Physician voices

12,751 articles · Since 2006

Articles, page 136

Understanding your personal risk factors for burnout

December 16, 2022Dec 16, 2022

An excerpt from The Resilient Life: Manage Stress, Prevent Burnout, & Strengthen Your Mental and Physical Health. According to a recent study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, "a dramatic increase in burnout and decrease in satisfaction with work-life integration occurred…

An excerpt from The Resilient Life: Manage Stress, Prevent Burnout, & Strengthen Your Mental and Physical Health.

According to a recent study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, “a dramatic increase in burnout and decrease in satisfaction with work-life integration occurred in U.S. physicians between 2020 and 2021.” This isn’t a surprise to anyone.

The work environment is what drives physician burnout. Excessive workloads, untenable administrative burdens, moral injury, and other …

Ethical consumerism: How to shop responsibly for the holidays

Recha Bergstrom, MD & Spencer Kelly

December 15, 2022Dec 15, 20222

After record-setting sales of $889.3 billion last holiday season, the National Retail Federation predicts that Americans will spend between $942-960 billion this year. Deloitte forecasts that each American will make $1,455 worth of holiday-related purchases individually. It is possible to…

It is possible to have your holiday spending support impactful companies and causes while getting the gifts you want your loved ones to enjoy.

What is ethical consumerism?

Business Insider defines ethical consumerism as “the practice of spending …

How clinicians can respond to the “big ask”

Susan MacLellan-Tobert, MD

December 15, 2022Dec 15, 20224

"Between stimulus and response, there is space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." - Viktor Frankl In the post-pandemic practice environment, the autonomy-squishing "big ask" within many…

“Between stimulus and response, there is space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
– Viktor Frankl

In the post-pandemic practice environment, the autonomy-squishing “big ask” within many organizations is for providers to see more patients and improve practice efficiency with dwindling resources so as to buffer the bottom line and allow for system recovery. This mandate may make us …

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Remembering Twitch: a star who shone bright

Courtney Markham-Abedi, MD

December 14, 2022Dec 14, 2022

I'm saddened to hear of the passing of Stephen "Twitch" Boss. He was a talented DJ and dancer who brought joy to many with his infectious personality and smile. He will be remembered for his incredible talent and the joy…

I’m saddened to hear of the passing of Stephen “Twitch” Boss. He was a talented DJ and dancer who brought joy to many with his infectious personality and smile. He will be remembered for his incredible talent and the joy he brought to those around him. He leaves behind his wife and three children.

The truth is that psychiatry is a challenging …

Sweet bitter: a doctor’s cancer diagnosis

Anonymous

December 14, 2022Dec 14, 2022

I screen patients for skin cancer on a regular basis, and one of my research interests is to find new biomarkers of cancer prognosis – to be able to separate out cancers that won't actually do someone any harm versus…

I screen patients for skin cancer on a regular basis, and one of my research interests is to find new biomarkers of cancer prognosis – to be able to separate out cancers that won’t actually do someone any harm versus cancers that could very well spread, grow unchecked and uncontrolled, and potentially end a life. I know that cancer treatments have advanced beyond my imagination in recent years, with …

The mistress of medicine

Susan Hart Gaines

December 14, 2022Dec 14, 20222

When I married my husband, I had no idea there would be a mistress one day. When I met the man who would become my husband, he was not yet a doctor. He was 22, a black belt, a waiter…

When I married my husband, I had no idea there would be a mistress one day.

When I met the man who would become my husband, he was not yet a doctor. He was 22, a black belt, a waiter in a fancy restaurant, and very handsome. He knew all kinds of things about champagne and paté, cocktails, and sushi.

We met in our college martial arts club. I was 19 and …

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The mistress of medicine

Don’t be like Elon Musk. Get a lawyer for your clinic.

Kristin Puhl, MD

December 13, 2022Dec 13, 2022

Employers need lawyers. This doesn't just apply in medicine — it's true everywhere. For a recent high-profile example, let's consider Twitter. If massive layoffs had been made without adequate notice as required by California law, they could be on the…

Employers need lawyers. This doesn’t just apply in medicine — it’s true everywhere. For a recent high-profile example, let’s consider Twitter. If massive layoffs had been made without adequate notice as required by California law, they could be on the hook for millions of dollars in damages.

However, medicine likes to consider itself as different from other businesses. It’s a nice idea, this fantasy of the country doctor who delivers babies …

Drop the euphemisms and get uncomfortable when talking about abortion

Michael McCutchen, MD, MBA

December 12, 2022Dec 12, 20225

It does not behoove us to mince words in a politically charged climate. To productively discuss any controversial topic, we must first define terms and get past the jargon and doublespeak that commonly muddles conversations on serious issues. The Oxford Dictionary defines euphemism as “a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.” We often use euphemisms …

Physician secrets that nurses need to know

Ronald Hirsch, MD

December 12, 2022Dec 12, 2022

There is no one prototypical physician. Every physician has their own practice style, their own knowledge base, and their own preferred method of communication. In my role as medical director for case management at my community hospital, I was given…

I put together this list of things that physicians wished hospital nurses knew about them, both good …

Perfectionism will kill you

Jean Paul Brutus, MD

December 11, 2022Dec 11, 2022

Every doctor wants to be perfect. We want to make sure our diagnosis is perfect. Our treatment plan is perfect, and our outcome will be perfect. Patients want the perfect doctor. They want us to get it right on the first try, each and every time. The problem is perfectionism, as hard as we try to achieve it or wish for it, is not attainable. Perfectionism will kill you.

…

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Perfectionism will kill you

How female social conditioning leads to burnout

Claudine Holt, MD

December 10, 2022Dec 10, 2022

There has been a lot of talk about physician burnout over the past few years, and as an occupational medicine physician, I'm happy to see that conversation is taking place. For too long, we just saw burnout as an acceptable…

There has been a lot of talk about physician burnout over the past few years, and as an occupational medicine physician, I’m happy to see that conversation is taking place. For too long, we just saw burnout as an acceptable hazard that just comes with the job.

But it’s become clear to me that there’s a big missing piece in the discussion of burnout — particularly when we try to answer …

How medicine is broken

Janet Tamaren, MD

December 10, 2022Dec 10, 2022

I read KevinMD regularly. I see a lot of stories about how broken medicine is: how doctors are retiring, leaving early because they are overworked or underappreciated, or being manipulated by corporate medicine. All these complaints are valid. There are also articles about how residency is brutal and causes mental distress to trainees, with the onerous hours and unrealistic expectations. That, too, is true. Medical training, at least in my experience, is …

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How medicine is broken

My personal cemetery

Veronica Bonales, MD

December 10, 2022Dec 10, 2022

I love listening to podcasts on my way to work, and I was most excited when the second season of Dr. Death started. If you didn't listen to the first season, it was about Dr. C. Duntsch, a neurosurgeon in…

I love listening to podcasts on my way to work, and I was most excited when the second season of Dr. Death started. If you didn’t listen to the first season, it was about Dr. C. Duntsch, a neurosurgeon in the Dallas area who should never have been operating on people. He even left his best friend paralyzed from the neck down due to a botched surgery.

The second season follows …

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My personal cemetery

The duality of being a female physician

Noel Dasgupta, MD

December 10, 2022Dec 10, 2022

I am a female cardiologist that graduated from medical school almost 20 years ago. Although my core personality has remained constant, I have been viewed through multiple different optics. What I find most interesting is that while most of my patients would unanimously agree that I am a smart, talented, and dedicated professional, I have never achieved this level of validation from other professionals in medicine.

I stay the same, but …

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The duality of being a female physician

Sexual health is health: It’s time to embrace that in medicine

Toyin M. Falusi, MD

December 9, 2022Dec 9, 2022

For many of us, while in medical school and residency, sexual health history was mostly taught from a disease standpoint. If a patient had a complaint about sexual dysfunction, had a symptom or concern about a sexually transmitted infection, needed contraception, or had specific questions related to the reproductive system, then we took a sexual history. Sexual health history taking in many programs is limited to an elective in the …

Gender bias is powerful and harmful

Ariela L. Marshall, MD

December 9, 2022Dec 9, 20223

The Boston Globe recently published an article on Dr. Jane Weeks, an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who declined treatment for breast cancer, passed out at work due to a pulmonary embolism in 2012, and ultimately died of breast cancer in 2013. I was a first-year fellow training at Dana-Farber in 2012 and vividly recall hearing that a well-known oncologist had passed out in the cafeteria. There were many …

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Gender bias is powerful and harmful

Does your OR case scheduling process need a revamp?

Michael Bronson, MD

December 7, 2022Dec 7, 2022

I've been in the health care industry for over a decade. Starting a few years ago, I embarked on a new project: building a case scheduling platform specifically for anesthesia staff. I'll be the first to say that I never…

I’ve been in the health care industry for over a decade. Starting a few years ago, I embarked on a new project: building a case scheduling platform specifically for anesthesia staff.

I’ll be the first to say that I never envisioned myself becoming a so-called “health care entrepreneur.” From my perspective, I’m just an anesthesiologist who stumbled upon an unaddressed pain point—the tedious process of building OR case schedules—and after looking …

If the hospital CEO emailed employees like Twitter’s CEO

Jennifer Lycette, MD

December 7, 2022Dec 7, 20223

To: From: Office of the CEO Subject: A fork in the road Going forward, we will need to be extremely hardcore to streamline a restructured Health care 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly diseased world. This will mean working even…

To: [Group: all employees]

From: Office of the CEO

Subject: A fork in the road

Going forward, we will need to be extremely hardcore to streamline a restructured Health care 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly diseased world. This will mean working even longer hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will justify a new N95 mask each week.

Health care will also be much more profit-driven. Physicians and nurses will still be very …

You’re not being frivolous. You’re being fabulously human.

Kricia Palmer, MD, Allied ASID

December 5, 2022Dec 5, 2022

For years, I've noticed something that's bothered me. I see it almost daily within social media women's physician groups. The post starts with, "I know this is a frivolous question, but …" What follows are questions about topics ranging from…

[Frivolous: not having any serious purpose or value]

For years, I’ve noticed something that’s bothered me. I see it almost daily within social media women’s physician groups. The post starts with, “I know this is a frivolous question, but …” What follows are questions about topics ranging from cosmetic recommendations to travel advice.

Questions like:

“Where can I find concert tickets?”

“What color should I paint my bedroom?”

What do you all think of this …

Aesthetics and the physician’s eye

Claire Unis, MD

December 5, 2022Dec 5, 2022

The fall sunlight calls my eye to notice little things: the veins on a yellowing maple leaf. The askew feather on a chicken's wing. The faintest breeze tricking the pond into patterned sin waves around a lone white duck. What…

The fall sunlight calls my eye to notice little things: the veins on a yellowing maple leaf. The askew feather on a chicken’s wing. The faintest breeze tricking the pond into patterned sin waves around a lone white duck.

What do we owe this world but our ability to parse and observe, to interpret, to be filled enough by moments of abject beauty to return to the ugliness and try to …

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Aesthetics and the physician’s eye

Physician voices

Articles, page 136

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