Patients and caregivers writing on KevinMD about the experience of illness and the health care system from the other side of the exam table: navigating care, the doctor-patient relationship, being heard, and what patients want physicians to understand. Physicians who have become patients write here too. For the record of what pain patients and physicians have said to each other about opioids and chronic pain since 2007, with patient authors cited at the same weight as physicians, see Opioids: what physicians and pain patients say, in their own words. For what patients, families, and physicians have said about dying, hospice, and the decisions families face at the end of life, see End of life: what physicians say, in their own words. For what women and the physicians who treat them have said about pregnancy, menopause, and the conditions dismissed for years, see Women's health: what physicians say, in their own words. For what physicians have said about consent, honesty, and who decides, see Medical ethics: what physicians say, in their own words.
Recently, I had the honor of moderating a discussion for the Sex::Tech 2011 Conference with the producers of MTVs 16 and Pregnant Morgan Freeman, Dia Sokol Savage and The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
I was fascinated by the responses of members in the audience as well as the reactions I read while monitoring the online live stream via Twitter. So what did I conclude?
I will be leaving my current practice in a couple months and starting work at a different clinic in a different city. This type of transition really brings to light how much I had really gotten to know patients on a personal level. This became surprisingly clear not too long ago.
One day, I saw a patient on my schedule that had historically required more of my emotional energy. We often …
So I’m watching the 6 pm local news last night and see a piece on KARE-11, my local NBC affiliate, about “a new buzzword called ‘cyberchonrdria'” — used to describe people who “Google their symptoms online and then worry over the multitude of results and possible diagnosis …”
But it’s clear from what they posted online that this was not …
Recognize the title? It’s from Steve Martin’s 1978 stand-up album, Wild and Crazy Guy. Martin lists How to Make Money Off the Mentally Ill as one of the many books he’s written. The joke is supposed to be on Martin himself, inviting us to ask, “What kind of disreputable jerk takes advantage of the mentally ill?”
I woke up in the middle of the night last night and I could not fall back asleep. I had a moment of brilliance laying there in bed. I had discovered a new medical disorder, Wimpy Parent Syndrome (WPS).
For years I have been seeing it in clinical practice, but have been unable to put my finger on exactly what was taking place. Then the idea of WPS came to me and everything …
If you’re sick, you need people to empathize with you, right? Maybe not.
Empathy is one of those words with a wide variety of definitions, especially in academic settings.
From Wikipedia: “Empathy … cover[s] a broad spectrum, ranging from feeling a concern for other people that creates a desire to help them, experiencing emotions that match another person’s emotions, knowing what the other person is …
Recently, KevinMD.com picked up my post on empathy or should I say the lack of it. I received some engaging comments.
One comment in particular caught my attention.
The contributor for some reason equated “being empathetic” with “giving in” to patient requests presumably during routine office visits. Here’s a direct quote:
Give the patients what they want! Antibiotics are OK for colds. The patients want them. So …
Pauline Chen had a post in the New York Times recently about surgical informed consent. Informed consent is an important part of the surgeon/patient communication transaction.
Surgeon reviews the proposed operation, the rationale behind it, and the possible complications. For example— a patient comes in with biliary colic. We describe the anatomy and pathology. We aver that surgical resection will lead to …
I went to needle exchange to hang out. You may be asking yourself what a soccer mom from the burbs is doing perched on a folding chair in the parking garage of 101 Grove on a dark November night, surrounded by syringes.
I was there as a guest observer because I’m working on a series of articles about mortality and homelessness, as part of an Annenberg California Health Journalism Fellowship I …
Recently, as I listened to leading researchers grapple with the question of how to design a feasible study of intervention for postpartum depression, I held in my mind an image of a particular moment in my office.
I was sitting on the floor with 10 month old Madison and her mother Nancy, who was struggling with postpartum depression. Nancy spoke of the strain Madison’s refusal to take a bottle and her …
Dorothy suffered a second heart attack, leaving more of her heart muscle damaged and causing her to slip into congestive heart failure. There was not much we could do to reverse the many blockages in her arteries. Yet she was cheerful, as were her four children.
To everything there is a season and mine comes to an end today. For 720 weeks I attempted to give quality care to my patients. The task was not always easy especially when most of my patients held the unenviable position of having a high risk pregnancy and receiving Medicaid or being uninsured. Babies have a right to be born healthy …
“Mrs. Adams” slowly ambled into the family medicine clinic on a Wednesday afternoon. I immediately noticed her slight hunch as she made her way into the lobby.
“A case of back pain?” I thought to myself. “Perhaps an exacerbation of the scoliosis she’d had since childhood?” I shrugged my shoulders and carried on with my …
Americans typically rely on elected officials to uphold the will of the people. Now physicians—traditionally confined to exam rooms—are taking direct action to fulfill community needs.
In 2004 I decided to meet face to face with citizens in my hometown. I thought, “Why wait for legislation? I’m a board-certified physician. What’s stopping me from serving the public?”
So I led town hall meetings and invited ordinary citizens to create the clinic of …
When Clarissa was 13 she entered Johns Hopkins Hospital to be treated for relapsed acute leukemia knowing full well that she had only a 40% chance of survival. Today she is 16 and in excellent health. But it took 2 1/2 years of incredibly rigorous treatments to get there. Equally importantly it meant riding an emotional roller coaster for her and her parents.
Kevin Pho, at KevinMD.com, posted a commentary about encounters with “difficult patients.” He correctly notes that physicians themselves contribute to these interactions. To reduce the likelihood of these encounters, he suggests that physicians would benefit from more training in “psychosocial skills.”
Kudos to Kevin for adjusting his own language by the second sentence of his post: He makes the distinction between difficult patient and difficult encounter.
“Do you know a good doctor?” is a question tossed around in conversation sometimes. If the person is reasonably nice/intelligent, I’m happy to hand out my doctor’s name and phone number.
Recently, I referred more friends to my all-time favorite doctor. Instead of just taking his name and phone number, the couple wanted to know why I like him. That’s a fair enough …
I do not wish simply to use the buzz word of the hour. Nor do I wish to assert that I have all the answers.
I genuinely desire to bring to light an interesting conflict that has plagued the nursing profession for decades.
Bullying.
Why in a profession centered around the concepts of compassion, caring, and healing has a mindset of bullying permeated the culture. Even more confusing is that most often, this …
As in anyone’s life, the hardest thing to achieve in life is a balance. Whether it’s work, school, home, or play, it’s just plain tough. For those of us with challenges such as cerebral palsy, it brings a new set of challenges. Here’s why.
Task execution takes longer. Where it might take my sister thirty minutes to get herself ready and out the door in the mornings, it will take me …
