“Hi, Doctor Kamajian! I finally got health insurance that I can use to come to see you with my son.”
I looked at the chart and realized it had been three years since I had seen her very familiar face. So, before the exam, we chatted and got reacquainted. It is remarkable what family doctors remember about their patients. This is not an unusual conversation.
Patient: I have a new job. I took …
What caring for 6 generations can teach new doctors
I met the medical criteria for infertility one week before starting my journey to becoming an abortion provider. In my second year of residency as a family physician, my husband and I began trying to have a child. At six months without success, we impatiently embarked on an early laboratory workup that was normal. After one year of failing to conceive, we were officially infertile — and I was simultaneously …
Navigating infertility while training to perform abortions
This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com.
Even the best of careers must end sometime. Sure, most doctors look forward to retirement, but not every retired physician wants to sit back collecting sea-shells for the rest of his or her life. Whether driven by financial constraints or by that persistent longing to change the world, any physician …
Best jobs for retired physicians: What are the options?
Three years ago, I received a letter in the mail informing me that my driver’s license would be expiring. Almost immediately, I felt a sense of dread because I knew I would have to go to the DMV to renew my license. As a full-time, practicing orthopedic surgeon, running daytime errands isn’t exactly something I like to do, or better yet, have the time to do.
However, along with the DMV …
Surprise! Health care can learn a lot from the DMV
“Seriously, do you often/very often reflect on how your work helps make the world a better place?”
I was recently involved in an email exchange with a colleague when she sent me this line. We will get to the answer to that question at the end. I was disappointed, but not surprised because until about three years ago, I probably would have answered, “No.” However, I have had a paradigm shift …
How physicians can find meaning in their work
While winter is traditionally the busiest time of year for pediatricians, this winter has been particularly difficult in the Midwest with not only a larger number of ill visits, but a late and heavy flu epidemic hitting at a point where most of us were already wearing out. With this flu epidemic, our urgent cares, same day sick clinics and ERs have been setting all-time highs for any particular calendar …
A physician’s empathy in urgent care makes a big difference
If you think you are the only one being threatened by the chief medical officer (CMO) and/or the medical executive committee (MEC) think again.
If you’re thinking it is going to get better or that they have your best interests in mind, also think again.
You are in an unfortunate and common situation happening throughout the country. If you have been called into an abrupt and unannounced meeting and been told to …
Don’t sign anything: Advice when hospital administration has you against the wall
1. Cover your patients
It was my first year of practice. One day I saw a new patient, a 25-year-old man with hemorrhoidal pain. My nurse told him to disrobe and put on a lap sheet. When I entered the room, I was surprised to see that the young man was sitting on the exam table, naked from the waist down. The lap sheet sat neatly folded on the table behind …
6 essential tips (and more) that I never learned in medical school
K: “I was assaulted by an intoxicated female. She punched me and ruptured two discs in my back. I lost my whole self. I could no longer take the CPR course required. I lost my income that was supporting me and my three children.
I needed the narcotics — not only to dull the physical pain but to numb the emotions. I found myself taking more than prescribed. I asked the …
The sweet path to hell: addiction in medical professionals
Physicians are leaving medicine due to being physically and mentally exhausted. Most tragically, the United States loses one physician a day to suicide — an astronomical number. Physician burnout is a crisis that has been brewing in medicine for years. Administrative tasks, long hours, EHRs and a complete lack of work-life balance are all contributing factors of burnout.
Burnout affects almost half of physicians and is …
How physicians can burn in, not burn out
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Burnout among physicians is at an epidemic proportion. National data suggests that more than 50 percent of our workforce is burned out, and this trend has been across the board from physicians in training to practicing physicians. Some of the specialties are more affected than others. Repercussions of provider burnout on health care …
Fixing burnout among hospitalists is a leadership challenge
My wife Uzma died peacefully at home. She didn’t take any painkillers for her last three days. Our kids, my parents, and I were next to her. In the weeks leading up to her death, many old friends visited her. Others sent her flowers, cards, and food. It was a good death. Yes, in the last five years cancer and its treatment took a physical and emotional toll. Yes, she left us a …
Hospice didn’t stop suffering. But what it did for us was priceless.
Twenty years of defending doctors and hospitals in medical malpractice cases has made me into a nervous patient. When you see the worst, you look for it. At least I do. That’s why when I was scheduled for a minor elective procedure, I was nervous. I set aside the day, canceling all of my depositions and planning to spend the day on emails and phone calls. My specialist’s office texted …
3 tips from an attorney to avoid a medical malpractice lawsuit
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As someone who has been in the medical field for nearly ten years, I have had the opportunity to follow many physicians. I started off shadowing physicians, standing behind them as they would speak to patients in their rooms.
Now, as a resident physician, I spend hours and hours each week in the clinic seeing my own patients. Every week, I read about burnout and how it affects fellow physicians deal …
A physician’s secret to restore joy in the exam room
I love to travel.
Last spring, I found myself on a plane headed for the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. I was on my way to attend a conference in beautiful Rockwall, Texas.
After an uneventful flight, I took my bags, headed for the exit and asked the airport security where the designated space for Uber pick up was. Once I got the information I needed, I whipped out my phone, went to …
What doctors should learn from taxi drivers
“The patient-clinician relationship is dead.” Those of us in health care hear this refrain constantly these days, coming at us from all angles. We feel it in the wall that goes up when we turn from our patients to our computer screens. We infer it in administrative meetings in which we are told once again to get our numbers up, or when yet another physician is let go, technically “without …
The patient-clinician relationship matters. To all of us.
“Why did you wait to schedule this meeting until September, why not July or August?” Candidly, I replied, “I have a family and being on nights, spending those 90 minutes with them a day is very important to me.” It was then, behind closed doors, in an office where he held all of the power that he said: “You know, I don’t think women with families make as good of …
In medicine, maternal discrimination is real
There comes a time in a doctor’s medical career when the demands of caring for patients are too much. To survive medicine, doctors put on armor so we can go into the battlefield of medicine and do the work we do. The armor is the walls and barriers we erect to maintain a safe distance from all that comes at us in the line of duty. Our armor may take …
3 ways your emotional armor is ruining your medical career
Mindfulness, my own personal word-of-the-decade, is the polar opposite of multitasking, which is not at all what it sounds like. Despite popular opinion, multitasking does not help you to get a whole bunch of different things done all at once. When you multitask, what you actually do is to switch your attention incessantly from one focus to another, giving none your full consideration. To multitask is to invest heavily in …
The antidote to multitasking is mindfulness
When my husband and I started parenting, our only explicit goal was to keep our son alive and healthy and growing. We read many of the usual books about pregnancy and the early childhood years. We did not read any literature on equal parenting. At that time there wasn’t any. In fact, if you had been in our apartment one July morning in 2007, you might have wondered if anyone …
Residency and the path to equal parenting
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