Doctors are regularly deluged with advice on how to engage patients. But how can you, as a patient, get your doctor to engage with you as a person truly? Your health — and even your life — could depend upon it.
A perceived absence of empathy can significantly harm physical and mental well-being. At a recent Society for Participatory Medicine (SPM) conference (I’m a member), three …
How to get the doctor to really see you
Corporate health care mentality set up nurses up to be inhuman while holding us to superhuman expectations. We’re told to be caring — but not allowed to do it. It’s time to demand that we stop being abandoned and dismissed by dysfunctional leadership.
Early in my nursing career, I was assigned to the pediatric area for one shift in a busy emergency department (ED). Our team received notification of an incoming …
A couple of years ago, I read an article by Dr. Profeta at LinkedIn called “These four words that may offend you … may also just save you.” He was invited to talk about burnout in medicine and did not get a warm reception.
“It’s just a job.”
The “it” in this case is medicine. Medicine, just like any other, is just a job. Let that sink in. Everything …
On a recent vacation, I went out to eat at a small, out-of-the-way restaurant we always visit on our trips to the Outer Banks.
There, I spotted a poster on the wall explaining why the cafe no longer uses plastic bags or plastic straws: to keep the material out of the ocean where it never really goes away.
Plastic bags, straws, eating utensils, plates, bowls, and cups are everywhere in hospitals these …
Lead your health care organization toward a culture of sustainability
As the health care landscape evolves, health care provider roles continue to shift.
Industries recognize the power of collaboration and the strength of communication between different providers; among those, the pharmacist and the physician.
Unfortunately, doctors and pharmacists have historically had strained relationships. In many cases, communication suffers, which can lead to adverse drug events (ADEs), or harm caused to a patient as a result of medication exposure.
It’s worth noting, though, that …
3 ways pharmacists can change your prescribing habits
In observing trends among my patient encounters, to me, there appears to be a distinct difference in clinical encounters between more “holistically-minded” patients and more “traditionally-minded” patients, for lack of better terms. One is not necessarily better than the other. There are definite benefits and risks associated with either group. Whereas the “holistically-minded” tend to see western medicine with some degree of skepticism, the “traditionally-minded” tend to be comfortable with …
What is the fundamental dilemma in medicine?
I am considered a “xennial” physician. Not quite a millennial — but also not fitting into the generation of the respected preceptors I had in medical school and residency. I took my MCAT via paper and pencil. My mini boards during my clinical rotations were on paper and pencil. All of my licensing and board exams were computerized.
It was not an option to sit at home and log on to …
Advice from a “xennial” physician to aspiring physicians
“Alice Woods” is dying of metastatic breast cancer, but she cares little for awareness efforts like pink ribbons and catchy hashtags like #stage4needsmore. You see, Alice has akathisia due to an adverse effect from discontinuing Klonopin — a condition that has caused her far more suffering than her terminal cancer. It has also prevented her from receiving adequate cancer treatment and is, therefore, ending her …
Don’t miss this adverse drug reaction when tapering benzodiazepines
An excerpt from Wrongful Deaths.
“We will name Memorial Hospital, Dr. Julie Stone, Dr. Vijay Gupta, and ICU nurse Tracy Miller in a malpractice suit involving the wrongful death of Ivy Jackson.” Venjer appeared apologetic. “But Dr. Torrins is correct. It …
A proximate cause of wrongful death
I never considered any specialty other than family medicine. I always saw the other specialties as necessary but supportive adjuncts. I always thought that the other specialties were all fascinating in their own way but saw them more as a part of a library that I could access when needed rather than ever feeling the need to delve deep into any specific subject. Specialists were the masters of the marvels …
Why this physician never considered any specialty other than family medicine
Health care providers and even consumers who order their own genetic testing should really get to know GINA. Who or what is GINA? Is it some new virtual voice-activated personal assistant? Is she a new Italian superstar? Neither choice is correct. GINA stands for the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, a U.S. federal law that was put in place to protect consumers from discrimination based on their genetic testing. GINA celebrates …
Before ordering a genetic test, get to know GINA
She had everything she needed. Her husband had died long ago. But the fortune he left her would suffice. She had given up on mansions long ago. There were no children, so who needed the space? She was happy as can be in her little condo in the city. The building had the most lavish pool, exercise room, and views. She absolutely adored the doormen. They would let …
The surprising thing this patient was missing
Two weeks ago, while I was helping with an emergency medicine course that I’m a teaching assistant for, I started feeling extremely light-headed, and the chest tightness that I had dismissed as heartburn earlier that morning got worse. I was tended to by the emergency medicine doctor who I was teaching with, admitted to the ED with a resting pulse rate of 130 beats per minute, later admitted to the …
A medical student as a patient. She thanks her support systems.
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This seems to be the big take-home message from voters the mid-term elections, which bodes well for preserving gains from the Affordable Care Act and expanding coverage. Health care was the number 1 issue for voters according to several exit polls, beating out immigration, the economy, and gun violence, among others, with voters strongly favoring Democrats as the party more likely to protect patients with …
5 health care lessons from the mid-term elections
Recently, Crispy Doc ran an interview with Vagabond MD that highlighted his road to part-time work. This struck a chord with me as I’ve considered doing the same despite being in my second year as an attending physician. In fact, Crispy Doc and I had a conversation about achieving work-life balance through part-time work in Orlando at FinCon.
When I came home after the conference, I ran into one of …
5 reasons why this male physician went part-time
“Where there is no struggle, there is no compassion.”
-Frederick Douglass
Growing up with sickle cell anemia exposed me to the field of medicine. As I go through the pain and complications, it humbles me to the point that motivates me to work harder to be the doctor I want for myself. I want to be a physician-scientist that conducts clinical research targeted toward patients like me. I believe that as a …
How sickle cell anemia influences a medical school journey
I was misinformed about medical school. Growing up, I wanted to help people become healthy. After four years at the Ohio State University Medical School and three years of a family medicine residency, I still did not know enough to accomplish my goal. My training allowed me to become a disease-care expert, not a health care specialist. I was taught little to nothing about nutrition and true disease prevention. Despite …
Doctors need to learn more about nutrition
I want to talk about dehumanization in medicine. And, yes, part of this discussion is about our patients. But another part — just as important — is about the dehumanization of us, the doctors.
Most of us have had that moment in the third year of medical school when we are sitting in a mandatory reflection session, and someone brings up the erasure of our patients’ identities. This is true, and …
Stop dehumanizing physicians. Lives depend on it.
“Active Shooter in Squirrel Hill.” This was the subject line of an email I received on the morning of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. It was from my children’s school, which is located less than a mile from the scene of the shooting. “I am working … to put in place a plan for helping our students understand this situation in age-appropriate ways,” the school’s principal went on to …
Don’t wait to take action on gun control
In 2013, the American Medical Association (AMA) announced its decision to classify obesity as a disease, moving against the recommendation at the time of a group studying obesity. Yet there are still those who believe that obesity is not a disease but rather a “condition,” and this has downstream ramifications for health policy, health care provider reimbursement, and, ultimately, societal health and well-being. But this is …
Call obesity what it is: a disease
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