Over the past few decades, we have seen a huge swing in our patients’ perceived quality of health care. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, individualism in health care has been taken to an extreme. Because of misinformation from non-medical sources, autonomy, which was expected to lead to a more medically educated public, has instead resulted in widespread mistrust of the medical establishment. With that, many if not all …
Ubuntu philosophy in health care
“You were doing it wrong.”
The patient in my pulmonary clinic for follow-up after her discharge from a hospitalization in January of this year for COVID-19 pneumonia was explaining why she would not reconsider getting vaccinated despite her recent illness.
I told her I had been seeing people die from this disease for the last two years; I wanted to prevent others from suffering from severe illness and death—like her.
“People were dying …
What’s wrong? Patients use disinformation to blame doctors.
“I thought of her with each miscarriage I saw in COVID+ mothers, and during each delivery of premature rupture of membranes due to infection. I thought of her every time I gave steroids, increased the oxygen flow for someone struggling to breathe, or held the hand of someone before their …
COVID and obstetrics: a physician shares her story [PODCAST]
A recent conversation with a colleague took an unfortunate turn when he asked me to teach him how to say my name. I happily obliged. “It’s O-HA-BUN-WA” I said phonetically with a smile on my face. Like many with ethnically distinct names, I get so happy when people attempt to say my name correctly. His response, however, was quite shocking.
“I will never be able to pronounce that,” he said emphatically. …
Combat name-based microaggressions with these commitments today
The world is constantly trying to keep up with the latest COVID-19 variant – from Alpha to Omicron and now Omicron’s cousin BA.2, we have seen how contagious and virulent these variants can be. Viruses are wily adversaries, and they mutate both to avoid detection and to defeat the body’s immune responses from vaccines and previous infections.
Even if vaccines continue to be effective at preventing severe illness and death from …
To treat future COVID variants, we need more than vaccines
My interest in the topic of physician wellness dates to my residency. We were required to do a project, and I opted to survey my colleagues about their health habits and concerns. I was not surprised to find that residents were unable to commit to the health recommendations we give our patients. For example, only 25 percent of respondents met the American Heart Association recommendations for physical activity. Access to …
Organizational approaches to address burnout and moral distress
“I failed my Step 1 medical school board exam by 1 point. This was very hard for me to process, and I consistently wondered if I would have passed if I had just waited an additional week. This new challenge led me to reach out to a new resource: the …
Requesting disability accommodations in medical school [PODCAST]
On February 22nd, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas turned essential medical treatments for transgender adolescents into a crime, ordering the state to investigate them as “child abuse.”
The following day, a patient came to one of us (Dr. Morse), and through sobs recounted the gender identity-related maltreatment that she had experienced throughout her youth. She had survived bullying at school, transphobic slurs in the streets, and multiple threats of physical assault. …
Governor Abbott’s decree: medically harmful, scientifically unfounded, and unethical
The theme for the 2022 Black History Month was “Black Health and Wellness.” To improve Black health and wellness, the scientific community needs to take the first step by removing the category of race in clinical guidelines where it can do more harm than good by exacerbating inequities in care.
Though there exists such small biological variation in races, the biological basis for distinguishing race continues to exist …
Remove race from clinical guidelines
Many of us in health care tend to have qualities that brought us to our professions, which hinder our self-care. We tend to be self-sufficient to a fault, at times lacking the humility to acknowledge or accept we need help. We may also think we are invisible and that we can endure all suffering we witness or experience without any need to process what we experienced emotionally. Additionally, we have …
You take care of others all day. Here are 11 ways to care for yourself.
“What makes soldiers and doctors good at their jobs are also the very things that make it hard to leave work at work. My former husband was, and is, very good at his job, especially when it comes to compassion and care for his patients. At work, he gives his …
What doctors and soldiers have in common [PODCAST]
Almost all of us know that October is breast cancer awareness month. Many of us also know that BRCA 1/2, the BReast CAncer genes, can increase a person’s chances of developing breast cancer. In fact, BRCA 1/2 is so well known that patients with a positive family history often seek genetic screening for it on their own accord. As a medical professional, I am awed by this level of …
It’s time to start approaching heart disease like breast cancer
U.S. health care is going to hell in a handbasket, but only as patients can we alter this. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), hospital administrators and we patients are all guilty of worshiping at the altar of “patient satisfaction.”
It’s not that patient satisfaction is necessarily a bad thing. As a patient myself, I certainly seek out convenience and satisfaction. A UC Davis study in 2012, …
Only patients can save U.S. health care
Currently, there are three multi-specialty certifying bodies recognized within our health care system. The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), the American Osteopathic Association (AOA), and the American Board of Physician Specialties (ABPS). Albeit we state there are three, for some time the ABMS has been certifying osteopathic physicians with AOA in practice coming into the fold.
We constantly speak of the crisis of physician shortages. Yet, crisis or no crisis, …
This article may be emotionally distressing and triggering for some readers. Please speak with your therapist, physician or support if you are in distress or local crisis line or the ER.
February: a time when the stores are bursting with pink and red, marketing pitches for gifts and “romantic” dates for your special Valentine.
For many, February is a heavy month, reminding them of the contradiction they have lived or continue living …
Intimate partner violence and abuse is a hidden reality for many physicians
“Life can feel full of uncertainty when battling cancer, with few guarantees. ‘Is there still cancer in my body?’ and ‘Will it come back?’ are common questions that have long been difficult to answer confidently until recently. Advances in next-generation sequencing — and a growing understanding of how our bodies …
Cancer treatment and tumor-informed residual disease testing [PODCAST]
“Block the player,” and “hustle” were some of the words that hit my ears as I entered the court to watch my daughter’s basketball game. I felt the sensation of stress. There was the coach on one side of the court with some of the players waiting for their turn to join the game and parents were watching from the other side. Whereas the coach was guiding the players and …
How much pressure is good pressure?
I’m hearing from my physician coaching clients that they are beyond exhausted by this pandemic. They experience judgment toward people who won’t get the vaccine. They are frustrated and angry with the situation. And then they feel guilt or shame for feeling this way.
Both doing the actual work and being a witness to human suffering had already worn doctors out. The additional emotional toll caused by these uncomfortable feelings occurs …
Addressing burnout in the time of COVID
Glowing and beaming.
Applying these terms to people has become somewhat dated, but to students of human nature, and especially doctors who meet people under all sorts of unusual circumstances, they still apply.
A former colleague of mine, who worked in general practice in Kansas in his early medical years, went on to an OB/GYN residency and practiced obstetrics until his retirement. He swore that he could tell when a woman was …
Glowing and beaming represent physical evidence of joy in life
Describe a challenge and how you overcame it.
Is this an interview? It is. I see. Yes, the way you are looking at me like I should be providing an answer. OK, well. You see this is a challenge right here because you are two-dimensional and yet I have been told that you are three—and you look like you could have human-like qualities and maybe a cat—but right now I see …
It goes without saying: a residency interview
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