With three other emergency medicine physicians, Al'ai Alvarez, MD, penned a column published in USA Today, entitled "ER Doctors: We're no strangers to violence but we try to de-escalate without anyone dying." The op-ed, which was co-authored by Stanford physician Italo Brown, MD, and two Harvard physicians, opened with a jarring reality: "As emergency medicine physicians of color, we are yelled at and called profane names. We have been spat on, pushed and kicked. We have routinely experienced psychological and physical trauma. But we choose nonviolent de-escalation strategies — not just because they work but because they are humane." Seeing the violence by police in the death of George Floyd, the four docs felt compelled to write about de-escalation strategies they use to defuse tense situations.
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