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.
1. I am not omnipotent.
As health care providers our ability to treat is sometimes affected by factors beyond our control— limitations in technology, variations in our work environment, and human nature. While we always commit to performing our very best, our best may vary from day to day; if my best is not the best for you, then I will offer you all possible alternatives. Furthermore, not all disease can be cured, nor every malady …
Read more…
5 things this doctor wished he could tell his patients
The creative platform Lyrical Mezzanine (@LyricalMezz) aims to nurture resilience or resiliency in clinicians, caregivers, patients, chaplains, family members, friends, scientists, teachers, and others — and to combat burnout simultaneously. I created the platform out of a need to profoundly process responses to experiences in medicine and science and to share the essence of those complex thought processes with others.
A mezzanine is usually considered a …
Read more…
How I share my creativity with others in medicine
How is it possible that endemic bullying persists in medicine despite myriad initiatives to improve awareness, mutual respect and medical culture?
In some cases, we can blame health systems issues, such as medical workforce shortages, lack of funding and unsafe hours. But in other cases, we must take collective responsibility for failing to hold individual doctors to account for their damaging behaviors.
Most doctors readily change after being counseled about poor social …
Read more…
How to spot a narcissistic doctor
I follow a Facebook group of physician moms. We share and offer feedback on everything from a clinical puzzle to a frustrating patient encounter, and we offer our tricks for how to find balance in a crazy medical life. I’ve seen several recent posts about women being called Mrs. even when it is known they are a physician. Most recently there was a long post where a female physician at …
Read more…
“I earned it. I’m proud of it. I am a doctor.”
Medicine was my path. I’d decided that early in life before I knew what a career in medicine really looked like. I believed as a doctor, I could help people and have a positive impact on their lives. After all, what does a teenager know about being a doctor?
I’m not a teenager anymore. Here I am at 3 a.m. in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the bedside of …
Read more…
A physician’s path leads her to a struggle in the NICU
In today’s health care system, we as physicians find ourselves frustrated by inefficient EHRs, heavy patient workloads and complex regulatory burdens. Our cumbersome health care system has led to high rates of dissatisfaction among our fellow physicians, and more dire, high rates of suicide.
The physician suicide epidemic has many grasping for solutions. Even more so, the debate has arisen, are we suffering from “moral injury” or “burnout?” The debate revolves …
Read more…
America’s broken health care system is killing our doctors
On the matter of climate change and global warming, the fuse is lit. The current epoch of Earth is the “Anthropocene,” meaning that for the foreseeable future, the destiny of our planet will be mainly determined by human activity. In the past half-century by some accounts, we’ve managed to alter our climate as much as it has changed in all of previously recorded time. And according to accurate records and …
Read more…
Planetary health has become the major determining factor of human health
There are those 25 minutes before my workday begins that I either drive in silence, or blare the radio and jam out to pop hits priming myself for the unexpected hours ahead. When the music is loud, and the tempo is upbeat, it transports me back to being 21 on a summer day in Chicago, before kids and bills, headed nowhere too important, definitely not too fast, stuck in traffic …
Read more…
A patient’s last 24 hours
Senator Walsh … thank you.
Because of your flagrant words against some of the hardest-working members of our medical community, we have united to stand against you and rally for our “card-playing” nurses.
Like most of my medical family, I was astounded and frustrated at the belittling ignorance of Senator Walsh’s recent comments about the amazing nurses throughout our great country. Senator Walsh’s comments were felt not only by our hard-working nurses, …
Read more…
Senator Walsh: Thank you for uniting us
There is a species of jellyfish that exists only in one lake on this entire planet. Every morning, before the sun rises, these jellyfish travel to the surface of the lake so that algae that live within them can photosynthesize and produce glucose for the jellyfish to survive. Every day, these jellyfish travel from east to west along the surface of the lake, chasing the rays of the sun, chasing …
Read more…
Our work goes beyond the hospital
During this hospital stay, how often did doctors treat you with courtesy and respect? Seriously? Why is this question even necessary? Obviously, because it doesn’t always happen. Well, that’s interesting. Maybe interesting isn’t the word. Maybe the word is, “shocking.” I can’t fathom treating any patient with anything less than courtesy and respect. I just don’t get it.
I’m not accusing anyone of being rude to patients.
Remember, HCAHPS are not necessarily …
Read more…
How often did doctors treat you with courtesy and respect?
There are a lot of unhappy physicians in a lot of bad situations. I know because I write for them, and they write to me. The thing is, we deal with patient satisfaction all day long. Why not work harder on physician satisfaction? I want my colleagues to have a higher “physician satisfaction score.”
So first off, what makes us dissatisfied? What lowers that score for the hard-working physicians of America, …
Read more…
It’s time we take physician satisfaction seriously
The last sunlight of the day was slanting through Joseph’s hospital window. As the sun descended, it burned the sky crimson, and the mists rolled away, disappearing into Rwanda’s seemingly endless hills. I had just arrived in Kigali for global health work with a goal of medical education and, as I looked out, I felt at peace with my recent decision to apply to an infectious disease (ID) fellowship.
Earlier, while …
Read more…
4 reasons why this physician specialized in infectious disease
When I mentioned to a colleague and mentee that I would be writing this article, she expressed excitement about it and felt it would be well received by many physicians who might have given up their art — their form of creative expression — for the sake of medicine.
I had recently been encouraging her to continue her passion for writing. Sometimes we need others to encourage us to “keep calm …
Read more…
Physicians have a right to pursue creativity
Being a doctor mom is a beautiful paradox of feeling like a badass one moment and a frazzled I-don’t-know-what-the-heck-I-am-doing mess of a person. Being a female physician, the majority of us feel there is a societal and cultural pressure to be perfect all the time in every sphere of our life: as a professional, parent, and person. Obviously, expecting perfection is a bit unrealistic.
Among doctor moms, there are some common …
Read more…
The truth and challenges of being a doctor mom
We’ve had several articles from various sources over the years on grooming your social media. Most of them advise paying attention to your physician ratings, but not acting on anything specifically. “Don’t engage” is the mantra. Let’s take a fresh look at this.
Like probably everyone in medicine, I have my share of physician rating site reviews. Most are good, some are bad, but all of them I pay attention to. …
Read more…
Every doctor needs to monitor their online reviews
When I was a child, I knew I would become a doctor. I liked science and taking care of people. We diagnose medical problems and prescribe treatment plans. Some of us perform surgeries and some focus on keeping you well. Despite this, I’m nothing special, and neither are you, my physician colleagues. Let me explain why by first taking a brief step back into the history of American health care.
Since …
Read more…
Sorry doctors, you’re nothing special
Health care is increasingly complex. Objective peer review, constructive feedback, and robust debate are essential to continually improve the quality of patient care.
But doctors don’t always disagree well. One of the contributing factors to bullying in medicine is the complex interplay of different personality types in very stressful situations. Some doctors have personality traits that predispose them to have interpersonal conflict and being unable to see the view from the …
Read more…
Medical workplace bullying: We just want it to stop
