A response to Dear lawmakers: This is what it’s like to be a doctor today.
With a family and financial background that eerily matches Dr. Moeller’s, please count me as one soon-to-be physician who does not share the notion that lawmakers should spend their time being overly concerned with the demands placed on physicians or physician compensation. In fact, I …
Lawmakers shouldn’t care about the personal hardships of doctors
Years ago I worked as a registered nurse in a busy surgical pre-admission clinic, preparing patients who’d been scheduled for surgery for the upcoming operation and hospital experience.
My workdays were packed with back-to-back, hour-long appointments. Whatever surgery the patient was facing–oral, orthopedic or anything else–every interview followed the same format. I would greet the patient, who’d often bring along a family member, and quickly escort them both into my small …
A reminder to slow down and focus on the human being
Academic Medicine, a journal of the American Association of Medical Colleges, has sent out a recent call for articles addressing the 2013 question of the year: “What is a doctor? What is a nurse?” Thirty years ago this would have been an absurd question. Not only would it have been absurd for doctors and nurses, but for patients too. Roles were …
The only thing that truly separates doctors from nurses
My husband likes to say, “No good deed goes unpunished.”
I don’t always agree, but sometimes you just can’t argue that concept. One of my favorite patients, a forty nine year old woman who I treated for head and neck cancer a year ago is a good case in point. Head and neck cancer is on the rise, and is linked, like cervical cancer, to infection with human papilloma virus which …
Beware of hidden agendas in cancer support groups
We have to stop comparing ourselves to the airline industry.
Sitting on the lounge chair at the pool, I can’t believe that just hours ago I was sludging the wintry streets of Chicago, rushing to the airport. The kids clucked away happily in the back seat as the adults in front where more subdued. As grownups do, we kept running through our mental checklists even though the ship had already sailed, we …
Doctors should stop being compared to the airline industry
Full Code. Do not resuscitate. Do not intubate.
Ask anyone without a personal or family history of a hospitalization on the implication of these terms and you’d likely get a blank stare in response.
Unfortunately, this incomprehension often rings true with those who need to know it most: the hospitalized patients themselves.
Many clinical reports (see here and here) have demonstrated that most physicians are not only inadequate in discussing code status with …
5 essential concepts to know about code status
As healthcare providers we are focused on life. We are committed to healing. We measure success by lives saved. Unfortunately, many diseases remain incurable. Some diagnoses do carry with them a death sentence in spite of the best that modern medicine has to offer. Even in theses extremely devastating cases, We can still make a huge difference in the lives of our patients in the way in which we help …
A duty to guide patients through the process of death
“We’re doing everything we can,” I said as I put my hand on the sobbing woman’s shoulder. “We’re going to keep trying for about 10 more minutes, but I don’t know if we’re going to be successful with this.”
These are the moments that are truly difficult in my job. Telling people their loved ones have passed away, or preparing them for what seems inevitable.
“You can do it!” the woman said …
Should family members be present when performing CPR?
I’m lucky to practice in a national regional anesthesiology center, a hospital with five dedicated nerve block suites, each with the latest in ultrasound equipment, nurses trained in conscious sedation, regional anesthesiology colleagues and infrastructure to support regional practitioners. It seems like there is so much we can do for patients, but really, there is only so much a physician can do. We need a little help from the patient …
Is the era of patient centered care decidedly anti-physician?
“I have no idea what to write.”
“I want to stand out.”
“I want to be different.”
“I want to have a theme.”
These are all comments I hear from medical school applicants as they start thinking about what topics to include in their medical school personal statement. I find that applicants often feel pressured to be unique and to write something the medical school admissions officer has never read before. But if you …
Writing your medical school personal statement: Tips and myths
While I am currently a second year medical student, my story is one of a sister.
When I was six years old, my mother asked me a question that would forever change my childhood: “Honey, would you be alright with having a foster child join our family? It would mean a little boy coming to live with us for a while.”
My response did not take much thought; how could I refuse …
The heroic task of finding a physician who takes Medicaid
“Hey doctor, what do you think about this product/solution/service?”
These days, I look at a lot of websites describing some kind of product or solution related to the healthcare of older adults. Sometimes it’s because I have a clinical problem I’m trying to solve. (Can any of these sleep gadgets provide data — sleep latency, nighttime awakenings, total sleep time — on my elderly patient’s sleep complaints?)
In other cases, it’s because …
Questions to ask when considering new medical technology
The cavernous hospital amphitheater in Tel Aviv, normally used to screen videos and new surgical procedures, was illuminated only by tea candles floating in decorative dishes of water on a recent Wednesday in January. Hundreds of doctors, nurses and other medical personnel filled the seats, as usual. But we had not come to learn the latest life-saving technique.
Dr. Ofira Ben-Tal, one of Israel’s leading hematologists, had lost her battle with …
Are physicians more afraid of death than the general population?
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Years ago, I hired a carpenter to build a deck in my backyard. He showed up with a pencil behind his ear, a spiral notebook, and a tape measure. I told him what I was looking for, and he made a few suggestions. After 15 minutes of measuring and taking notes, he handed me a piece of paper with how much it …
The movement for medical price transparency is happening
I’m not sure why my parents were surprised when I told them that I was applying to go into family medicine. It seemed like a logical transition after spending six years working in public health and primary care before medical school, but from the perspective of Taiwanese immigrant parents, I couldn’t have made a more absurd career choice. I was confronted with comments such as, “Most people choose careers to make …
Am I smart enough for family medicine?
Once again, medical schools continue their annual fraudulent and misleading statistics in regards to primary care workforce production. The Dean’s Lie is back and rampant across the country. It only seems to get worse.
When will they learn?
USA Today: Match Day: More medical graduates enter primary care
About one-quarter (11,762) of the applicants matched to resident positions that train doctors to be on the front line …
Match Day primary care aftermath: The Dean’s Lie continues
I have been married and practicing medicine for 32 years and during that time I have learned lessons that equally apply. First, listen carefully; both wives and patients need to be heard. Second, prepare and think before you speak; as the saying goes “put brain in gear before operating mouth.” Finally, perhaps the hardest lesson of all is, when necessary, be 100% inconclusive.
Any man or woman, who has been in …
Marriage and medicine: Both are not exact sciences
I recently encountered a previously functional and independent 80-year-old woman who slipped and broke her hip. Surgery was required to repair the injury and was her only hope of returning to her premorbid state. She lived alone and was still able to shop, clean, and cook for herself, despite being on several medications for congestive heart failure. She had a long-standing history …
Consider new treatment options for aortic stenosis
A new CDC report is bringing a lot of attention to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria in hospitals and long-term care centers across the country. Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, strike critically-ill patients in nursing homes and intensive care units where infections can be fatal in up to 50 percent of cases, according to the report.
Without being able to count on …
CRE bacteria: The next superbug threat in your hospital
A letter from a medical student at the end of her gross anatomy course.
Dearest Walter,
The time we’ve spent together over the past few months has been wonderful, but I’m afraid it must come to an end. We knew this day would come. I must move on with my life, and you must move on, too. We will never see each other again, but I will never forget you. You have …
The bond between medical students and their cadavers
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