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Why physician burnout and work-life balance is a first-world problem

Physician

September 5, 2015

Did it ever occur to some of today’s physicians that many people work awfully hard and complain a lot less than they do about “burnout” and “work-life balance”?

Did it ever occur to them that “work-life balance” is the very definition of a first-world problem, unique to a very privileged class of highly educated people, most of whom are white?

Every day, I go to work and see the example of the …

Kim Kardashian’s first trimester nausea: The truth behind Diclegis

Jennifer Gunter, MD

Meds

September 2, 2015

It was only a matter of time before Kim Kardashian posted a picture on her Instagram account with a bottle of Diclegis, basically announcing her brand partnership with Duchesnay, the manufacturer of the prescription medication for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy. Duchesnay had been tweeting for ages that they were so relieved Kim had found help with Diclegis — so much so that I was wondering if Ms. …

When doctors pass the buck: The ugly side of a shift-work mentality

Tracey Delaplain, MD

Physician

September 1, 2015

“I’m just the night doc,” you said. You said it with emphasis as if that explained everything and dismissed your incompetence, your lack of compassion, your failure to care. Unfortunately my sister was “just the patient,” who lay suffering hours before her death and the RN was “just the nurse” withholding the morphine that the daytime doctor had ordered for air hunger and agitation. The nurse called you in to …

A physician’s ode to nurses

Kristin Prentiss Ott, MD

Physician

September 1, 2015

A few weeks ago, after feeding my face with rich, dense chocolate cake brought by a truly awesome nurse (for no particular reason other than a warm and generous spirit), I walked back into a room to check on a post-cardiac arrest patient.

After surveying his vitals on the monitor, I turned my attention to two nurses and a pharmacist who were discussing the management of his six drips. He was …

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A physician’s ode to nurses

So doctor, who’s your boss?

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

August 31, 2015

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As a relatively young physician, I always enjoy my conversations with the older members of our profession, who’ve seen so much change over the last few decades. I’m fascinated with their stories about how different the medical world was when they were residents, how treatments were so novel, and how they used solid clinical skills to get to the diagnosis.

Those were the …

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So doctor, who’s your boss?

A patient presents with painless diarrhea. What should you do next?

mksap

Conditions

August 29, 2015

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.

A 67-year-old woman is evaluated for a 1-year history of loose stools. She reports approximately four episodes per day without abdominal pain. She has not had nausea, vomiting, weight loss, bright red blood per rectum, or melena.

On physical examination, temperature is 36.7 °C (98.1 °F), blood pressure is 115/85 mm Hg, pulse …

How pre-visit planning saves time and helps the bottom line

Yul Ejnes, MD

Physician

August 28, 2015

A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

I love pre-visit planning.

OK, “love” may be too strong a word — I like pre-visit planning. Pre-visit planning isn’t new. Many of you have done it for years, even before it had a name, for example when pre-ordering labs before a visit.

I did not begin …

The story of a boy who liked to draw

Jordan Grumet, MD

Physician

August 27, 2015

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There was once a little boy who loved to draw. He would wake up every morning, pull out his box of colored pencils, and let his hands explore the promise of a pristine sheet of blank paper. For him, the canvas was anything but empty, images and ideas exploded out of his mind and magically appeared on the pages in front of …

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The story of a boy who liked to draw

What doctors can learn from a professional photo shoot

Steve Christiansen, MD

Physician

August 26, 2015

Have you ever had a professional photo shoot? I have had many, but not because I particularly enjoy being photographed. Actually, it is quite the contrary.

Photo shoots have always been a traumatic experience for me. You see, for some reason, likely as a creative form of cruel parenting punishment, my family of five siblings had a photo taken every year while growing up. …

So you had a bad day: 3 reasons why doctors should have some perspective

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

August 25, 2015

Being a doctor is one of the most emotionally and physically demanding professions out there. The health care landscape may have changed a lot over the last decade, but the basic unavoidable grueling nature of medical practice has been the same for time immemorial. I remember reading a careers advice book when I was a teenager telling me just that being a doctor was “the most challenging of jobs,” and …

How to perform a stool transplant

Frederick Gandolfo, MD

Conditions

August 25, 2015

Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is the process of administering a preparation of healthy donor stool to a patient with a certain disease, usually Clostridium difficile colitis, in an attempt to treat the disease. I covered some of the basics about the microbiome and FMT in a previous article, so this will just be a cookbook-style post on how we do FMT with colonoscopy.

