“Oh, you’re here to take me to my test.” I have heard this too many times to count, and I have come to perfect my response. “No, I am not patient transport, your social worker, or your nurse. I am your doctor.” After a moment of confusion, I usually see a facial expression signaling that the patient is reframing his or her initial thoughts. Maybe I am misidentified because I am young, or …
Physicians need to acknowledge implicit bias
On a rare Sunday morning, I woke and had the time to make breakfast for my kids and their cousin, who’d stayed the night. My nephew said, “Thanks, Aunt Erin, I feel like I never see you.”
To which my oldest (10) stated very matter-of-factly, with no ill-intent: “That’s because she’s never home.”
Being a full time, private practice physician and mom to 5 kids, with a healthy social life, it’s extremely …
Are you happy with your decision to go into medicine?
Human nature is to hold on tightly to the ideals of perfect. Once we find something that ticks all the boxes, we want it now and with firm conviction. The same holds when seeking that dream job.
Competition, scarcity, and desire for coveted positions risk burying your CV in the proverbial pile. Having a few strategies to deal with this phenomenon can help you retain sanity and win at the end …
What to do next if your physician dream job isn’t available
Navy SEALs are America’s elite fighting force.
They are America’s most qualified soldiers who elect to undertake the most difficult selection process and training in existence. They are preselected by a number of traits, including intelligence, physical strength, incredible perseverance, and prior military service. Those who attain the title come from a variety of backgrounds, but without fail, they are exceptional. These most remarkable individuals are then …
Navy SEALs are more than warfare providers
Recently, I read this great article from Dr. Chethan Sathya, a male surgeon who commented on how women surgeons in this day and age are still treated as second class surgeons. There has been much good commentary and discussion on the topic, particularly on Twitter. But almost as if on cue, a different male surgeon chimed in with the following comment:
I’m 100% sure u will prefer …
How can women surgeons change the dominant culture and not alienate the majority?
I have no idea who my boss is. Is it the chief of surgery at my hospital who tells me I need to use more of my block time, or it’ll be reassigned? Or the office manager who tracks my CME money and vacation days? Or the medical group administrator who signed my contract and hasn’t spoken to me in two years since then? Or the mentor who was assigned …
You need a boss, and a physician coach is the best kind
Talking to patients on the phone can be very efficient and quite rewarding, like when I called a worried patient today and told her that her chest CT showed an improving pneumonia and almost certainly no cancer, but a repeat scan some months down the road would still be a good idea. She told me she was feeling better, but still quite weak and that her sputum was still dark …
Physicians are not incentivzed to talk with patients on the phone
Editor’s note: This article is satire. The author, an emergency physician, is making the case for vaccinating children.
An excerpt from Stay Away From My ER, and other fun bits of wisdom.
1. You don’t like to be told what to do. Especially not by arrogant doctors, who act as if they know better, just because they’ve been through a few decades of training!
2. Your child hates shots. …
24 reasons to not vaccinate your kid
The words of the year as 2019 ends appear to be “OK Boomer” and “woke.” To this Boomer, it appears that the younger generation is blaming us for all the evil in the world, from their perch of “woke” moral superiority. They consider us to be out of touch and over the hill.
According to Merriam-Webster, “woke” means “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial …
Why generations need to talk to each other
In my recent post, “Why Gratitude Is A Superpower,” I told the story about a thank you note that my daughter, Maya, left me one morning for making her coffee. I was literally overcome with warmth and appreciation.
My reaction demonstrates the real impact we can have on another person’s emotional state when we express gratitude — either verbally or written — for something (gift, assistance, help, …
Gratitude collateral: A little thanks can go a long way
Kahlil Gibran writes, “In friendship or in love, the two side by side raise hands together to find what one cannot reach alone.” What types of outcomes can physicians and patients achieve in healing, living, and life when Gibran’s message is incorporated into the physician-patient relationship? Can humanism in medicine become even more humanistic?
“Humanism in medicine” is characterized by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation as respectful …
Making humanism in medicine more humanistic
Consuming too many potato latkes and Christmas cookies has left its mark on our waistlines. Unfortunately for Americans and their medical care, the seasonal overeating seems to last all year. Indeed, the American Medical Association has declared that obesity is a disease.
It may be more accurate to describe obesity as a contributor to certain diseases. Obesity raises the risk of premature death, heart disease, high blood …
Obesity is America’s self-inflicted preexisting condition
First, you have to call up your daughter to pick you up and take you to the lab. It’s hard for the nurse to find your vein. The pain from his fishing around in your arm is not nearly as bad as the pain you always have in your hip, and back, and shoulders, but it’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back, and you cry a little bit. The …
A quick CT scan for the frail and elderly
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I knew Friday was not going to be a good day.
A leak in the ceiling of my family room. A pet who would need surgery. I was already stressed well before Friday.
But at work, the issues started on Thursday with an osteoporotic patient for whom I had recommended Forteo, six weeks earlier. It was denied by her insurer who wanted Tymlos instead. No big deal. We simply precerted Tymlos, but …
Are physicians allowed to be human?
One of the largest problems in our ER, it seems, is that there is a subset of patients who visit us on a routine basis. Commonly known as “the regulars,” these familiar faces are sprinkled throughout our day between all our other patient visits. Whether it be for chronic pain, for chronic illness, for companionship, simply to have a place to hang out for a few hours, or to get …
This is a real problem in our ER. This is a real problem nationwide.
“Aren’t you happy for me?” asks the patient smiling from the exam chair in my office. I say yes, but that’s not entirely true.
Happiness isn’t the right word. Conflicted might be it. How do I reconcile my feelings when this patient, who I am not sure is deserving, reports that he was awarded Social Security disability?
Sure, he has severe arthritis, wildly uncontrolled diabetes, and a massive skin breakdown of his …
Egotism is a common trait among doctors, although most of us keep it under adequate control when dealing with patients. The ideal doctor-parent encounter has been described as a collaboration among equals, each of which brings expertise to the exchange; the doctor knows medicine, the parent knows the child. This is the ideal, although sometimes the reality falls short of it. The way our medical system is now structured gives …
What to do if your doctor is excessively egotistical
My uncle died last year. As physicians, we are all too familiar with death. Even if we are practicing primary care, we are touched by death and the line between life and death. That patient who had what statistically should’ve been acid reflux, but who you found to have stomach cancer. That breastfeeding mom who thought a little lump was a clogged milk duct, when it actually turned out to …
Why sometimes you need to be your family’s doctor
If you asked me five years ago what my career goals were, I may have said something about getting more grant funding and writing more manuscripts so I could eventually become an independently funded physician-scientist. But honestly, at that time, I had no concept of the nitty-gritty details and emotional support that it would take to accomplish those goals. My primary research mentor was a notable figure in our field …
The power of peer mentorship in medicine
Experience and skills are not enough to assure the highest levels of success and sustainability with improvement initiatives in healthcare. The reason this is true has to do with … quicksand.
When I was a kid, quicksand seemed to show up in movies quite a bit. People would be on the beach or in the jungle walking on what seemed like solid ground and suddenly get stuck. In quicksand, you lose …
Why experience and skills are not enough
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