Vulnerability is challenging but necessary for health care professionals

Physician
May 5, 2020

As someone trained in Brené Brown’s curriculum for helping professionals, vulnerability is my jam.

As a physician? Not so much.

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown already burned-out health care providers into the arena with more than just a shortage of equipment. We are now expected to risk our own lives caring for others, which was not part of the original job description. Medical providers are not Marines, nor do we work for …

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Doctors, how are you holding up? You could answer in one of 5 ways.

Physician
May 1, 2020

Multiple times a week, I get messages asking some variation of, “How are you holding up?” I am neither an anesthesiologist, critical care, or ER physician, so I’m not three inches away from exposure while intubating patients with coronavirus. I am also not a nurse or respiratory therapist in a room dozen of times a day administering life-saving medications, performing vital assessments, or carefully managing the oxygen lifeline. I’m certainly …

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After the pandemic, would I choose medicine again?

Education
May 1, 2020

Several weeks ago, after hearing that I plan to begin medical school this August, someone asked me if I still would have chosen to become a physician had I known about COVID-19.

When I submitted my AMCAS application one year ago, I never imagined that I would be waiting in quarantine, wondering whether I will have a white coat ceremony. It never crossed my mind that I would be reading articles, …

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The patient who no-shows

Physician
May 1, 2020

“Your patient just had their 6th no-show, this exceeds our policy limit, please call to investigate barriers to care, also we recommend formal dismissal from the clinic.”

The message regarding one of my obstetric patients was waiting when I opened my inbox this morning.  In our primary care office, we have a policy regarding “no-shows”: Patients who miss a scheduled appointment without calling ahead to cancel or reschedule.  Three strikes and …

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The parallels between basketball and pandemic medicine

Conditions
May 1, 2020

Michael Jordan. Kobe Bryant. Yao Ming. These are the biggest names in the basketball world, and all three were my superheroes growing up. Even though I’d never had the chance to meet them, to see how they carried themselves on and off the court-inspired me to push myself, to find out what my limits were physically and mentally, and to constantly create new goals for myself after accomplishing what I …

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8 reasons why people ignore and defy COVID-19 safeguards

Conditions
May 1, 2020

If you’re amazed that people are still shaking hands, waltzing around mask-free in public, and rushing off to hair salons and beaches in some states, learn to think like a therapist. Understanding the underlying motivations of people who ignore and defy COVID-19 precautions will help you relate more effectively to those in your own life.

Recently, I was pushing my shopping cart down the supermarket aisle in the direction that the …

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The unsettling result of a negative coronavirus test

Conditions
April 30, 2020

As a psychologist, I have long been aware of some of the emotional impacts that illnesses like COVID-19 can have on individuals and families. I never imagined that I would experience some of these impacts directly. Furthermore, I never could have guessed what it would feel like to be told I tested negative for COVID-19 when I was feverish and fighting for air at the height of the pandemic.

I started …

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My rose-colored glasses are my secret instrument for survival

Physician
April 30, 2020

A dear midwife teacher of mine, during my intern year as an OB/GYN, told me, “You need to stop wearing those rose-colored glasses.” She told me I had to take them off to be able to understand the depth and breadth of what my patients were telling me, so I could read between the lines and become a well-trained clinician. In the years that have passed since my first year …

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A physician’s personal experience with sepsis and ventilator support

Conditions
April 29, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has turned the world, and all of its citizens, around, never to be the same again. As an ICU and ventilator survivor, I focus on the drama of the patient’s room, and the reality of what is truly a tragic experience. Nineteen-ninety-eight seems like yesterday, and while it was 22 years ago, it is fresh in my mind.

The vacation abroad that fall was a sunny respite from …

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Strategies to foster meaningful connection during telemedicine visits 

Physician
April 28, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended health care, with telemedicine emerging as a strategy to reduce risk exposures for patients and clinicians. Originating from the Greek root tēle-, tēl-, tēle meaning “far off, afar, at or to a distance,” telemedicine encompasses virtual clinical services. Video visits, in particular, can be effective for many types of clinical care and offer convenience and savings for patients. As care …

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Combining emotion and reason in decision making

Physician
April 28, 2020

We are living in unprecedented times. Times filled with emotion and very little hard science. We are faced with the rapid spread of a new disease that has devastating consequences. The rapid spread is overwhelming our system that is designed for a steady state. Periodically, we are faced with events that overwhelm our system; mass shootings are a prime example. The duration of those events is measured in hours. We …

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The power of poetry during a pandemic

Education
April 27, 2020

I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

These verses flashed on my computer screen, the glare lighting my face as I sat in my bedroom. I paused my usual work and …

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The new physician personal statement

Physician
April 27, 2020

We write personal statements when we apply to medical school and residency. They serve as a sort of window to our soul, our reflections and aspirations, our physician vision and mission. I was doing some soul-searching, and I found my medical school personal statement. The following is a snippet from it:

I believe that the purpose of medicine, of the restoration of health, is to remind people of their own mortality …

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Please make the tragic death of this physician mean something

Physician
April 27, 2020

I hugged her for the last time on March 15, waving goodbye as she drove away from my apartment complex. On April 15, I got a call that my friend was dead. She had unceremoniously taken her own life, unable to overcome the crippling feeling of hopelessness that plagued her after repeatedly being prevented from fulfilling her dream. The details of her death are devastating and tragic. Imagine being in …

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Are COVID-19 lockdowns legal or not?

Conditions
April 25, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised many questions about how to constitutionally handle a public health crisis on both the state and national levels. Many wonder if a national lockdown can be put in place — a new dilemma that has little legal precedent to follow.

Can individual rights be limited to protect public health?

Short answer: Under Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905), states may take measures to protect public …

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Is asking for hazard pay “not becoming of a compassionate and caring physician”?

Physician
April 24, 2020

New York University residents are seeking compensation for the increased risk they face as they are called to the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, but leadership has declined their request for hazard pay and now stands accused on social media of gaslighting residents.

Residents created a petition, addressed to NYU Langone Medical Center leadership, outlining the increased risk they face as the demand placed on the hospital system “skyrockets.” They ask for …

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How microaggressions contribute to impostor syndrome

Physician
April 22, 2020

I accepted my job as chair of the department of pathology at the University of Arkansas before I turned 40, though I didn’t start until after my birthday. I don’t know if I was the youngest chair in the country, but I think I was the only one with a car seat and a spare diaper in my purse. My memories of those first few months are still vivid, even …

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An open letter to graduating medical students

Education
April 21, 2020

I see you.

Studying. Reading the updated guidelines for patients with COVID-19, reviewing differentials, and management algorithms for common chief complaints during this time of restricted direct patient contact. Embracing online boot camps. Completing residency paperwork. Thank you for preparing.

Relaxing. Trying out a new yoga video. Watching Netflix by the hour. Reading a new book. Going for a run or walk. Thank you for re-charging your batteries so you can serve …

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Is there a doctor on board? Yes, but we might not be the right doctor.

Conditions
April 17, 2020

My husband and I travel internationally at least three times a year to give courses with live surgical demonstrations of colorectal conditions in children.

During the past 13 years making those trips, we had our share of hearing the famous announcement in the plane: “Is there a doctor on board?”

Those have happened in many different scenarios including having been on call the night before and therefore being on an almost semi-coma …

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