Physician

Physicians writing on KevinMD about the life of the profession: the work itself, the exhaustion, what women physicians are paid and asked to carry, the losses the profession has been slow to name, and who decides how physicians work. Five maintained records draw on this archive: Physician burnout: what physicians say, in their own words, Primary care: what physicians say, in their own words, Women in medicine: what women physicians say, in their own words,, Physician suicide: what physicians say, in their own words, and Physicians and administrators: what physicians say about who runs medicine, in their own words.

What do you picture when you think of health care?

Amelia L. Bueche, DO

Physician

September 11, 2020

What do you picture when you think of health care? How different is that from your vision of health? Is it possible to connect these two mental images? Can they be merged directly or at by way of a bridge?

When I envision health, I see images of vitality, vibrant smiles, glowing skin, and strong bodies. When I sense health, I feel peaceful spirits, connected hearts, kind actions. When I witness health, …

When we coach, we change the lives of our children

Trina E. Dorrah, MD

Physician

September 10, 2020

For the past six months, I’ve spent my free time becoming a certified life coach. I’m a hospitalist, but a little more than a year ago, I was introduced to life coaching. I love the changes it has produced in my life – particularly how it’s changed me as a mother. Coaching helps me to be more present for my family and more emotionally available for my kids. It’s changed …

So you want to be a doctor? Here are 10 myths debunked.

Rada Jones, MD

Physician

September 10, 2020

I’m glad you’re looking at a career in medicine. I hope you will be happy with your choice forever. To help you out, these are a few myths I wish somebody told me about when I was in your shoes.

1. You’ll be rich. You likely won’t. After two decades or so of med school and residency, you’ll be paying back student loans with exorbitant interests for a few more decades …

How do you know which doctors are essential?

Alison Yarp, MD, MPH

Physician

September 9, 2020

This is a time of change and uncertainty in medicine. Being a resident right now during the pandemic of 2020 is even more unpredictable, especially in a field that is not necessarily directly on the frontlines, so to speak. Two years ago, I was choosing between psychiatry and emergency medicine after a long-standing interest in the latter, having no idea that during my training, we would experience a crisis of …

Call a consult: depression vs. burnout

Kara Pepper, MD

Physician

September 8, 2020

CC: “I feel like crap.”

HPI: 29-year old female internal medicine resident. Hasn’t seen sunlight in over three months due to 100 hour work weeks. Crying at work. Always exhausted and irritable. Isolated from friends and family. Feels guilty that she is not effective at work and home. States recent labs were normal.

ROS:

Gen: hypersomnia
HEENT: teeth grinding
CV: chest pressure, palpitations
GI: decreased appetite with weight loss
Neuro: headaches
Psych: apathetic, not suicidal

Meds: none

Social: alcohol on …

Read more…

Call a consult: depression vs. burnout

Intentions don’t sanitize impact

Amelia L. Bueche, DO

Physician

September 7, 2020

While there are certainly instances of malicious intent in thoughts, feelings, and actions, most people operate with the intent to do good, be good, offer good to the world – but what we do isn’t always received in the way we set out to offer it.

In the words of Oscar Wilde, “No good deed goes unpunished.”

It can be frustrating and even paralyzing to consider this consequence, resigning us to, “What …

Read more…

Intentions don’t sanitize impact

The story of how a supportive residency program made a difference

Jason John, MD

Physician

September 6, 2020

An ecosystem of inpatient medicine moved at full speed around me as the news came in. It was the fall of my intern year, and my mother’s glioblastoma was back. Just months earlier, I had begun residency as a liability – a brand new, unproven doctor whose parent in another state was in remission from an almost universally fatal disease, one that was now rearing its ugly head. Someone, a …

It is time to pause, reflect, and decide what being a physician means to us

Anonymous

Physician

September 6, 2020

A bird slams into the glass. A bird slams into the glass. A bird slams into the glass. Over and over again, head first, determined to defeat its own reflection. A headbutt of bravado. I watched it, time and time again. From the inside, I studied the dozens of oily streaks smeared across the window. After a few minutes, the bird would fly away – sore or distracted from its …

Residency applications during COVID-19: a rain cloud with a silver lining for some

Karolina Woroniecka, MD, PhD

Physician

September 6, 2020

Like everything in life, applying for residency this year is going to be radically different. There won’t be any long cross-country plane flights, no driving across state lines, no crashing at friend’s places to save money on hotel nights. Residency interviews are going virtual. Medical students that need help with the residency applications virtually, can use this helpful tool to make better decisions.

