Imagine your typical yearly physical. It’s probably booked for 20 to 40 minutes. Since you, like many of us, may see your physician only once a year, it is important for you to have your physician’s complete attention and to have all of your concerns addressed. Some of these concerns may be of a sensitive – even embarrassing – nature. Your physician may likewise ask you some probing questions about …
I was recently working in clinic on a Friday afternoon. I was on my last patient of the day, and it had been a particularly long clinic. I had big plans for the weekend and should have already finished. The gentleman entered the room, sat down, and we began the consultation. Because I was so behind, I went through everything a little quicker than I usually would, but still covering …
As media coverage of the 50th anniversary of Woodstock shifted into high gear earlier this month, two articles in the “Arts and Medicine” section of JAMA called attention to another anniversary that transported me back in time.
It has been 40 years since the publication of The House of God — an unabashedly irreverent (some would say “borderline pathological”) fictionalized account of author Stephen Bergman’s …
“Jeff, turn my headphones up.”
There is a peace and tranquility to the recording booth before the beat drops. A heavy bass and drum kick in, signaling me to bark gravelly lyrics into a state-of-the-art microphone with hopes that it sounds passable. Over the past year, my rhymes have gone from clunky to less clunky, and for a few moments, they weave between melodic insightfulness and relatable humor. Embedded within these …
As we’ve seen, the lives of those working in the health care system has become overwhelmingly challenging, burdened by all of the excess nonmedical stuff that has been added into our lives as we try to take care of patients.
From prior authorizations, to clicking in the electronic medical record, to endless streams of regulatory requirements, to the continuous onslaught created by …
What is coaching? It’s a conscious effort to notice and evaluate how our thinking impacts our experiences, how perspective shows up in the results of our life.
Coaching has been integral to fields other than medicine for many years. Yet, many physicians don’t know much about it — much less anything about its potential to radically transform the culture of medical training and our experiences in health care.
It’s time we caught …
Earlier this year, I asked a group of nurses what gifts doctors could give that would help them know they are appreciated. There were hundreds of comments that included many I expected: Food (pizza, chocolate, cake, tacos, bourbon, Starbucks, healthy snacks), pens, cash, and/or gift cards for all shifts.
There were some interesting “high end” ideas: Massages or a massage chair. Trips. Cars. Stethoscopes.
Some still make me shake my head and …
Ever feel like you are always on the go, not feeling comfortable slowing down? All through school, college, medical school, residency, and then practicing medicine, the one thing that I got really good at was staying busy. Planning projects, test-taking, solving cases, treating patients, emails, meetings, joining boards, organizations, getting more certifications, a world of task lists, and checkboxes. What was often sacrificed was being a mom, wife, domestic duties, …
For what seemed like an hour, I stood staring at the flat lines scrolling endlessly across my monitor in the OR. The once pulsatile waves, rendered useless and flat due to the absence of a beating heart. After a frenzied six hours of pouring blood into the patient while it poured back out of her just as fast, the surgeons drowning in blood in their attempt to sew the new …
I am a cardiac anesthesiologist. I want to explain what anesthesiologists do, who we are, and why it is important for the public to know.
Anesthesiologists are physicians.
Anesthesiologists are the guardians of the operating room.
Anesthesiologists are leaders.
If you get in a car accident, we are there.
If you develop an infection and can’t breathe, we are there.
If you are having a heart attack, we are there.
If you need a new knee or …
I was an intern, doing a rotation in the coronary care unit (CCU) of a large urban hospital. It was very challenging: The patients had complex medical issues, and my fellow residents and I were given lots of responsibility for their care. Still, I felt I was finally getting the hang of residency.
One of the first patients I saw was Mrs. Smith, a middle-aged woman who had come to the …
At the end of a long table covered with hors d’oeuvres and a birthday cake, I struck up a conversation with three primary care physicians.
I was hungry for their opinions.
Inside the crowded apartment, we spoke for some 20 minutes about the systemic and cultural causes of burnout in primary care—a conversation that informed the first article in this series.
As I was about to leave, I …
Touch is a sensitive thing. No pun is intended here, but whether and how we touch our patients deserves our careful thought and deliberation.
So much interpersonal contact these days is virtual, with emojis, abbreviations and whole words thrown around as substitutes for human contact. Think XOXO and, “hugs and kisses.” And when people do touch in our health care environment, it is often with gloves, even for simple fingerstick blood …
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What has the medical community, once thought of as the “ultimate team,” finally come down to in 2019? The “back in my day” sigh I often hear from more senior physicians has inspired me to read several books about the history of medicine. As I devoured them from cover to cover, the excitement of medical discovery, the anticipation of the near-miracles that were about to be revealed, and most importantly, …
“I just don’t know what to do, how to help.” My patient’s wife was slumped in the plastic chair by her husband’s side, fatigued and beleaguered. She had been there for hours, days, as we waited for antibiotics to start fighting back against the infection that had overwhelmed his body.
“What sort of music does he like to listen to?”
“Depends on what he’s doing. Zeppelin to work on the car. Jazz …
The changes that have occurred in health care over the last few years represent a sea change from the autonomy and clout that physicians once had. It’s no great secret to anybody working in medicine that most of these changes to practice — including the push towards employment instead of private practice, and the need to now spend the majority of the day clicking boxes on a computer screen — have …
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I just did my first telemedicine video visit.
The concept seems so strange, the idea of carrying out an “office visit” without the patient actually being in the office.
Right now we have it structured so that when a patient calls up requesting to see me on a day when I am already fully booked (or, as is usually the case, overbooked), …
A debate highlighting gender discrimination in medicine currently rages within the pediatric hospitalist medicine community.
The debate centers on the board certification process for “grandfathering” for the new pediatric hospitalist subspecialty which effectively excludes women on the basis of motherhood.
For those not familiar with “grandfathering in,” this is the process by which a new subspecialty may grant board certification to physicians who have been practicing in the specialty. The alternative option …
The emergency room is an interesting place to work. It’s controlled chaos. Walk through the hallways, and you’ll hear people screaming, see others crying, and others wincing in pain.
Over time, you get a unique perspective on the human condition. In my years of training and practice, I’ve seen so much. People experiencing their worst days. Others receiving news that will change everything. Some lives ending. Others returning from the brink.
Certainly, …
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I made my 10:20 a.m. patient wait while I told my support staff about my day off.
“I was getting an ice cream when I saw a car accident. By the time I got there, it was clear that there were no serious injuries and all I did was to distract the passenger so she wouldn’t panic while we waited for EMS. Her husband hit a tree with their van, and …
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