Six years ago, I met a man who was 93 years old. I sat down to listen to him, something we physicians don’t do as often as we should in the long-term care setting.
“I want you to treat me like I’m 73,” he said,
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I don’t want to be denied treatment just because I am 93 years old. I want you to give me the same …
Breaking the silence: a doctor’s plea for clarity in end-of-life care
The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on long-term care in Canada. During the first two waves in 2020, over 80 percent of all Canadian COVID-19 deaths happened in long-term care homes. While vaccination and policy changes have helped to reduce the number of deaths, long-term care homes are still experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks and severe staffing shortages.
The people who provide front-line care to our most vulnerable seniors in long-term care have experienced …
Care aides in long-term care were traumatized during COVID-19
Driving around, searching for children’s Tylenol and a pharmacy that had the antibiotics my son needed, was not how I wanted to spend the holidays. I am not alone – shelves are bare, and antibiotics are in short supply as we head into the new year in the midst of a triple threat of COVID-19, flu, and RSV.
While this drug shortage is incredibly frustrating, at least there is …
Timely treatment decisions: the promise of surrogate markers
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“In many ways, internet of things (IoT) is a double-edged sword: connected devices are capturing huge volumes and varieties of data that can be mined for everything from potentially life-saving health care information to guidance toward peak …
Why the internet of things (IoT) must pivot to achieve health care potential [PODCAST]
I recently read the article, “Perfectionism will kill you.”
Our perfectionism is often worn like a badge of honor. It signifies our complete commitment, at times at the expense of others. Wanting to do your best job is what drives “good” perfectionism. Woody Allen quipped, “80 percent of life is just showing up.” And the other 20 percent is reserved for perfectionists.
Success often comes from attention to detail, something perfectionists …
Why perfectionists in medicine need to practice compassion
My mom is putting garlic oil in her ears because her house cleaner told her it would help with her recent hearing loss. When I asked her why she was continuing to do this even after being assessed by two physicians, including an ear, nose, and throat specialist, she just shrugged and told me she wants to fix the problem.
You see, she has recently been through a difficult six months …
From cough to cancer: one woman’s determination to find answers and relief
A shocking scene during the Monday night football game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals. According to the New York Times:
During a Monday Night Football game, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin tackled Cincinnati Bengals receiver Tee Higgins. After the tackle, Hamlin quickly stood up and took a few steps before collapsing and becoming unconscious. Medical personnel administered CPR and attended to Hamlin for 10 minutes before …
This time of year, advice abounds on how to develop New Year’s resolutions that last. Some assert the need for resolutions and goals that reflect the deep desire for meaning-making, living life to the fullest extent possible, and establishing healthier, fuller lives moving forward.
Spiritual care is an essential part of any health care resolution.
Some describe a recent Journal of the American Medical Association study as “the most rigorous …
Keep the faith: Why the role of spiritual care in health care is critical
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“Health care has changed dramatically in the last decades, from the introduction of electronic medical records to the COVID-19 pandemic serving as a catalyst for telehealth and virtual care options to the increased familiarity with digital therapeutics, …
Secrets from a physician-entrepreneur [PODCAST]
Self-compassion does not make you soft. Boundaries do not make you closed off or selfish.
I had to repeat this many times before I started to understand how true and how essential self-compassion and boundaries are in our lives.
I did not realize how much I maintained my resistance to these ideas until Dr. Brené Brown provided her research findings at a conference held in Houston this year. Dr. Brown shared her …
Reflections from a (former) self-compassion and boundary setting skeptic
A 23-year-old girl reached out to me, a medical professional, seeking advice. “I’m not afraid of them killing me,” she said, referring to the torture and rape that men and women endure in Iranian prisons. “What I’m afraid of is what they’ll do to me in captivity. What pill can I take to end it [if I’m caught at the protests]?” As a physician, my oath is to save lives, …
Iranian women’s rights movement faces brutal retaliation from government
The luridness of it made me feel like the female lead in a bad Lifetime movie. The person whom I trusted most was a monster: an affair with a middle-aged prostitute who verbally abused me, an Ashley Madison account, and countless payments to sex workers – those were the tip of the repulsive iceberg that was my relationship.
And sadly, these were the least of my problems. My once-kind then-partner’s face …
It can happen to you too: Women in medicine also experience domestic abuse
Our health care employees are suffering from the after-effects of COVID, the great resignation, stripped-down staffing levels, and the misrepresentation of human clinicians as factory floor machines. When frontline employees and senior managers are depleted, C-suite executive leaders become depleted too. And depleted leaders are at heightened risk of burnout.
When struggling with burnout, executive leaders tend to get caught up in reactivity patterns that profoundly affect employee workplace satisfaction, engagement, …
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“As trainees, we have unpredictable schedules. Sometimes we work days; others, we work long nights. As the weekends come by, my best friend inevitably asks me: “Who’s showing up this week at work, Batman or Bruce Wayne? …
A physician’s passion for obstetrics-gynecology [PODCAST]
I still remember the exhilaration I felt upon learning that my peers and I could finally return to our in-person classrooms. After a year of Zoom lectures, asynchronous exams, and more, the prospect of seeing each other again thrilled us.
However, we had not anticipated the constant fear and uncertainty that would accompany this transition. Despite implementing safety measures like masking and one-way hallways, the number of COVID-19 cases continued to …
Let teens self-consent to vaccines
The senior medical student is hours into her on-call shift on her surgical rotation. She’s been up since four, exhausted, and can’t remember if she had eaten anything since breakfast. The staff surgeon on call “pimps” her on surgical anatomy, pointing at the various arteries and veins in the patient lying in front of them on the operating table. The student has difficulty remembering the various arteries and nerves while …
Shame as an unethical teaching tool
One summer a few years ago, I went to pick my son up from camp. He was attending a week-long specialty day camp where the kids spent a week with an expert in some area of interest. The camp offered everything from basketball, soccer, and tennis to acting, magic, and chess. It was the first time I was going to pick him up, and I wasn’t exactly sure where to …
My grandma went to her grave with no teeth. I made a full denture for my dad as a dental student. But you can take your natural teeth to your grave. Just before last Halloween, there was a sign near the elevator on my floor in my building in Greenwich Village asking the tenants to check a box if they welcome trick-or-treaters. That means our willingness to give children cavity-causing …
You can take your teeth to the grave
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“In the emergency department I treat patients based upon my expert judgment. I can explain to you the sensitivities and specificities of the tests I order, I can detail the physiology and pathology involved in my differential …
Leadership lessons from Mayo Clinic [PODCAST]
My friend texted me the other day that she was thinking of quitting her training program.
Some schedule changes earlier in the year led to her being scheduled for back-to-back month-long night float rotations. She was in the middle of her second straight month of nights and was feeling tired, depressed, and burned out.
Now, this might be a unique situation since night float rotations, on average, are only one to two …
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