For some students, this …

Accountability on the frontlines

Camille C. Imbo, MD

Physician

September 5, 2020

Depending on our unique perspective, we’ve each digested everything that’s happened this year our own way. My perspective is of a Black, female physician (the mighty 2 percent) – among other things. Those three descriptors have put me in the middle of the two main headlines of 2020: COVID and the Black Lives Matter movement. To most, these two are seemingly mutually exclusive issues our country is entangled in. I, …

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Accountability on the frontlines

Medicine must create inclusive clinical trials

Amelia Trant and Andrea Silber, MD

Physician

September 4, 2020

Clinical trials have an ugly history with race, but have we gone from exploitation to exclusion? People of color have long been underrepresented in clinical trials of all kinds; however, as the coronavirus pandemic rages and global attention is fixed on vaccine trials, the low participation rates of people of color have been noticed by the lay media. Much of the medical community would say that …

Overcoming the invisible “coronavirus wall” between doctors and patients

Philip A. Masters, MD

Physician

September 4, 2020

A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.

Pandemics periodically alter the course of history, reshaping society as people struggle to deal with the consequences of a new and often devastating disease. As with past pandemics, over just a few months we have witnessed the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus stretch our …

The transition from resident to attending: Setting the stage for your new life and career

Todd Skertich

Physician

September 3, 2020

You’re finally at the point in your career that you’ve been waiting for! Training has been strenuous, and you have spent many years of your life readying yourself professionally for this moment. It is now time for you to transition from a resident to an attending physician.

At this time, you may be tempted to jump right in and start working. I recommend taking a little time off for yourself first. …

That’s what doctors do

Richard E. Waltman, MD

Physician

September 2, 2020

A free Wednesday afternoon, time to catch up on charts and paperwork, do a little online CME.

“I’ll see a few walk-ins if anyone comes by,” I told my front office.

A knock on my door sometime later: “A patient for you, Doctor.”

“Send him back,” I said.

He was a well-dressed man in his 30s, a new patient for me.

His story:

“I’ve been having a lot of headaches; sometimes, I feel pressure in my …

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That’s what doctors do

The hospital CEO who made a surgical incision. What happened?

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

Physician

September 2, 2020

Recently on Twitter, I asked this question above.

The 130 (2.5 percent) of 5,213 respondents who said they would allow a CEO to make a skin incision highlight the unscientific nature of Twitter polls. Restricting voting to surgeons only is not possible. Many people asked me why I asked the question because surely no surgeon would ever have allowed it. Here is …

Make the time to pause during the busyness of the day to reflect upon all we have

Andy Lamb, MD

Physician

September 2, 2020

“The only end to pain is the graveyard.”

Those words are etched forever in my mind. They underscore the hopelessness of so many throughout the world. She was 90 years old, crippled by arthritis, no family, and lived alone in a dirt floor hovel with no electricity or running water. She lived in a tiny village of 2000 people in the poorest country in Europe, Moldova. She lived every day without …

It’s time to return civility to medical discourse

Rebekah Bernard, MD

Physician

September 1, 2020

I was scrolling through Facebook when it popped up. “Live! America’s Frontline Doctors address COVID-19.” A group of physicians in white coats stood before the Supreme Court, speaking into a microphone. As I stopped to watch, I was surprised to see several familiar faces—physicians I had interacted with on various social media physician groups.

I knew from reading previous posts on social media that these doctors were proponents of the drug …

A post-COVID medical world

Cristina Carballo-Perelman, MD

Physician

September 1, 2020

As we navigate everyday life in the midst of battling COVID-19, our thoughts naturally migrate to what medicine might look like post viral pandemic.

As the new norms of social distancing, virtual meetings, and little to no human contact continue, we cannot help but wonder will these new social norms become permanent behavior patterns? And if so, what implications do they have for the physician and patient alike?

Humans are a social …

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A post-COVID medical world

A sober emergency physician returns to work, just in time to face the COVID-19 pandemic

J. D. Remy, MD

Physician

August 31, 2020

An excerpt from Ballad of a Sober Man: An ER Doctor’s Journey of Recovery.

As if I needed more reminders of my imperfections, I had Maggie and the Kidney Stone Lady, forever. Little Maggie, the cute five-year-old from early in my career who came in with her …

An ode to hospital cafeterias

Yoo Jung Kim, MD

Physician

August 30, 2020

I have been nourished by cafeteria food since elementary school. I remember the public school pizza squares with its melted artificial cheese, the fruit cocktail drenched in sickeningly sweet syrup, and 2 percent chocolate milk pints—costing $1.65 per meal. In college, I enjoyed access to a wider selection, including $6.50 custom omelets and midnight mozzarella sticks to fuel late-night study sessions. However, nothing came close to the quality and …

Read more…

An ode to hospital cafeterias

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