Seeing patients in my OB/GYN office this morning, I try to stave off the mild nervousness rumbling inside of me. My good friend Monica is having a C-section this afternoon, and I’m performing it.
We met ten years ago when I walked my three-year-old daughter into Monica’s preschool classroom for the first time. Monica sat on the floor, a child in her lap and others playing around her. Like them, I …
We hear all the time that maternity leave in the U.S. is in shambles. Let’s clarify: There’s no such thing as guaranteed maternity leave. Some companies are obligated to give some leave to some employees — that’s as good as it gets. No companies are obligated to give paid leave.
Medical training adds complexity to parental leave. Residents and fellows are expected to be deferential, the lowest on the totem pole …
It’s 7 a.m. The hospital is just starting to wake up from its slumber, stretching arms and blinking eyes. I’m 54 minutes away from the end of another night shift.
Night shifts are curious creatures. They are a part of the fabric of emergency medicine life — one of the often hated aspects of our jobs. They steal us away from our families, cutting short bedtime snuggles and picture books so …
In a 2012 blog post called “Things that puzzle me about surgical education,” I wrote the following:
There was the emphasis that still exists today on making sure every resident did research. At last, some are questioning the value of this for the average clinical surgeon. Contrary to the prevailing wisdom, there is no evidence that a resident who is dragged kicking and screaming through a clinical research project or …
Perhaps one of the hardest things about medicine is cross-coverage, that is, to be the covering doctor for your partners, whether for the occasional night, weekend, or longer. It’s not something done only in oncology. All specialties in medicine have this system, which allows us to have lives outside of our hospitals and clinics. What’s …
Martha (not her real name) was not an overly complex case in my field of geriatric psychology. But the case was complex enough to require multiple approaches and reliable follow up. And in rural Mississippi, follow up can be elusive. Soon it occurred to me that Martha’s case is emblematic of how caring for this vulnerable population often runs up against a huge problem — the Medicare merry-go-round.
A 78-eight-year-old with …
You extend a firm handshake and get ready to sit down at the table across from your mentor for the first time.
Woah, wait. Let’s back up to the legwork that should have happened prior to this meeting. First step, you found the mentor (see this post for practical ideas on how to find a mentor). Neither you nor the mentor have a lot of time — a frequent obstacle often …
In 2013 I began searching for ways I could change my career to reduce my workload, but not give up medicine altogether. During that time I took a cruise and looked at various jobs I could do on a cruise ship. One of the jobs I was qualified for, I thought, was to be a Cruise Ship Doctor.
After talking with the ship’s doctor to find out what it was like …
I recently needed to transfer my patient to a larger medical center for some urgent care. As I sat there in my relatively small hospital working out where they would be best served, a famous academic medical center that was not too far away, came to mind. I placed a call to the facility’s bed facilitator, who took the patient’s details from me, and was told to await a callback …
The most common response when I introduce myself as a preventive medicine resident is an interjection, “You mean family medicine?” I have come to realize that the majority of the healthcare field has never heard of preventive medicine as a unique medical specialty. It’s a shame, because preventive medicine is truly the best medical specialty you’ve never heard of.
Preventive medicine practices at the intersection of public health and clinical medicine …
I met David on the internet. It was to become on of the closest, most intense relationships of my life. For you see, a few months before he crossed my path his daughter finished the same protocol for the same type of brain tumor that my daughter just had started. They had successfully traversed the waters that to me were completely unknown — and frankly terrifying. On the pediatric brain tumor listserv, …
Just sign here.
How many times a day are we asked to do this? “Just sign here.” “Just put down your license number.” “We need a stamp with your doctor’s info on it.” “Give us your NPI.” “Initial here, here, and here.”
If we took the time to read all the things we’re signing, we wouldn’t have time to do any doctoring.
The other day I was asked to hand-write the date on …
Change and health care are closely interconnected. Health care organizations are continually faced with the need to adapt to change, whether it be advances in medical care or technology, growing demand for care delivery, a patient population that is increasingly active and involved in their own health and well-being, or evolving reimbursement and cost models. By recognizing that change is inevitable in the health care sphere, organizations can focus on …
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Do you ever feel like time is always slipping away? Do you feel like you hardly get time to enjoy the things you love? For example, do you feel like you get enough time in your day to spend with your kids? If your answer is “no,” welcome to the club. You are not alone! I am a physician mom of young kids who used to feel like I never …
May lay in a hospital bed, her wrinkled skin covered with sensors that monitored her every breath and heartbeat. Her husband sat at her bedside gently stroking her withering gray hair as her chest moved slowly up and down accompanied by the soft whoosh-whoosh of the ventilator that breathed for her.
He stared expectantly at her face as if at any moment she would rise and free herself from the multiple …
A few months ago a nurse I know vented her frustration at a misperception she had received several times, unfortunately. She recalled a conversation in which someone had asked her in a condescending manner if she does anything else at work besides “handing out pills.”
I became visibly irritated at this, not only was this person purposely making disrespectful comments to bring her down but was also perpetuating her own biased …
Kang Se-hoon, a surgeon in South Korea, operated on a popular rock singer and song writer in October 2014. According to reports, Shin Hae-chul had abdominal pain, and the surgeon performed laparoscopic lysis of adhesions. Without having obtained consent, he decided to also do a weight reduction procedure.
The patient was discharged a few days after surgery but returned a day later with fever and severe abdominal pain. Kang did not …
Since the advent of the internet and rise of social media, patients can connect and compare their experiences with prescribed drug withdrawal. A problem that was once considered rare is a worldwide epidemic that is finally getting noticed. A recent New York Times article discussed the problems many have discontinuing antidepressants, and more than 8,800 readers responded about their difficulty stopping …
It was not so much the words as the overall tone of the interaction. The doctor-patient relationship had been generally affable. There was the usual exchange of pleasantries over the years. Questions about family, children, and grandchildren. It was a good relationship — until Harvey got sick, that is.
Originally, there was weight loss and fatigue. The initial physical exam and slew of testing showed nothing but a frail, cachectic, middle-aged …
A doctor is working down their long list of patients, powering through the day, striving to use their skills to get them better. Some of the patients will be follow-ups who they already know; others will be brand new patients, who they are meeting for the first time. Of course, the job of any doctor is first and foremost to heal their patient in whatever way they can. That’s what …
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