ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y., April 9, 2018 — A landmark 2015 study by the Mayo Clinic found half of the physicians in America struggle with burnout.
Playwright Michael Milligan spent the last couple years asking doctors around the country why? In his new play, “Side Effects,” Milligan shares the answers he received through the fictionalized account of one doctor’s struggle.
“Side Effects” will make its Cattaraugus County debut Saturday, April 14, at 7 p.m. in St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.
The performance of the one-man play will be followed by a panel conversation with several health care officials: Gilbert Witte, M.D., pulmonologist; Danielle Kwakye-Berko, M.D., primary care physician; and Kevin Watkins, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Cattaraugus County Department of Health. The panel will be moderated by Athena Godet-Calogeras, chairperson of the Health Care Access Coalition. The program is free and open to the public.
“Side Effects” follows Dr. William MacQueen, a family practice physician on the brink of burnout. Caught between his ambition to become the healer his father once exemplified and the corporatization of his chosen profession, William must reconcile the art and business of medicine, or be forced to lose his practice. “Side Effects” reveals the human side of those who heal us, throwing light onto the turmoil that remains out of sight from the examination table.
Milligan’s interest in physicians’ struggles developed while he was touring his other solo play, “Mercy Killers.”
“I was spending a lot of time on tour with doctors and nurses,” Milligan says. “I started to notice similar frustrations and complaints all over the country. I found people’s stories very moving and felt compelled to share their struggles with the public. So, I started to do formal interviews wherever I toured and read everything I could get my hands on.”
An ethicist at the Mayo told him about diagnostic terminology that has developed for what he was hearing about; he called it “moral distress.”
“When I heard that phrase, it resonated with what I was hearing in interviews,” Milligan said. “The medical literature says that ‘moral distress occurs when one knows the ethically correct action to take but feels powerless to take that action.’ Healthcare is more bureaucratized and corporatized every year. Decisions are increasingly influenced by claims analysts, hospital administrators, and entitlement bureaucrats. ‘Side Effects’ is a meditation on the resulting conflicts of interest that arise and their personal impacts on both patients AND doctors.”
Milligan continued: “For me, theater and medicine are complementary. When our bodies are sick, we go to a doctor for a diagnosis and treatment. But where do we go when there is a sickness in society, in our collective psyche? The origins of dramatic art, of tragedy, deal with that kind of illness. By bearing witness to the ills that afflict us as a community, we are given new emotional and symbolic resources to recognize and treat them.”
“Michael (Milligan) performed his one-man play, ‘Mercy Killers,’ at St. Bonaventure University in 2013 and the audience responded well to his performance,” said Godet-Calogeras. “He is an incredibly talented actor who is using those talents to tackle very real problems with our health care system in the U.S.”
The performance is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Health Care Access Coalition, SBU Clare College and SBU Visiting Scholar Committee. For more information, visit the website www.
