“Like some insidious conditions, feelings can fester. They can spread like cancer, and sap the spirit of nourishment until it starts to die, riddled with doubt and sensations of inadequacy. They can degrade the soul, as though it were suffering from a systemic inflammatory disease. But this progression, like many …
Taking care of yourself during medical school [PODCAST]
Mentorship is one of the cornerstones of growth as a clinician and student. Given that so much of medicine is learned outside of a classroom and through individual experiences, mentorship helps to clearly round out these experiences and help us grow as clinicians. I remember starting medical school and being told at every corner to look for mentors. I wanted to make sure that I was able to grow at …
Formalized mentorship as a requirement for medical schools
Medicine is not a business
You fools.
Healing is your blueprint, activated
to complete itself.
A doctor does not broker it,
The best anyone can do is align you
With what you should be,
And stay out of the way.
(Like a teenager setting off an illegal firecracker.)
Mostly, you pay the doctor for the alignment,
And the nurse
To keep the doctor out of the way.
If you’re not ready,
to get on with the business of what you should be,
You come …
Medicine is not a business: a poem
“Bipolar runs in my family, so I knew the harsh realities of this untreated illness. A family member faked his own death after a counterfeiting spending spree. My grandfather told people that I would die in a car accident, and he would take my body up to the mountain and …
I bought into the stigmas about the mentally ill, until I became one of them [PODCAST]
“How do we create a world where all of us can express our unique selves the way we choose without derisiveness and shame? I am not here to criticize the wonderful parents and caregivers who are reading this – they only love their children. Common sense must prevail. I only …
Tomgirl and tomboy: Rethinking gender stereotypes [PODCAST]
People often say health care professionals are often the worst patients. As health care professionals, we are well versed with what is needed to be healthy, but we struggle, like many other people, to consistently apply these principles.
Some reports indicate that as many as 50 percent of doctors experience symptoms of burnout, including emotional exhaustion, feel less enthusiastic about work, and lack personal accomplishment at some point during their career. …
If the healers are sick, what happens to the rest of society?
We went into medicine to help people, and now we struggle with feelings of betrayal. We sacrificed so much. While our cohort in college went on to graduate and earn an income and start families, we continued with medical school, an all-in venture financially and personally, demanding all of our time, efforts, and attention. Then we trained. And trained some more. And then, finally, we went to work. We took …
Physician struggle with feelings of betrayal
The U.S. Department of Education recently announced some major changes to the rules and qualifications around the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. Now, for a limited period of time, borrowers may receive credit for past payments made on loans that would otherwise not qualify for PSLF.
The good news is that public service loan forgiveness is now available to more people. The bad news is that there will be more …
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness waiver and its impact on physicians
“We all know watching a module on resilience, sitting in a lecture about mindfulness, being told to practice more yoga and breathing techniques does not make you feel less burnout. It’s having the support and buy-in from your workplace, to actually have the time to do the things that feed …
I do not want to be resilient [PODCAST]
The journey to becoming a physician is generally a linear path. Sure — there are exceptions, but for the most part, you can accurately predict what you will be doing in the future. For example, when you are in high school, the next step is college, then medical school, residency, possibly a fellowship, and finally your first job. (That’s approximately 16-18 years of your life!)
But what happens when things don’t …
How to navigate residency probation
Gen. Colin Powell , the first Black U.S. secretary of state, passed away this week due to COVID complications. Yes, Powell was fully vaccinated but immunocompromised. However, he had scheduled the booster but was too ill to receive it.
After President Joe Biden received his COVID-19 booster, many wondered if they needed a booster too.
I have been a registered nurse for over 38 years, and …
To booster or not booster? That is the question.
“As the next wave of the pandemic unfolds, the rise in cases is once again straining health care systems. But that’s not the only reason hospitals and health systems could experience an influx of emergency or critical care visits. Findings from the National Poll on Healthy Aging based at the …
Why now is the time to get patients back to in-person routine care [PODCAST]
Mr. Williams is a 52-year old male who has been following me for some time. He has just been started on metformin for newly diagnosed diabetes. Lisinopril is his only other medication for high blood pressure. When he had his yearly physical, he was also found to have a high LDL “bad” cholesterol of 150. His BMI is 29, significantly overweight and touching obesity levels.
I sat down with him for …
The dream patient that makes a doctor very happy
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I am a former chief of surgery and a scientific entrepreneur.
My practice consisted of patients who suffered from serious injuries and illnesses. Concerning the latter, a significant number had cancer, especially breast cancer. The issue all patient groups have in common to a certain degree is protein calorie malnutrition (PCM). The most dramatically affected are those stricken with a malignancy. PCM leads to increased morbidity, mortality, …
Protein calorie malnutrition is devastating for patients
“Frontline workers may have temporarily experienced a heightened sense of personal success and gratification, but I doubt many of us are still able to feel satisfied at this point, after all the repeated moral injuries and losing so many patients. COVID-19 assuredly changed me. The virus changed my residency …
Carry on, my weary one: Persevering in the aftermath [PODCAST]
About 4 months after emergency medicine physician Jessica (a pseudonym used out of fear of retaliation from her employer) joined a Michigan hospital in 2014, the department’s staffing group was bought out by TeamHealth, a staffing firm backed by the private-equity behemoth Blackstone.
Ever since Emergency Medicine Specialists (EMS) — which touts itself as one of the oldest emergency physician groups in Michigan — was acquired by TeamHealth, “it’s been …
Why private equity is a dangerous employer
At the very start of the pandemic last year, I met with a couple of patients in the office while we wore masks. Based on that limited experience, I quickly concluded that seeing each other’s faces was of paramount importance, even if over video. That, plus the infection risk, led me to close my office to in-person appointments. For more than a year, I exclusively conducted …
Which is better: Psychotherapy using video or in-person while wearing masks?
Remember the dark days of the pandemic, when the true risk of caring for COVID patients started to become clear? Remember when you could be censured by a nursing supervisor or administrator for wearing a mask in public areas lest you frighten patients or visitors?
Right around then, a third-year resident at UCLA decided to wear a mask wherever he went in the hospital, as testing wasn’t readily …
Why it may be time for doctors to unionize
“As a mother, a physician, and an educator, I refuse to accept this as normal. It is not! What should we tell the parents of these young physicians? How do we explain to them that their dream of being a doctor became a nightmare with a tragic ending? What do …
Physician suicide: Where are the leaders? [PODCAST]
An article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2018 noted the sad milestone that firearms were causing 15% of all deaths in children and adolescents. Somewhat encouraging, a later study showed states with stricter firearm laws correlated with lower numbers of firearm deaths in children. The relationship was quite linear, as you can see below. The authors had specific criteria for weak vs. strong gun laws: if …
The success of Australian firearms regulation: What it could mean for children
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