“I know I am not alone in my thoughts; I am just echoing sentiments of other female physicians. We are mothers, wives, patient advocates, and educators. And we’re all suddenly finding ourselves in unchartered waters. In weathering this pandemic, I’ve taken time to reflect. I wish I could say I emerged from this introspection having conquered all my fears. Instead, I …
Today I wanted to talk about a concept that is very near and dear to my heart: Holding space.
Have you ever heard of it? Do you know how to describe it?
I will first start with the definition and then give you an example.
Holding space means being physically, mentally, and emotionally present for someone. It means putting your focus on someone to support them as they feel their feelings. An important …
“Through my coaching of girl’s basketball in California’s Central Valley, my daughter and I were fortunate enough to know Kobe as a mentor and coach, and a person who inspired my daughter to be the best through hard work, dedication, and passion. While Kobe will live on as one of the game’s greatest athletes, he wanted to be remembered for much …
“It is time to stop being spectators. We are at a critical turning point in our fight against this disease, and our actions now will determine whether we stay on the sidelines, or put an effective end to the scourge of the disease. If we want to avoid a deadlier and costlier battle for the years to come, students, and the …
“We need to stay healthy for our patients, but also for ourselves and our families. We need to mobilize the faction not just with regard to this pandemic, but by anticipating the arrival of others. So how do we advocate for ourselves? A great way to start is continuing our conversations amongst our colleagues and sharing experiences, looking to local businesses …
During my first year of medical school, a professor in my clinical skills course shared a timeless adage in medicine: “If you listen closely enough to the patient, they will tell you the diagnosis.” I accepted this statement as a fact of medicine – if I could develop astute history taking skills in my first year, this skill would serve me well throughout my medical training. However, when I volunteered …
“We are transitioning.” In July of my intern year, this was the sentence that the CEO of our community hospital used to tell the staff that the hospital was closing its inpatient services. The emotions that traversed my mind were quite vast, to say the least. Anger was undeniably at the top of the list, but mostly directed at myself.
Initially, I thought medical school definitely did not prepare me for this. …
“Physicians are trained to do what is best for their patients and to do no harm. Independent practices have sat quietly watching, feeling hopeless as our communities cannot access the care they need, shamefully shutting our doors to spend hours on the phone with insurers. But no more. We can no longer remain quiet: Our pediatric patients may not be suffering …
“We care for patients suffering from addictions every shift and are often the only care providers they can turn to. Despite our best efforts, we are often forced to watch as these patients continually succumb to their addiction, sacrificing their bodies as collateral damage in the battle.
What frustrates me the most is that every time one of these patients leaves against …
I have been reading alarming tales of doctors who think they can buy their way into the hearts of their spouse and kids on the weekend to make up for not being there during the week. The reality is your kids don’t need your money; they need you to spend time with them. Quality time is needed at work; quantity time is needed at home.
Buying a vacation home to use …
1. Both masks and underwear exist to contain badness. Neither works 100 percent, but they’ll curb the worst of the spill.
2. Don’t borrow someone else’s, no matter how cool they look.
3. Keep them on around strangers, unless you’ve both been tested.
4. Cotton breathes better than polyester.
5. If they don’t fit well, you’ll be chaffing.
6. Wear them both when you visit grandma.
7. They stink at the end of the day. They …
“While preparing to assist our patients in the emergency rooms and dedicated COVID-19 wards, our clinic continues to triage patient concerns, creates new care plans, and provides a necessary layer of support, reassurance, and education in a chaotic and stressful time. Like all of you, my colleagues and I look forward to resuming our normal lives as once this pandemic is …
One thing, which is constant in health care, is that it is continuously evolving. The challenges health care leaders are facing are not simple. They are often multifaceted, which require strategic, creative, and inclusive solutions. There are competing priorities and goals. Critical thinking has become an essential skill for all healthcare leaders.
Here are five simple tips to help you practice your critical thinking skills.
1. Ponder on the challenge. Spend as …
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Some people have high cholesterol but not much atherosclerosis. We think of their arteries as having nonstick surfaces. We know inflammation can predispose to plaque formation and plaque rupture, which is the trigger of most heart attacks.
We know statin drugs can prevent and reverse plaque buildup, and make existing plaque sturdier and less likely to rupture. These drugs lower blood levels of inflammatory substances. Most doctors focus on their cholesterol-lowering …
“I initially fell into the dangerous grief and shame spiral. I shoved these feelings of loss deep down and let shame bubble up. How could I legitimize my feelings when people are dying?
However, I have been working through the idea that comparative pain and its conflicting feelings do not help. To a toddler, their worst grief is not being able to …
My first glimpse into the power of urban gardening was not through bucolic farmer’s markets or verdant nurseries, whose beauty I only came to after medical school. My introduction was in our small suburban backyard of clay soil. My dad planted silvery, wild-armed globe artichokes, because they could produce flower buds and leaves we could eat, to improve our digestion. That glimpse was enough to ignite my curiosity about homegrown …
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Fifteen years ago, my career path took a detour. As a two-physician household, we were managing my husband’s match and my job interviews in the cities he was considering. Boston, Milwaukee, and Los Angeles – could you get any more diverse? Definitely, an awkward way to interview; hard to sell excitement when it was clear that it really depended upon “the match.”
Boston! As soon as we got the match results …
I grew up in a small mill village in northwest Georgia. When things did not go right, someone got sick, or we had an accident, or we needed a sports physical, we would head around the circle to the entrance to the mill complex, just across the grassy field from my house, and see Dr. Harry Dawson. Dr. Dawson was that old omnipresent breed of physician who had a small …
“I propose Zooming while driving be added to the DSM criteria for ADHD. I have gotten a new glimpse into the world of some of my patients. One patient even mentioned it’s hard for them to come to appointments, even with transportation, and we were able for the first time to talk at length about those psychological factors that prevent them …
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In today’s increasingly technological, data-driven, depersonalized world of health care, I wonder if the concept of “a good death” is even possible. The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, has caused me to reflect on this. What does it look like? How do you define it? As I did, a patient came to mind. He was a retired minister in his 80s. I had cared for his wife as well until she …
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