From Mom: Here’s what it takes to be a great doctor

Education
January 31, 2013

My mom wrote me the following letter during my first semester in medical school. She has been a patient, and a mother/wife/sister/daughter of patients. She has been around countless doctors. Here is her take on what makes a great one.

Dear Son,

I am so very proud that you are becoming a physician and that you chose this profession, not for the prestige or the financial advantages, but because you want to …

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From Mom: Here’s what it takes to be a great doctor

Countertransference is a reality that must be grappled with

Education
January 29, 2013

“Sometimes, how you feel at the end of an interview can be clinically revealing,” my preceptor says. “How does this patient make you feel?”

***

“Mr. M?” I ask gently, knocking on the hospital room door. “May I come in?”

“Hello? Hello?”

I enter at what I think is an invitation to me, but see that 79-year-old Mr. M is speaking into the phone instead.

“I’m sorry, I can come back…” I start to say. …

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Countertransference is a reality that must be grappled with

Be the bad guy with good intentions

Education
January 14, 2013

“You’re not sorry.”

Within two days two different patients said this to me, each with hatred in his voice.  Each time I was alone, each time I had known the patient for only a few minutes, and each time the rage was directed at me and only me.

For seven months, I had avoided being the bad guy.  When a patient got upset, he accused my superiors, and I hid behind their …

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Be the bad guy with good intentions

4 bad reasons why medical students choose a specialty

Education
December 27, 2012

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“I love the hours.”

“I want to be just like Dr. Smith. He has a sweet practice.”“I want to make a ton of money.”

“I want to make a ton of money.”

These are some bad reasons why medical students choose a specialty. Most medical students decide what specialty to pursue when they are in their mid to late 20s. While we all think …

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4 bad reasons why medical students choose a specialty

The transition from resident to attending physician

Education
December 19, 2012

The patient had arrived for a urology procedure with a blood glucose in the 400’s. He suffered from a recent stomach bug and had gotten off schedule with administration of his meds. While his GI symptoms had subsided, he was feeling crappy overall. I decided to cancel his case and went about initiating treatment to get his blood sugar under control. When I informed the urologist of my findings and …

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The transition from resident to attending physician

How gross anatomy changes you forever

Education
October 21, 2012

After a week of medical school orientation, followed by two weeks in the classroom studying cellular organelles and biochemical pathways, our class was finally going to start the centuries-old rite of passage that is human gross anatomy. For many students, it will be first time seeing a dead body. The anatomy lab is where future surgeons will make their first cut with a scalpel, without the pressure of life and …

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How gross anatomy changes you forever

Are pregnancy and residency compatible?

Education
October 16, 2012

Viewpoint #1.  Training programs might say: we are headed for a major league collision in the training of women physicians.  Soon 50% of all trainees will be women, and in some specialties, such as OB/GYN, they will be 80-90% of the residents in any particular program. Training years coincide with prime child bearing years. Imagine if even only half the residents in a program were pregnant at once.  What would happen …

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Are pregnancy and residency compatible?

EKG reading: It’s shocking what medical residents don’t know

Education
July 26, 2012

“Dr. Fisher, can you teach our residents EKG lecture series?”

Naively, I said “Sure!”

What I didn’t realize is how hard this is to do today.

Much of this is not residents’ fault.  They only have so many hours in so many days to attend lectures while caring for patients.  Thanks to residency work-hour restrictions, those hours have become even fewer.  To make matters much worse, through the year residents are torn to …

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EKG reading: It’s shocking what medical residents don’t know

9 essential tips for new medical students

Education
July 17, 2012

Whether you’re starting medical school or beginning your second year, this post is for you. Will probably work just as well for PAs, NPs and any other health professional student who hasn’t started clinical rotations.

Our former babysitter just graduated from medical school and the WhiteCoats are just as proud as her parents are. Then I started thinking, what advice would I give to students starting medical school?

Our first day of …

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9 essential tips for new medical students

Tips to be the best intern you can be

Education
July 6, 2012

Across the country, newly minted doctors have started their internships.   The first night on call there won’t be an intern – anywhere in the country – who will sleep.  Every new intern is absolutely convinced that the beeper is going to go off and they won’t know what to do.  (You get over this by about the 2nd or 3rd call night, by the way).

