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.
When news started coming in that throngs of protestors were gathering in Chicago to protest the horrific killing of George Floyd, my initial feelings of anger were tempered by a hope that maybe this time things would turn around for our black brothers and sisters. Quickly, as the protests became infiltrated with violence, and I saw more and more photos of my old neighborhood looted or boarded up, …
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Listen a little closer. Understand a little deeper. Heal a bit better.
Much has been written about the response of the governmental agencies in the foreseeability of COVID-19 spread and management in the United States. Travel restriction from mainland China seemed to be a very timely intervention. However, instead of considering it as an initial step in a prolonged exercise of vigilance in preventing the disease from getting a foothold on the continent, it was considered the only one. Now it is …
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The economics of primary care in a COVID-19 world
I am a newly minted surgical specialist, less than one year into practice. Residency was no walk in the park, but the clinical experience, along with hours of studying, reading papers, and reviewing practice guidelines, undoubtedly gave me the tools to practice modern, evidence-based medicine. As residency came to a close and the light at the end of the tunnel grew bigger and brighter, my excitement to move on to …
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We need to stop seeing patients as dollar signs
Invisible and unassuming, the radioactive spider slowly descends from the ceiling, and before he knows it, Peter Parker’s life has changed forever. With that one bite, he is transformed from a normal man into a reluctant superhero. Only, that infamous spider is COVID-19, and Peter Parker is a health care worker during these troubled times.
It may surprise you to know that many of us in health care are uncomfortable being …
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Health care workers in the time of COVID: reluctant superheroes?
Right now, we are facing a living nightmare. Thousands of people across the globe, perhaps even people we know, are dying from COVID-19. This pandemic has left death and disability in its wake. The main way we are being asked to help is by staying at home in order to lower the chances of the virus spreading from person to person. This is especially important since it has been shown …
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During this terrible pandemic, let’s make compassion go viral
More than once, I have joked with my medical student leader that I look forward to the day when she will be my boss. I have mentored hundreds of health professions students over the past ten years. Teaching young thought leaders to address complex issues is rewarding and rejuvenating; it only seemed natural to incorporate these learners during the coronavirus pandemic.
COVID has disrupted the education of health professions students; indeed, …
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How this physician incorporated medical students in COVID care
I’d like to focus on a group that isn’t discussed much: the divorced health care parent. With physician marriages ending at a rate of 24 percent and over 1 million physicians and 18 million health care workers in the U.S., this topic will undoubtedly resonate with many despite a paucity of literature. Co-parenting is hard enough—adding a pandemic can put even previously stable co-parenting in extremis. Here’s my COVID-19 co-parenting …
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The divorced physician parent in the time of COVID-19
Currently, we are in a transition time. Many of us are still healing from the shock brought on by the beginning days of the COVID crisis. While it has been nice to enjoy the warmer weather both from a distance but also amongst friends given the lifting of many social restrictions, life still does not seem “normal.” As human beings, we adapt to our surroundings, and all of us are …
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A subtle change in the parents at a pediatric clinic
Let me start by saying that I am a diplomate (i.e., “board-certified”) by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. I was completely in agreement that to display competence in my specialty after four years of residency, I should pass the oral and written exams required by the ABPN, further to prove I have maintained my skills, I have always found it …
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How MOC is contributing to the demise of physicians
By now, you’ve heard that meditation has many health benefits, including stress management. You’re probably thinking, that’s great for my single friend with time for self-care, but I’m a busy working parent, there’s no time for that! Wrong. There is time for it. Granted, it is different than what you have been traditionally taught about meditation. So, time to clear that up. Yes, there are extensive programs and …
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Your personal meditative journey begins in the shower
It’s 4:30 a.m. as I trudge to the parking garage with a sense of defeat. I am an internal medicine resident wrapping up a swing shift, the magnanimous buffer to admission responsibilities between the day and overnight ward teams. Though clinically tucking in patients that arrive before six o’clock is often easily accomplished well before midnight, this time had been different. Not two hours into the shift, I reached my …
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Patients deserve our best all the time, in a pandemic, and at 5:59
Like a lot of doctors my age, I was too busy to have checkups, working 60 hours a week plus night and weekend call. But that all changed in 2013 when at age 67, my dentist felt a submental lymph node. A CBC had 35,000 white cells, and I had chronic lymphocytic leukemia. When I told my wife that patients with CLL live a long time and die of something …
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We shouldn’t be our own doctors, but we can’t forget what we know
I know you don’t know me, but I feel like I know you from your transparency and radical honesty in all of your public communications. I know that you speak truth to bullsh*t while remaining civil. I know that you are more than aware of the lack of adequate mental health services across the nation. I know you see the catastrophic toll medicine takes on the mental health needs of …
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A revolution in health care needs physician coaching
Seven years ago, I took a hot yoga class in a packed studio, an R&B playlist bumping loudly, the woman next to me sporadically singing along with the music. Afterward, she smiled at me and said, “It was nice to practice with you!” I was new to yoga, and this was the first time I considered yoga as a practice, a word signifying a skill performed repeatedly in order to …
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In yoga and medicine: I am an expert in neither, but I am practicing both
Two-paged signouts
This was the picture of the unusually higher than normal patient load we have in the wards. The hospital looked grim and eerie. Gone were the days when we would start with morning report and see plastered smiles on colleagues’ faces, relaxed and ready to conquer the day.
I saw patients without visitors. I’d hear rapid response teams more frequently – so I made a habit of memorizing …
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COVID-19: a medical resident’s tale of sign-outs and ID bands
I look at the mirror at a tired naked face as I don my surgical mask over my hijab with my makeshift tie to keep my mask on since I can’t tie them on my ears. My kids at home are doing their remote learning, like many other kids around the world. Will I be home in time to make sure my 6 year old makes it on time to …
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Take it from a kindergartener: Giving feels good
Health care workers need to start talking about white people killing black people, and here’s why: every victim of racial violence will be seen by a health care professional at or near the time of the event. We in the health care community are often the first people called to the aftermath of these crimes, and yet we are not speaking out.
I am a neurosurgeon. I work largely in Nassau County, …
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Health care workers have a role to play in Black Lives Matter
I went through the five stages of grief when we lost our wedding to COVID-19. The denial: “I’m sure this will be over by summer.” The anger: “This is so unfair! I’ve planned this for two years.” The bargaining: “We’ll just push it back to July, no need to go further. That’ll be fine, right?” The depression: *Sobs scrolling through others’ anniversary pictures on Instagram* The acceptance: “So, 2021 it …
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It’s OK to mourn your wedding
