Resilient Threads: Weaving Courage and Meaning into Well-Being
by Mukta Panda, MD with a foreword by Timothy P. Brigham, MDiv, PhD
A Journey to Soul-Deep, System-Wide Self-Care
Physician burnout, depression, and suicide are tearing at the fabric of our health care system, which Mukta Panda has witnessed firsthand. In a culture that privileges evidence over empathy, technology over touch, and what’s measurable over what’s meaningful, many of us—no matter our profession—feel more fragmented and isolated than ever.
In RESILIENT THREADS: WEAVING JOY AND MEANING INTO WELL-BEING, Dr. Panda gives voice to the exhaustion and gives courage for another way. As a physician and medical educator, she has fought to return human touch to healthcare. As a mother, she has committed—and sometimes failed—to balance the personal with the professional. And as an immigrant, she has clung to the wisdom of her family and faith in the face of discrimination and fear.
By weaving stories of connecting to her patients, students, and colleagues with her own stories of belonging, she models how we can each thrive by creating community and self-awareness.
“Ritual, relationships, and reflection are key threads in how I learned to thrive,” Dr. Panda writes in the introduction. So, too, are they key for the thriving of our world. The well-being of our clinicians and patients, teachers and students, parents and children depends on integrating these threads into a new social fabric, one that honors the whole of who we are with what we do.
From MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW:
A ‘must read’ for anyone working in the health care community, especially during the once-in-a-century impact of a global pandemic, “Resilient Threads: Weaving Joy and Meaning into Well-Being” will have great value for readers in other stress-filled occupations and circumstances as well. Thoroughly ‘reader friendly’ in organization and presentation, “Resilient Threads: Weaving Joy and Meaning into Well-Being” is especially and unreservedly recommended for both community and college/university library Health & Medicine collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that “Resilient Threads: Weaving Joy and Meaning into Well-Being” is also readily available in a paperback edition (9780985566555, $16.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $7.99).
Meet the Author
Mukta Panda, MD, MACP, FRCP-London, is an award-winning physician, speaker, and facilitator whose work seeks to transform the heart of patient care and medical education. Read more…
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Hardcover ISBN 978-0-98556-654-8 | $28.95
Paperback ISBN 978-0-98556-655-5 | $16.95
E-book ISBN 978-0-98556-656-2 | $7.99
272 pages (all formats) | Prices vary outside the US.
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1-Hour Book Discussion Guide for exploring in groups
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Praise for Resilient Threads
This is a must-read for learners, educators, and practicing clinicians as they journey on the path of mastery. There are lives at stake and treasures of joy and wonder to be found. With this book, the path is illuminated.
—Timothy P. Brigham, MDiv, PhD, Chief of Staff and Chief of Education and Organizational Development, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)
Resilient Threads is a treasure…Mukta Panda has beautifully captured what it means to be a compassionate physician—one who effortlessly dedicates herself to the well-being of not just patients but also colleagues, students and friends alike.
—Amy C. Edmondson, PhD, Professor, Harvard Business School, author of The Fearless Organization and Building the Future
We need a holistic approach to individual courage and institutional change, and Dr. Mukta Panda shows us how it can be done.
—Donald M. Berwick, MD, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement and former Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
A powerful, inspiring example of a physician and mother who reveals the empathy, compassion and self-care needed to get through medical training and to revive the good doctor you hoped to be.
—Vineet Arora, MD, MAPP, Associate Chief Medical Officer–Clinical Learning Environment, University of Chicago Medicine
Medical students and residents reading her story will learn some of what to expect in a medical career, and for someone like me, 45-plus years into my medical and surgical career, it was an opportunity to reflect: “Oh yes, I remember feeling like that” and “Yes, this is exactly how it feels to connect to a patient.
—R. Phillip Burns, MD, FACS, Professor and Chairman, Department of Surgery, University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Chattanooga
In a modern world of medicine where workload and the expectations of physicians are as great as they have ever been, a reminder of what makes us tick as doctors is sorely needed. This book provides that and more…I am a better physician for reading it.
—Professor Andrew Goddard, MD, FACP (Hon), President of the Royal College of Physicians of London
The book serves as a lesson for all of us. We need to recognize our strengths and weaknesses, focus on what is important, and make sure that we have meaning in our lives.
—Marc J. Kahn, MD, MBA, MACP, FRCP-London, Tulane University School of Medicine
An intimate example of how to live and work, Resilient Threads offers an inspiring model for others to learn from, resonate with, and be emboldened by.
—Penelope R. Williamson, co-author of Leading Change in Healthcare, Associate Professor of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine