Have you ever come out of an interview feeling like you spent an hour (or more) talking about yourself but learning absolutely nothing about your potential employer? I certainly have.
Sure, interviews are a chance for potential employers to see if you are a good fit, but after way too many one-sided interviews, I came to a realization. Interviews are also the best way to find out if this medical institution …
I am pediatrician who has been practicing for almost twenty years. During my career, I have been employed by two different free-standing children’s hospitals, a non-profit community-based health center, and now I own my own practice. In every setting, I have had to generate coding and billing for my work even when my salary was independent of that billing.
There is no other profession that would dutifully learn the “rules” of …
I am an emergency medicine physician.
I save lives.
As an ER physician, my job is frequently misunderstood. A common question that patients ask is, “What specialty are you hoping to go into?” The misconception is that emergency rooms are staffed by cardiologists, internists, etc., who are trying to make extra income. That’s likely not the case anymore. Some also believe that we can take the place of their family doctor. Or …
These are tumultuous times for practicing physicians. The health care landscape is changing at breathtaking pace and less and less of our time is spent doing what we were actually trained to do: taking care of patients. I absolutely love the patient care part of my job, do everything possible to always remember why I went to medical school in the first place, and maintain focus on the aspects of …
The ad is compelling.
A surfer rides a blue wave, seen from below in crystal clear reflection. The Apple Watch on his left arm cuts through the surf, elegant, sparkling ripples trailing behind. Suddenly, it breaks the surface, and the screen lights up, announcing an incoming call.
Let’s face it, shall we? We are always connected. We are always wired in. We are always on.
We have become a world of interconnected people, …
“It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation, which gives happiness.”
– Thomas Jefferson
If you are a practicing physician, you need rest.
Why do I say this? Because you have gone through an enculturation process which focuses on hyperactivity and super high-level achievement. In training programs and in practice, admitting that you are tired or needing a rest break is a sign of weakness and is discouraged, to say the …
Another young doctor recently jumped to her death in New York City. She landed at the entrance of the building where she lived.
Within less than an hour, I received the following emails about her. All published with permission.
Hello Pamela, I am not a doctor, but a mother of 3 and a wife of a resident physician. Tonight I watched AGAIN the police …
According to the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians, well over half of patient visits to primary care physicians are for mental health issues. So, as part of my book, I Have Been Talking with Your Doctor: Fifty doctors talk about the healthcare crisis and the doctor-patient relationship, I asked about mental health.
None of the doctor interviewees disagreed with the important role that …
Our hospital system’s IT department has recently encouraged us all to change our default encounter note template from the traditional “SOAP” format to the “APSO” format.
For those not familiar with those acronyms:
S: subjective — the patient’s story
O: objective — physical exam, labs, other data
A: assessment — the identified issues/diagnoses
P: plan — details of how to address issues/diagnoses in the assessment
The argument in favor of APSO, putting the assessment and plan …
1. We worry. We lie awake worried sick about you more often than you’d think. The stakes are so high, and we know it.
2. We wonder. I ran into a friend who’d met a patient I’d had sixteen years earlier. She gave me some follow-up, and it made my day — maybe my month. It was a year ago, and I’m still thinking about it. She’d had blood cancer. I referred her …
Artificial intelligence and robotics spell massive changes to the world of work. These technologies can automate new tasks, and we are making more of them, faster, better and cheaper than ever before.
Surgery was early to the robotics party: Over a third of U.S. hospitals have at least one surgical robot. Such robots have been in widespread use by a growing variety of surgical disciplines, including urology and …
“Same team!” bellowed all the frustrated parents from the sideline of a lacrosse game as we watched two teammates clash sticks while fighting to catch the same pass. Both players missed the ball, and the other team scooped it up and scored, perfectly illustrating to our kids what happens when they battle among themselves.
It’s easy to remind our kids that teammates shouldn’t fight, but it’s harder to remind each other …
It was a typical weekend on call. The usual number of surgeries, ER calls and consults. I was called to consult on 47-year-old female who had been admitted with four days of left shoulder pain. She had gone through a cardiac workup and was cleared by her internist. So now, a consult was called to see if there was an orthopedic cause for the patient’s pain — not an uncommon …
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Pamela Wible: Today I’m sitting here with Sydney Ashland, an expert in physician mental health, who has worked with doctors for decades helping them overcome negative thinking patterns. And we’re going to dive into the top 10 lies that physician’s tell themselves. The number one thing that I hear over and over again from doctors is, “I’m stuck in assembly line medicine.”
Sydney Ashland: Yes. I …
In my off time, as a mom and a physician, I spend a decent amount of time lurking in a rather strange environment, even for the internet. A place so filled with anxiety, stories of ill-chosen spouses and little glimpses of unbridled joy, that you’d think you were somehow inside a taping of the Real Housewives of This-crying-baby-makes-me-hope-that-I-end-up-having-a-dissociative-fugue. You know, *that* place.
Online mommy groups on Facebook.
And, there I am, lurking …
Have you bought a new memory foam mattress recently? Many come vacuumed in shrink bags. Once air gets in the bag, the mattress expands to its normal size. It is fascinating to watch how they expand.
It is not so fascinating to watch a patient expand to their actual size, when they are forcefully squeezed into an enclosed time space like an office …
Even though we have probably 20 years of work remaining as physicians, like a lot of you, I like to think about how we will spend our retirement years. After all, in twenty years we will still only be in our early fifties, hopefully with no dependents and a lot of financial security. Of course, my wife and I are interested in traveling, spending time with grandchildren (hopefully), gardening and …
I just got off the phone with Paul, a highly-sought-after plastic surgeon in New York.
“I don’t want to be a doctor anymore,” Paul says. “What else can I do? I have lots of restaurant experience. I’ve worked in 15 restaurants during my life. It’s not easy, but I could do it. I did research on chains and franchises, and I chose Chick-fil-A. …
From the notes I read, it seems that other medical specialties limit “social history” to whether or not someone uses tobacco, drinks alcohol, or uses drugs.
“Social history” is meant to get a sense of the context in which people live. Where do they live? Who do they live with? How did they come to live there? Where did they grow up? What sort of work do they do? How much …
Sometimes there are no words. Not even a eulogy.
Then one courageous family writes this obituary. (This obituary was written by Rachel Dawson, his wife, with the blessing of his parents.) In it, they share how their son lost his battle with severe depression. How he adored his children. How he sacrificed fun, free time, and relaxation to receive his medical …
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