These articles are written by anonymous clinicians. They have been selected and edited by Kevin Pho, MD.
I’m writing this piece because I’m finally at the point that I am truly angry. I am angry at how physicians have become devalued in modern health care. I’m angry at how systems of care have participated in this by replacing physicians with lesser trained mid-level practitioners. I’m angry at how our title “doctor” has been hijacked to allow patients to be misled or, in many cases, deceived.
It wasn’t that …
Read more…
I log onto KevinMD every day to get my much-needed dose of physician commiseration. At least once a day, one of us writes an article about burnout. It typically leaves me feeling quite validated. I particularly enjoy reading the comments section, as many of you make me laugh with your physician reality-based humor.
I am more burned out than I ever hoped to be. I work in primary care, have a …
Read more…
The hardest thing about medical school isn’t learning medicine. It isn’t the hours. It isn’t the tests. It’s that you sign away control over years of your adult life.
When I started my clerkship year in January, I felt like I was stepping onto a conveyor belt and would not be allowed off for twelve long months. For the entirety of 2018, my days are planned for me, my hours are …
Read more…
I am a resident in a fancy hospital in New York. We focus a lot on value-based care, and technological innovations, and high reliability. This year, we are opening a multimillion-dollar new facility for specialty medical services. Our outdoor spaces have stone lions and grassy promenades. Our cafe serves world-class food.
Today, during a beautiful new spring morning, I watched my colleagues sit, in disbelief and despair, crying with each other …
Read more…
Prospective physicians in the United States must undergo a gauntlet of resume-building tasks, in the end, to have little control over their career, and for some, their love life.
We just underwent Match Day, the brain-child of Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley who won a Nobel Prize for this accomplishment in 2012. The U.S. has been utilizing this tool since 1952, which was an improvement over the previous disorganization, which resulted …
Read more…
“The ones you leave behind …”
That phrase often connotes loved ones who have lost a family member, friend or colleague through death.
I have thought of the same phrase often lately in a different context — one of increasing prevalence.
Here, I refer to the patients and colleagues left behind by the loss of a primary physician.
No one would begrudge the retirement of a physician who has served his or her patients …
Read more…
When did patient satisfaction become more important than appropriate medical care? Medicine has been turned into a service with bonuses related to the patient’s satisfaction score. There is a complete disregard for the appropriate medical care if the patient is dissatisfied with what they’re told. Doctors are so afraid of losing satisfaction scores and getting sued that inappropriate medical care has become the norm. The opioid epidemic is just one …
Read more…
I’m about two-thirds of the way through my 3rd year of medical school, and I have hit my wall. I have become so fed up with the set up of medical school. I think a decent amount of this comes from the fact I am on my 6th week of an eight-week surgery clerkship (an area of medicine that I literally have zero interest in). I’m tired of waking up …
Read more…
She could have been my charming tiny kindergarten teacher, sitting there nonchalantly in her wheelchair with neatly folded arms in her lap. The delicate, airy cloud of silvery blonde hair on her head resembled Queen Elizabeth’s style. I named her Ms. Elizabeth. A few moments ago, though, she looked like a young child who could not comprehend the meaning of her condition. Whenever she was spoken to, her mind seemed …
Read more…
I work as a pediatrician in a bustling metropolis, in an outpatient setting of a world-renowned academic center. One of those non-profit hospitals you see in television ads. For the last three years, our outpatient encounters have plummeted, and the mothership has put all efforts into recuperating financial losses. Meanwhile, our office phones are ringing off the hook, and we cannot seem to hire enough nursing staff to deal with …
Read more…
As a private practice specialist in an affluent metropolitan area, I am often inundated with requests for consultation by local residents and primary physicians. That’s fine — it’s what I do, and it’s what I enjoy doing. Hey, it pays the bills, and I won’t complain about that.
Concierge medicine has taken a foothold locally, and this means more referrals directly from doctors who insist we take care of their patients …
Read more…
It is December 2017. I have been on the road for the last five months, completing my five months of elective rotations. I am a fourth-year medical student aspiring to specialize in family medicine. I also want to learn procedures, so I did two months of surgery, three months of family practice electives. At the beginning of this process, I had wanted to be a general surgeon, but I ended …
Read more…
Even though we have probably 20 years of work remaining as physicians, like a lot of you, I like to think about how we will spend our retirement years. After all, in twenty years we will still only be in our early fifties, hopefully with no dependents and a lot of financial security. Of course, my wife and I are interested in traveling, spending time with grandchildren (hopefully), gardening and …
Read more…
Let’s talk about the cycle of abuse. No, I am not referring to the very serious issue of domestic violence. Instead, I am talking about the graduate medical education system. No one is a resident forever: the duration of each residency is predetermined with a wide range of three to nine years. The self-limited nature of this experience decreases the incentive for participants to advocate for changes. And the attitude …
Read more…
I am an Olympian. I am a retired All-American student-athlete. I am a resident. I am burned out.
Let me be clear: I love medicine and the opportunity to have privileged relationships with patients and their families. I thrive on the fast-paced environment, growing to-do lists, and the chance to work in a field with endless learning. I love working in team environments to provide optimal care for patients and their …
Read more…
This year has brought about change — the theme of 2017. As it comes to a close and I reflect back, it is so hard to believe what is going on in the world today, let alone just the United States.
In 2017, I graduated from my internal medicine residency training program, passed my board exam and celebrated my one-year wedding anniversary. I helped my family cope with my grandmother’s progressive …
Read more…
In an article published by the Atlantic earlier this year, Ryan Park writes that neither truck drivers nor bankers work the kind of gruelingly long hours that doctors — particularly young doctors in their residency programs — do. It is no secret that residency life is demanding and exhausting. Over the last decade, it has also become controversial. Almost a test in itself, as if gauging doctors’ …
Read more…
I’m passionate about patient safety. In no small part because I was raised to be. My mom has a lot of letters behind her name (RN, BSN, MSN), and she’s dedicated her career to the field.
Before I was accepted into medical school, I knew about “six sigma,” the “Swiss cheese model” and root-cause analysis. I’d been taught about creating a culture of safety and the example of the airline industry. …
Read more…
“Aren’t you cute,” he said as he smiled and squeezed her cheeks. On the start of a new rotation, a medical student walked into clinic and introduced herself to the attending physician.
With all of the news surrounding the Weinstein debacle, Alyssa Milano has urged women to share their stories of sexual harassment or abuse using the words “me too.” What has transpired is that a whole community of women from …
Read more…
A father and a son are in a car accident. The father dies instantly, and the son is taken to the nearest hospital. The doctor comes in and exclaims, “I can’t operate on this boy!”
“Why not?” the nurse asks.
“Because he is my son,” the doctor responds.
How is this possible?
***
I first saw this riddle in a Washington Post article in October 2016. I was four years out of residency, and for the …
Read more…