First, a healthy donor must be identified. The donor …

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How to perform a stool transplant

What is a 5-star hospital? The answer may surprise you.

Ashish Jha, MD, MPH

Policy

August 24, 2015

Now we’re giving star ratings to hospitals? Does anyone think this is a good idea? Actually, I do. Hospital rating schemes have cropped up all over the place, and sorting out what’s important and what isn’t is difficult and time consuming. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) runs the best known and most comprehensive hospital rating website, Hospital Compare. But, unlike most “rating” systems, Hospital Compare …

What does Sir William Osler think about physician burnout?

Janice Mancuso

Physician

August 22, 2015

Sir William Osler (1849-1919) is universally considered the father of modern medicine.

“He belongs to medical students of all time, as Lincoln belongs to the common man everywhere.”
– Wilder Penfield, eminent Canadian neurosurgeon, who met Osler while at Oxford

“His energy, productivity, and humanity blossomed out of a deep vulnerability. Between the pages of his books, we can still encounter an Osler who is … …

What causes toxic stress in medical school and how to fix it

Vamsi Aribindi, MD

Education

August 20, 2015

For two years, I served as a representative to my medical school’s student affairs committee. My job was to convey medical student concerns and problems. As part of that role, I had a lot of time to think about how and why many medical students experience depression and stress. Two recent articles have led me to write about the issue now: “10 simple solutions to stop medical student suicide,” …

The truth behind why doctors don’t tell the truth

Kristin Prentiss Ott, MD

Physician

August 20, 2015

There are two key scenarios when doctors fail to tell “the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God.”

Sometimes doctors give a diagnosis we’re not 100 percent sure of and other times we don’t diagnose something we’re almost 100 percent sure of. The truth is complicated and often more gray than black and white.

Scenario #1: “You have [insert diagnosis …

You won’t necessarily be admitted to the hospital. Here’s why.

Edwin Leap, MD

Physician

August 19, 2015

When we take our sick or injured loved ones to the hospital, we often hope that they will be admitted. In many instances, this is a very reasonable request. When heart or lung disease are at work, when severe infections, dehydration, fractures or strokes occur, admission may well be the only option. However, sometimes our desire to admit our family members is a throwback to a simpler time in medicine; …

The story of how one physician recovered from burnout

Tom Murphy, MD

Physician

August 19, 2015

Time was baffling. It seemed like just yesterday; I sat in a posh auditorium in Chicago as an enthusiastic young adult during my first day of medical school orientation at Northwestern in 1995. Eighteen years later I was a forty-three-year-old burned out physician, practicing in Boise, Idaho, doing Google searches on the most effective way to end my life. During my time …

The most feared medical specialty? It’s actually one of the safest.

Susan G. Curling, MD

Physician

August 18, 2015

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

I often hear patients say, “I am not afraid of the surgery, just the anesthesia.”

But should patients worry? Physician anesthesiologists suffered a crisis in confidence in 1982 when the ABC television program 20/20 aired, “The Deep Sleep: 6,000 …

Spending time with patients. That’s my job.

Nathan A. Pennell, MD, PhD

Physician

August 18, 2015

I’m sure I am not alone in saying that I am almost obsessively conscious of time. Namely, that there never seems to be enough of it. As busy oncologists, we all have constant demands on our time, from our leadership, colleagues, drug company reps, insurers, and our families, not to mention the time we try to carve out for ourselves. But …

After surgery, the scars will always remain

Bruce Campbell, MD

Physician

August 17, 2015

“To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.”
– George MacDonald

As we adjust her position on the surgical table, I spot some short, vertical scars on the front of her neck. The parallel slashes sit directly over her enlarged thyroid — a goiter — and appear to have been deliberately placed. There are two sets of scratches, one set on either side of the neck, nearly identical in length and evenly …

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