What does a millennial physician look like? And, importantly for physicians’ groups, hospitals, and health systems, how do you effectively recruit them to come work for you when they are in such high demand?
Much has been written about this generation of overeducated and underemployed young people — all full of entitlement and purpose — who have been transforming values and expectations in …
How to hire a great millennial physician
I have been an emergency physician for 12 years. I have had the opportunity to learn from and try to emulate an impressive number of amazing clinical physicians. These doctors seemed god-like at first, but as my training and career progressed, I realized that they were mostly teaching me through their own experiences.
One of my favorite teachers had a humbling saying: “Good …
Want to keep ER nurses from leaving? Focus on patient safety instead of satisfaction.
As kids growing up in the Midwestern United States, my friends and I loved baseball. We spent many hours each summer day playing the game, and when we weren’t out on the sandlot, we were reciting the stats of top players, arguing the merits of our favorite teams, and trading baseball cards. Baseball is more than America’s pastime. It is a sport …
Taking a page from medicine to improve the quality of baseball
Recently I met a boy, a boy with leukemia, a young boy with comic-book worthy superpowers. This boy, this superhero, is one I will never, never forget.
When I entered the exam room, I was immediately struck by the sight of a young boy who should have been playing football with his friends at the park or jumping off the high-dive at the pool, but instead …
Children with cancer are the real superheroes
“We all want to live longer, my friend. I’m not doing the surgery. Take care.”
And with that, the surgeon walked out of the room and crushed the hopes of my patient. Yet it was one of the most compassionate events I witnessed during my residency. The patient was discharged to hospice later that day.
That patient was an early 60 something frail female …
The surgeon I want taking care of my mother
“Either way, no matter what we do, you’ll live less than 12 months, probably less than nine. Even if we were in the United States, your disease is incurable.” He nodded slowly in understanding. Jean Dominique was only in his 40s and had teenagers at home. “We can treat your pain and other symptoms, but we can’t do anything to treat the …
Culture influences end of life decisions
I met my newly admitted patient in the quiet of his private room. He was frail, elderly, and coughing up gobs of green phlegm. His nasal cannula had stepped its way across his cheek during his paroxysms and was pointed at his right eye. Although the room was uncomfortably warm, he was shivering and asking for more blankets. I could hear his …
Listen to patients rather than rely on tests
It was only afterwords that I wondered if I had been condescending. The words had come out so naturally. We were sitting across from each other in the nursing home. It didn’t take a doctor to recognize that his leg was visibly less swollen. I had seen him walking down the hallway with the physical therapist. His face a mix of pain, …
Let patients know when you’re proud of them
Norman cried the night his daughter was born. For hours and hours. Each time he looked at her perfect head, touched the few strands of blond hair, held her in his arms, soft, smooth skin, soapy smell, pale blue eyes, tears poured down his cheeks. He felt alive. He felt alone. They named her Matilda, after his father. It was the right thing to do, because his father, Matthew, had …
A father keeps his cancer secret from his daughter. The reason will break your heart.
Individuality matters to doctors.
In the past, being a doctor brought with it an image. A selfless individual revered by his community and compensated well but fairly. The community had high expectations of him, and he could deliver because there wasn’t much to know. In those days, being a doctor was an entire lifestyle, and it drew extremely talented individuals to fill the …
Embracing individuality will save medicine. Here’s how.
For all the talk about patient-centered care and a new health care paradigm — which is, of course, the right way forward — the doctor-patient relationship will always remain relatively one-sided because of the nature of the profession itself. Essentially, patients come to doctors for help, and the knowledge transfer, advice, and guidance flows in one main direction.
But that doesn’t mean that …
Patients can teach doctors these 5 things
My young patient was dying as a blood clot under the cover of her brain accumulated and began compressing the fragile tissue within her skull. She needed surgery to remove the clot that would save her life. As the team pushed her from CT scanner to the operating room, it was soon realized labs were missing and were needed before opening her …
Young physicians must take a leadership role. Here’s why.
I got a call from a patient who had a family member sick and in the ICU. She wondered if I could come over “to offer support.” Even though the family member wasn’t a patient, I thought it would be good to go.
The ICU brought on flashbacks to my residency years, in which I spent a lot of time in the ICU. …
Despite the problems in health care, most of us still care
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I found out my mother was dying via text message: YOUR MOM HAS A BRAIN TUMOR IN HOSPITAL — DAD
When the neurosurgery PA wheeled the computer into the exam room to show us the MRI the next morning, I found myself silently uttering an unanswered prayer that the mass would be small, resectable, peripheral. It wasn’t.
“Oh my God,” Mom whispered. “I’m going to …
A mother with terminal brain cancer. Her daughter brings her home.
I’m not actually on TV, but there are days I feel like I’ve accidentally stumbled onto the set of a sitcom. When neighbors have never seen your husband in the light of day and friends joke that he is make-believe, then you might be married to a … well, you know the joke.
Being married to a busy physician can leave you playing …
I’m not a single mom. I just play one on TV.
In the late 19th century, Dr. William Halsted, a pioneer of modern surgical techniques, performed ultra-radical mastectomies for women with breast cancer. The procedure, soon named after him, involved the surgeon removing not only the breast itself but also surrounding musculature and the associated lymphatic system.
Halsted believed, and taught generations of medical students, that the more radical the procedure, the higher the …
Why doctors overtreat patients. And how to fix it.
Daytime TV advertising is dominated by two players. Pharmaceutical companies with direct to consumer pitches and the so-called “toxic tort.” How confusing it must be to the average person to see a new drug pushed by one commercial, to be immediately followed by another commercial from a lawyer trying to sue for the known side effects of the exact same drug. It …
The sad story of how “never events” prevent obese patients from getting new hips
Patients are entitled to receive medical advice 24 hours a day. If you call your doctor at 3 a.m., you will reach a physician who will advise you. Of course, it may not be your own personal physician as this individual cannot be expected to be available 365 days a year until he retires. Physicians partner with colleagues who share on-call responsibility …
You have access to a doctor 24 hours per day. When should you call one?
I have worked in a lot of hospitals over the past two years. Quite a few of the facilities have been critical access hospitals, which is to say that they are very small, typically having fewer than 25 inpatient beds, and are usually somewhere in the boonies. A number of characteristics allow a hospital to qualify as critical access and receive additional …
The sick and the dying can be found in hospitals of any size. Don’t forget that.
As an Air Force family physician and faculty at a family medicine residency, it was my job periodically to lead an inpatient team of young family medicine residents and medical students. That particular morning seemed like any other — half a dozen new admissions, total census of a dozen or so, and a few new consults. And it was my habit to …
Every patient has an unexpected and special story
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