I’m a creature of habit. My first activity every day is to read the New York Times. Depending on my schedule, some days I read more articles than others. This week I was away at a conference and found myself with some early morning extra time before the first meeting session, so I delved into the Arts section. I began to read the first article: “Women …
What is proper work attire in medicine?
When a patient is unwell and seeking help, a vast number of emotions could be going through their mind. Their whole life could have been turned upside down, they may have been fearing this moment for a while, and stressing over the implications of their illness. To physicians, it may sometimes feel like just another name on our list or almost become a routine mechanical interaction, but for …
Reading the body language of your patients
Even though my own internship was a decade ago, I vividly remember the transition from student to resident. Residency was monumental in my path to becoming a physician. There were obvious changes: People now called me “doctor,” my misshapen short white coat was upgraded to a more comforting full length one, and I was often the first one paged to respond to patient problems. Coupled with the positive aspects though, …
How to thrive during your residency
My (sometimes solicited, but often unsolicited) advice for graduating medical students, residents, and fellows:
June is one of my favorite times of the year. One, because it’s summer, but also because it’s graduation season. I love seeing and hearing about everyone’s accomplishments, and seeing years of hard work come to fruition – although if I’m being honest, it’s bittersweet, because it’s also a reminder of how I’m getting older.
This year, I’ve …
6 pieces of advice for graduating medical students and residents
An excerpt from 7 Ways to Stop Drama in Your Healthcare Practice.
Although the ability to initiate difficult conversations is part of good leadership, I’ve never met a leader who enjoys it. Whether your conversation is about body odor, rude behavior, dress code, personal conduct or performance issues, difficult conversations are …
8 steps to have those difficult conversations
No news attracts attention like a physician who’s in trouble with DEA or their state medical board. So, how does it happen, what are the common issues and what can a physician do to safeguard themselves?
First, let’s look at what the numbers and the research tell us.
The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) tells us that 4,091 physicians were disciplined during …
10 ways to stay out of the DEA’s crosshairs
An excerpt from the Docs Outside the Box podcast, episode 1: When the going gets tough… MOVE!
Dr. Nii: All right, well thank you very much for joining us on the Doc’s Outside-the-Box podcast. You are our first guest — first victim, I guess. It’s the inaugural episode, so I just wanted to thank you for joining us. I know you are in New Zealand, which is roughly 18 hours away.
Dr. Brown: It’s …
A conversation with a doctor who was tired of feeling burned out
In medicine, this is the time when one season ends and another begins. New doctors graduate from medical school. They are excited and, at the same time, scared as they enter into residency training. Interns become residents. Senior residents celebrate moving into attending positions or look forward to subspecialty training in fellowship programs. It’s the excitement of completion combined with the uncertainty of charting a new course in medicine. Each …
3 steps for doctors to move into the next level of career growth
Over the last month, a dermatologist practicing in Georgia known as the “dancing doctor” was suspended by the Georgia Medical Board, which said she posed a “threat to public health, safety, and welfare.” At least ten patients have sued this physician with complications including disfigurement and brain damage, and reportedly there are another 100 former patients who …
The hidden issues of the “dancing doctor”
I sometimes get messages from people who have lost physician colleagues and loved ones to suicide. It’s the specifics of these stories that wound me: a note left for an unexpected person; an insignificant fight at sign-out that in retrospect is full of meaning; the white coat that a woman wore when she jumped to her death. Each of these lives is complex, and each of these deaths …
What I wish my family had known about medical residency
The doctor-patient interaction is the absolute core of clinical medicine. Maybe I’ll go much further: it’s the core of health care in general. I always try to remember, whenever I’m ever feeling frustrated with the system, the crazy bureaucracy — and of course, the debacle of our clunky electronic medical records and their data entry requirements — to separate myself from all of that when I’m face-to-face with my patient …
3 things patients really want from their doctors
One of my colleagues sat on a wheeled clinic stool at the end of the examination table and told the patient, which was in this case an actor, “Everything looks great.” After, he swiveled around to face the instructor and the small group of onlooking medical students behind him. Our instructor also turned to us and said, “Very good job. But can anyone tell me what he did wrong?” He …
Don’t tell patients they look great, except in these cases
I came across a letter I wrote to a patient while rummaging through some old files on my computer. I flashbacked to what triggered this: a response to a letter she had sent me, one that was, shall we say, extremely unflattering and quite scathing in the way she described me and our last encounter. From the letter’s tone, I sensed she held back on using more profane language to …
A doctor’s apology can go a long way
As medical professionals we often see people at their worst: battered and broken, bothered and in pain, no make-up, bad hair day, naked and too ill to even care about modesty. At those critical moments, in our patients’ hour of desperation, they hand over their lives to us … and the lives of their family. All that they are — they willingly place at our mercy. At times, burnout, and …
5 ways to show empathy in medicine
My father, recently retired, spent over 40 years in private practice. After dinner, he would sift through piles of paper charts and call patients with their lab results. As a grade schooler, what impressed me the most was that he knew many of his patient’s phone numbers by heart. Of course, this was in the days before HIPAA and caller ID, so scattered charts on the dining table and calling …
The difference between care and service is significant
How do I balance my home life with physician life?
I really want to do a research study. How do I start?
How do I get involved in my specialties society?
I am overwhelmed with clinical duties. How do I negotiate for nonclinical time?
My manuscript was rejected. What should I do next?
I had a bad clinical outcome, and I can’t seem to recover. How do I move forward?
Joining this committee will be a …
10 tips every young physician should read
Summer is upon us, and with it comes the end of the academic year, graduations and the arrival of the newest crop of interns. Soon these fresh-faced physicians will enter into one of the most remarkable educational experiences of their medical careers: residency. Many of these soon-to-be-interns are looking to attendings now for advice on how to excel during (or survive through) the arduous first year of training. Suggestions like …
Welcome to your intern year breakdown
It was 5:45 in the morning on a Monday after a full weekend of call. Thoroughly exhausted, I shuffled into the elevator and was met by the stench of stale clothing mixed with cigarette smoke. A painfully thin teenager exited, looking lost. I allowed him to wander out, grateful to be spared his odor. I was apathetic, overtaken by a weariness I vowed as a medical student never to have.
Morning …
Life as a doctor is selfless and selfish at the same time
A new study found several senior academic surgeons had published papers in what used to be termed “predatory journals.” The newer, gentler term is “solicited publishing,” but it defines the same pay-to-play, low-quality publications.
Surgeons from the University of California, San Diego examined 110 emails sent to the senior author from 29 publishers during a six-week period and early 2017. Nearly all were requesting manuscript submissions. The 29 publishers represented 113 …
Why do physicians publish in predatory journals?
When we go to the deli, we expect to take a number and wait in line. Accomplishing any task at the department of motor vehicles can be an ordeal of waiting and then being herded out the door. This is part of life in American society. However, it should not be part of your health care.
Patients need personalized attention and they need a health care team that listens to them, …
5 ways assembly line medicine harms patients
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
