Thanks so much for visiting and reading KevinMD.com! 2014 was the busiest year yet.
Below are the most popular posts of the year, measured by number of shares on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. Enjoy.
1. Frozen in the hospital! Watch medical students sing Let It Go. The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine Class of 2016 sings “Let It Go,” or rather, “I Don’t Know.” The talent and production values of these parodies have certainly gone up over the years. Props to the vocals and choreography. Enjoy.
2. Consider the messages that tattoos are sending. It’s easy to condemn what we don’t understand or would never do ourselves. But maybe we should pause to consider the messages that tattoos are sending. In the process, we might love and understand our neighbors just a little better than before. And all that ink might just make sense at last.
3. The ER demonstrates the inverted priorities of American society. We fling open the doors of America’s emergency departments to help those who can’t afford health care. We have legislated this protection: No person can be turned away for financial reasons. This is very compassionate, and represents the higher angels of our culture. Alas, it also is emblematic of the stupider demons of government. You see, the ER demonstrates the inverted priorities of American society.
4. Applying the anti-vaccine mentality to car seats. What if a big TV station came out with a blockbuster story claiming that infant car seats were implicated in cerebral palsy (CP)?
5. Remember the mothers of sick children. “Motherhood is the hardest job you’ll ever love.” I’m not sure who first coined that phrase, but its truth becomes clearer to me everyday. And nowhere is that truth more evident than in mothers of children with a serious illness.
6. Stop calling nurse practitioners mid-level providers. I really hate it when a nurse practitioner is called a mid-level provider. “Mid-level provider” isn’t even a legal or academic term. It is slang developed to demean or minimize a health professional, who is not an MD.
7. Appreciate your NICU nurse: A letter from a neonatologist. Dear NICU nurse: I couldn’t have done what I do without you, and the time to thank you publicly for all the ways you have helped me is more than overdue.
8. There was a time when doctors were doctors. There was a time when doctors were trusted. There was a time when we were not guilty until proven otherwise, as viewed by blood-thirsty bounty hunters like the wild dogs of the recovery audit contractor (RAC) unleashed by our ruthless federal government.
9. Americans think that most physicians have it made. They’re wrong. There’s at least one hidden reason the health care system is failing people who just want some face time with a doctor: too many dedicated physicians are not just overwhelmed but burned out.
10. Doctors today: Young, broke and human. The next time a young doctor walks into the room, give her the benefit of the doubt. She may be 20-something, driving a 2000 Toyota, with half of her paycheck paying off student loan debt.
Image credit: 2nix Studio / Shutterstock.com
