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“As I’ve been coaching physicians, I’ve realized that many of us have a tendency to just ‘grin and bear it’ when it comes to the challenges and stresses of the medical profession. We often tell ourselves that …
What my 10 year old is teaching me about boundaries [PODCAST]
It does not behoove us to mince words in a politically charged climate. To productively discuss any controversial topic, we must first define terms and get past the jargon and doublespeak that commonly muddles conversations on serious issues. The Oxford Dictionary defines euphemism as “a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.” We often use euphemisms …
Drop the euphemisms and get uncomfortable when talking about abortion
There is no one prototypical physician. Every physician has their own practice style, their own knowledge base, and their own preferred method of communication. In my role as medical director for case management at my community hospital, I was given 30 minutes during new nursing orientation to provide nurses tips when communicating with doctors.
I put together this list of things that physicians wished hospital nurses knew about them, both good …
Physician secrets that nurses need to know
For the first time, primary care physicians (PCPs) are being urged to screen their patients, above and below age 65, for mental health concerns alongside screening for physical health conditions. The United States Preventive Services Task Force has published its first recommendation for PCPs to screen adults for anxiety as standard practice. This recommendation followed a peak in the prevalence of mental illnesses in 2020. During this time and …
U.S. adults should get routine anxiety screening. But then what?
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“One of the biggest misconceptions about timeshares is the idea that you have to visit the same location every year. In reality, timeshare owners have access to a wide range of properties and destinations through timeshare exchange …
Every physician should own a timeshare [PODCAST]
An excerpt from The Mumbo Jumbo Fix: A Survival Guide for Effective Doctor-Patient-Nurse Communication.
Team building is a popular trend in health care. It promotes cooperation, trust and respect, improves communication, and enhances patient outcomes. Most of the time.
But the camaraderie and familiarity of working with the same group of people …
Communication protocols exist for a reason
Over the last three years, we have faced the original COVID-19, followed by Omicron, Delta, and monkeypox.
It is apropos that on the third anniversary of COVID-19, we are facing the tripledemic of COVID, influenza, and RSV.
After almost three years of not getting COVID-19, I started believing that my childhood fantasies about me being superman were true and that my immune system was superpowered with bullet-proof antibodies that would keep me …
A physician in denial after being diagnosed with COVID-19
Every doctor wants to be perfect. We want to make sure our diagnosis is perfect. Our treatment plan is perfect, and our outcome will be perfect. Patients want the perfect doctor. They want us to get it right on the first try, each and every time. The problem is perfectionism, as hard as we try to achieve it or wish for it, is not attainable. Perfectionism will kill you.
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“As a nurse, I know how difficult and demanding the job can be. I’ve had patients try to physically attack me and it’s frustrating and disheartening to face such hostility. When I talk to people outside of the health …
All I ever wanted to be was a nurse [PODCAST]
There has been a lot of talk about physician burnout over the past few years, and as an occupational medicine physician, I’m happy to see that conversation is taking place. For too long, we just saw burnout as an acceptable hazard that just comes with the job.
But it’s become clear to me that there’s a big missing piece in the discussion of burnout — particularly when we try to answer …
How female social conditioning leads to burnout
I read KevinMD regularly. I see a lot of stories about how broken medicine is: how doctors are retiring, leaving early because they are overworked or underappreciated, or being manipulated by corporate medicine. All these complaints are valid. There are also articles about how residency is brutal and causes mental distress to trainees, with the onerous hours and unrealistic expectations. That, too, is true. Medical training, at least in my experience, is …
I love listening to podcasts on my way to work, and I was most excited when the second season of Dr. Death started. If you didn’t listen to the first season, it was about Dr. C. Duntsch, a neurosurgeon in the Dallas area who should never have been operating on people. He even left his best friend paralyzed from the neck down due to a botched surgery.
The second season follows …
Recently, I found a lump that was diagnosed as breast cancer. It is Stage IA, with a high chance of cure, but of course, more information might change that sooner or later. I have entered the uncertain world of being a patient – before this, as a physician myself, I happily avoided seeing the doctor.
While my cancer should be curable, and this will just be a …
Cancer: Why silence and anonymity are also courageous
I am a female cardiologist that graduated from medical school almost 20 years ago. Although my core personality has remained constant, I have been viewed through multiple different optics. What I find most interesting is that while most of my patients would unanimously agree that I am a smart, talented, and dedicated professional, I have never achieved this level of validation from other professionals in medicine.
I stay the same, but …
The duality of being a female physician
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“It is well known that men and women have different communication styles, and learning how to effectively communicate with each other is important. This is one of the main focuses of our book, which aims to give …
An empowered woman’s guide to better health [PODCAST]
For many of us, while in medical school and residency, sexual health history was mostly taught from a disease standpoint. If a patient had a complaint about sexual dysfunction, had a symptom or concern about a sexually transmitted infection, needed contraception, or had specific questions related to the reproductive system, then we took a sexual history. Sexual health history taking in many programs is limited to an elective in the …
Sexual health is health: It’s time to embrace that in medicine
The Boston Globe recently published an article on Dr. Jane Weeks, an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who declined treatment for breast cancer, passed out at work due to a pulmonary embolism in 2012, and ultimately died of breast cancer in 2013. I was a first-year fellow training at Dana-Farber in 2012 and vividly recall hearing that a well-known oncologist had passed out in the cafeteria. There were many …
Gender bias is powerful and harmful
As I mentioned in my last article, “Who gets to graduate from medical school,” I find one consistent, uncomfortable truth: Whatever led to the gap in academic performance before medical school is likely to still be present and persistent during one’s medical education journey. The lack of access, inequitable distribution of opportunity, familial responsibilities, socioeconomic disparities, or systemic barriers that kept students from utilizing their full academic potential in …
Who gets to succeed in medical school: Improving medical student outcomes that matter
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“Obesity is not the consequence of bad behaviors it is a disease that finally has effective, safe, lasting treatments. Patients with obesity have been marginalized long enough. We, especially health care providers, have got to start taking …
A personal mission to get obese patients on GLP-1 agonists [PODCAST]
The winter holidays are almost here. And it’s the time of year when food abounds and alcohol sales double. So, in the spirit of wellness and health, I’m sharing some ideas for alcohol substitutes, safe drinking, and some general information about alcohol. Enjoying the holidays with good company, food, and drink is a treat. But too much alcohol can be problematic, especially when taking prescription medications or when struggling with …
Enjoying the spirit of the holidays with fewer spirits
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