- or Hyper-Engagement Can Exacerbate Suffering lessness from one of being ‘‘at the end of the road’’ to being ‘‘in a moment of relationality with a patient’’? Reexperien- There are physiological reasons why clinicians might react cing helplessness as a moment in a clinician-patient rela- to a patient’s helplessness in this way: We unintentionally tionship can enable the clinician to shift to a middle place mirror the emotions of other people.3,4 But these mirrored between hypo- and hyper engagement. Between hypo- and emotions are then filtered through our own perspectives and hyper-engagement, we hypothesize that there is a middle prior experiences. So if we step back and reexamine these place, that we call the zone of constructive engagement. By initial reactions to helplessness, we can see how they can be constructive engagement, we mean a moment in which a read as a barometer of our engagement. In this case, the clinician is willing to take on a challenge, to bring her whole physician’s engagement with the clinical situation is de- self to the bedside, and to relate to the situation as it is—what creasing, whereas the nurse’s engagement is increasing. Both one colleague calls ‘‘being in the muck.’’ In more formal of their initial reactions to their own experiences of help- terms, constructive engagement is the willingness to put in lessness, however, draw them away from the person who is effort in the form of cognitive, emotional, and spiritual work suffering. The physician is backing away from a situation that goes beyond guidelines about professional competence— where medical expertise has little to offer, and the nurse is we are talking about clinical work performed in the service of intensifying her efforts to draw others into the problem- Downloaded by Univ Of Washington from online.liebertpub.com at 08/24/17. For personal use only. an intention to alleviate suffering that invokes deep personal solving process.