A physician’s mid-career and mid-life success

Physician
February 6, 2021

A mid-life crisis, re-assessment, re-envision. Hollywood’s cliché version epitomized by Chevy Chase driving the “family truckster” while flirting with Christie Brinkley and later trying to skinny-dip with her. Of course, it is more than that.

Researcher, Brene Brown, calls it the unraveling. It is a pause. Turning off auto-pilot. A re-evaluation of goals. Clinically, it is called a mid-life transition or stage of adult development. It can be midlife or mid-career …

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In the midst of our COVID crisis, we must learn to take care of ourselves. And each other.

Physician
February 6, 2021

Applause every evening, volunteers sewing masks, personal phone calls, and check-ins – these are a few examples of the support that helped us get through the initial, brutal onslaught of COVID in New York City last spring.

A year later, many hospitals across the country are full to bursting, the staff is exhausted, and medical science is still unable to save thousands of patients from dying in isolation. And we know …

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Being a neonatologist and a mother [PODCAST]

Podcast
February 5, 2021
YouTube video

“Being a neonatologist and a mother is living with the knowledge that the question ‘What would you do?’ could so easily become real, not hypothetical.  And so what would I do? I don’t know, heartbroken mama. Because I feel too much, but I don’t feel enough. Because I know too well, but …

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Overcoming PPE barriers to compassionate communication 

Physician
February 5, 2021

In the COVID-19 environment, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) is the norm for clinicians. Monthly, U.S. health care workers use 89 million masks. While these masks help prevent the spread of disease, PPE creates barriers to effective communication that is requiring clinicians to learn new techniques for interacting with patients. Learning new verbal and non-verbal techniques to overcome PPE communication barriers is especially important for conveying …

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Thank you pediatric medical professionals [PODCAST]

Podcast
February 4, 2021
YouTube video

“As the mother of a child born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, besides going through four open-heart surgeries and coding, my son has also had eight abdominal surgeries, including a Ladd’s procedure and resection of his colon. William also functions without his appendix, spleen, and gall bladder. In addition to every …

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Maybe life is happening: the power of language in patient hand-offs

Physician
February 4, 2021

“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
– George Orwell

The “difficult” family

At 2 a.m., on my first night shift as a pediatric resident, a patient, Casey, transferred from another hospital. She had a rare, progressive chronic illness, was medically complex, and was currently receiving treatment for an acute systemic infection. Shortly after she arrived, she became difficult to arouse. When I asked her mother questions, I was …

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How could a patient die from anesthesia for a colonoscopy?

Physician
February 4, 2021

Every death related to anesthesia is a tragedy; even more so when a minor procedure such as a colonoscopy leads to a completely unexpected death. Everyone knows that open heart surgery carries a mortality risk, but few of us walk into the hospital for a colonoscopy thinking that death is a plausible outcome.

We know so few facts at this point about what happened on January 21 at Beaumont Royal Oak …

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Prison medicine during the pandemic [PODCAST]

Podcast
February 3, 2021
YouTube video

“Rumor has it that the SARS-CoV 2 virus was brought into prison via inmates who were on a work-release program.  Allegedly, they boarded a city bus with a driver who was ill.  From there, it crept beyond the work-release camp and wafted over to the general prison population.  The pandemic had …

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COVID-19 vaccines are safe for people with severe allergies

Conditions
February 3, 2021

The intensive care unit nurse was worried the COVID-19 vaccine would kill her.

In the past, just minutes after getting the influenza vaccine, she had hives, wheezing, and throat swelling. Her life-threatening reaction only resolved after an epinephrine injection and monitoring in the emergency room. She vowed never to get another vaccine.

With the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine, she reconsidered her stance. Now she was in my clinic, …

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Stuck between a virus and a cold place: A choice for homeless Americans [PODCAST]

Podcast
February 2, 2021
YouTube video

“What form the incoming winter will take depends on the location and status of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each city must find a method that will provide the most relief and assistance for their homeless population. Analyzing the results of the measures already taken by shelters in the country will prove vital to …

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How divorce helped this physician

Physician
February 2, 2021

I got married the day after I graduated from medical school to someone I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with. Seven years later, we were divorced.

Even though a high percentage of marriages end in divorce, there is still a stigma that many of us who divorce feel. I had already completed residency and was an attending by the time I got divorced, and I remember feeling so …

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Yes, your doctor was a sorority girl

Physician
February 2, 2021

Patients often comment on my attire other than my white coat, particularly my impractical footwear, until I finally broke down and purchased Danskos to avoid being called out for my truthful impracticality. It is amazing how patients care more about my orthotics than remembering the reason they scheduled a visit with me, and God bless them for that.

I am in family medicine, and I thrive on personal and genuine relationships where …

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The impact of current work hour restrictions and OSHA misclassification on house staff health

Education
February 2, 2021

Over 100,000 medical and surgical resident physicians and fellows (combined, “house staff”) are the first-line physicians for most patients in the nation’s 1,100+ teaching hospitals. Maximum weekly work hours regulated by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) are colloquially cited to be 80 per week. Notably, however, they are 80 hours averaged over 4 weeks (88 with “sound educational rationale”), without maximum weekly hour …

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Nisha Mehta, MD on why physicians should consider side gigs [PODCAST]

Podcast
February 1, 2021
YouTube video

“At first, it may seem strange that ‘physician’ and ‘side gig’ are even used in the same sentence. After all, the average physician in the United States is already working more than a 40 hour work week and struggling with issues related to work-life balance. As someone who talks about physician …

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2021: 10 health care trends to watch in the New Year

Sponsored
February 1, 2021

This article is sponsored by Augmedix: Ambient medical documentation and live clinical support powered by virtual scribes.

2020 was a remarkable year by almost any standard. In health care especially, we’ve seen COVID-19 catalyze years of growth and innovation in less than 12 months. Assistive technologies were developed to meet challenges in record time, and encouragingly positive changes in how we practice medicine …

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Instead of comparing, let’s nurture the next generation of physicians

Education
February 1, 2021

Years and years ago, everyone always walked up a mountain of snow and ice barefoot while dragging a carriage behind them to get to school, and their stethoscopes were made of bamboo. They were hard, hard times, and it was a time-honored tradition to hear the talk from our attendings about how hard training used to be and always elicited an internal groan. The follow up refrain frequently heard in …

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Death is personal for this physician [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 31, 2021
YouTube video

“In Wooster, Ohio, where I practiced, a small not-for-profit hospice agency relied on local physicians, clergy, and many other volunteers to supplement the skills and dedication of their employed staff. It was through this work with Hospice of Wayne County, in making home visits when needed, that I learned the immeasurable value …

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Human elements: How Primo Levi brought science to life

Education
January 31, 2021

He studied at Turin, worked as a chemist until the age of 24, and in 1943 he resisted Nazi occupation of Italy with a group of countrymen. Italian fascists arrested him, turned him over to the Germans, and sent him to Auschwitz in 1944. He arrived on a train packed with six hundred and fifty people. He was imprisoned in the concentration camp for a year. Later Read more…

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