Graduating from medical school …

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Tips to be the best intern you can be

The moments that define the job of a physician

Education
July 2, 2012

One of the most intense moments of my third-year of medical school was during my internal medicine clerkship when a code blue was called.

It was our responsibility as medical students on the inpatient service to report to every code blue while we were on our calls every 4th night. This time was no different, and my call partner and I ran to the code. When we arrived, I recognized the …

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The moments that define the job of a physician

Should medical students consider a combined psychiatry residency?

Education
June 19, 2012

“What about combined psychiatry-family medicine-neurology-internal medicine programs?  Should I try to do a triple board program in psychiatry-child psychiatry and pediatrics?”

Every April, I field such questions from a slew of rising fourth year students who have become, to their surprise (and sometimes dismay), passionately interested in psychiatry. Psychiatry is a shortage specialty and psychiatric issues rank high among the challenges facing medical care systems here and around the world. For …

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Should medical students consider a combined psychiatry residency?

My pediatrician inspired me to become a physician

Education
June 7, 2012

I recently learned the sorry news that my childhood pediatrician has died. Not only was he my pediatrician, but he was also my father’s pediatrician. Our family became rather close to him over the years.

He came from a different generation of doctors, one that made house calls, that served in wars abroad, and that learned how to diagnose patients in the days before MRIs and CT scans. Even though I …

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My pediatrician inspired me to become a physician

A medical student’s first patient interview

Education
May 25, 2012

“Um—Hi there, I’m a, uh, you know.  Medical student. First year. For, you know, the Patient-Doctor—err, Patient-Physician course—”

The nurse smiled and turned to a woman of shorter stature with bony, scrunched- up shoulders. “Mary, do you want this first year to interview you?”

Mary was about to set foot in the lounge when she heard this. She let out a sigh and faced me. Her eyes looked worn; I could tell …

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A medical student’s first patient interview

How medical school changed me

Education
May 22, 2012

I have been thinking a lot over the last few weeks about all the many ways that the experience of medical school has changed me.

The most obvious is knowledge. I’ve drunk from the proverbial “firehose” of information that we experience in medical school, and apparently enough of the facts stuck with me to pass all my exams, and secure myself a residency program back in my home state of California. …

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How medical school changed me

Struggling with the idea of leaving for medical school

Education
May 21, 2012

The lines of text on my laptop screen blurred together as I lost focus.  I knew there was at least one error on my medical school re-application I would regret later on.  My eyes scanned the familiar body of words but failed to connect the information to my brain.  Frustrated, I closed the application and shut my computer off.

My bedroom door abruptly swung open, revealing my mother with the phone …

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Struggling with the idea of leaving for medical school

Tips for adjusting to life after residency

Education
May 11, 2012

The more I talk to new physicians who are transitioning into practice, the more I realize how many substantial life and career shifts occur post-residency.

I experienced these changes myself several years ago, but it’s taken me a while to fully process them and realize how they’ve affected my life.

In fact, it would be safe to say that I experienced a complete 180 after graduating from residency. I know other new …

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Tips for adjusting to life after residency

CME limitations and how we can improve Continuing Medical Education

Education
April 16, 2012

Some people critique Continuing Medical Education (CME) programs as spoon-feeding. As a young physician struggling to learn a lot of material, I actually appreciate a bit of ready-to-consume content that I can learn quickly and effectively. The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and other reputable institutions provide CME programs that, overall, help to keep physicians up on the literature and integrate new findings with existing knowledge. However, despite the basic …

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CME limitations and how we can improve Continuing Medical Education

The cutthroat pre-med culture needs to change

Education
April 2, 2012

I eyed my chat screen with a good amount of suspicion. A friend of a friend who I had rarely spoken to had initiated a chat conversation with me with the opening line “How are medical school apps going?” The cursor blinked in anticipation.

I began to think about possible ulterior motives that she, another pre-medical student, could have had. Perhaps she just wanted to use me as a comparison for …

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The cutthroat pre-med culture needs to change

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