“Recently, I realized that something needed to change in my family life. With three busy daughters at three different schools who participate in multiple activities along with my full-time job as an anesthesiologist, my life depended on accurate and concise communication. However, this was the third time in a week that a ball had been dropped between my husband and me.
This …
Marriage and parenting tips in the year 2020 [PODCAST]
The alarm goes off! Code blue! Code blue! The code blue team rushes to the scene. The patient is unresponsive. There is no pulse. The leader of the code team looks at the monitor and takes charge. The patient is in ventricular fibrillation (cardiac arrest) and would very well flat-line if prompt action is not taken. The leader gives clear instructions: Start chest compression. Fred, you will handle the defibrillator. …
We should communicate like we are in a code blue
“All too often, physicians and other health care providers have tried to do the right things for our patients to ultimately have had our hand slapped.
So pause for a second, get the questions answered, know what future implications are for today’s actions. Make the right choice for your patient, and for yourself, especially if it means amending your contract before you …
Telemedicine pitfalls and direct primary care in the year 2020 [PODCAST]
July is a very special time of year in the medical community. We welcome thousands of newly minted physicians donning their spotless white coats and nervous smiles as they begin what will be one of the most difficult but also most rewarding and exciting times of their lives. Reflecting back on that first day as a brand new intern, I can’t help but think of how nervous I was over …
Advice for new interns: How to earn respect the right way
“Obesity is a topic that literally hits home for me. For the past two years, the website WalletHub has voted the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission TX metroplex as the ‘fattest city in America.’ As a health care provider, this is deeply disturbing because it puts my community at high risk for a wide variety of health problems, including but not limited to coronary artery disease, …
What’s to blame for the obesity epidemic? [PODCAST]
Our country is currently battling two urgent and severe health care crises: COVID and systemic racism. We believe that addressing systemic racism now is as urgent and as dangerous to the health of our nation and its people as the COVID19 pandemic. In addition, we believe systemic racism is intersecting with the COVID-19 pandemic, as seen through disproportionate access as well as morbidity and mortality among people of color.
While it …
Why do Black Americans have worse COVID outcomes?
“We are in the midst of a crisis in humanity. While we are still dealing with COVID pandemic and its deleterious health, economic and societal consequences, our troubling past of racism and inequality is rearing its ugly head.
The senseless killings at the hands of police, the shameful subjugation of persons of color, the systemic prejudice of a person based upon gender, …
In these times of crisis, remember the Golden Rule [PODCAST]
“With my passion for writing and connecting digitally with others in health care and the general public, this ‘downtime’ has allowed for an expansion of these interests. I’ve begun recording on my podcast, a multidisciplinary conversation between women who thrive in fields that traditionally they haven’t thought to be able to (or shouldn’t). I’ve spent more time than I ever could …
How a physician finds laughter during this dark time [PODCAST]
“I had been trained to be this way. No panic, just a calm journeyman’s approach to any affliction, like a mathematician working an equation. Years of preparation, acquiring a skill set, building up my vault, had readied me to stand in the lounge like a zebra.
And so, I stared at my hands to see if I was actually here, to see …
An emergency physician explains the importance of being fragile [PODCAST]
How do racial issues affect patients’ physical and mental health, and how do we address them during regular visits? For those without the lived experience of the black community, how can we learn and educate ourselves? How are the current protests different from those in the past? In order for us to make enduring changes that arise from the protests, what needs …
How racial issues affect both doctors and patients [PODCAST]
1. Change is slow. In fact, it’s much slower than I ever imagined. Part of the issue is that people don’t like change; another is that workplace culture often doesn’t support new ideas.
Tackling this issue: Shift your focus. Get to know people first. Be present. Changing perceptions and convincing people to change first requires that you know them, and they know you.
2. Patience is a virtue. …
10 lessons from my first year as a female attending physician
I never expected to have a friend from Alabama. My upbringing in Brooklyn, New York, didn’t include anyone from the South, and this was a time in American history when the South was in turmoil. I recall black and white images on our family’s TV showing federally enforced integration of schools and communities, swelling civil rights marches, and disturbing scenes of riots and attack dogs used to intimidate …
When Brooklyn meets Alabama: a physician story from a 50-year career
I was listening to a podcast the other day about this woman who kayaked the inner passage from Puget Sound to Juneau, Alaska. She was describing the end of her journey, the day she paddled into Juneau, and she noted that it was so anticlimactic. She paddled in, after 66 days and there was no one to celebrate the end of the journey with, the harbormaster was badgering her to …
The day you finish residency is just a normal day for everyone else
Over the past few months, my 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son have been confined almost entirely to our house and backyard to shelter them from the coronavirus pandemic. They know that “the virus” is dangerous and invisible. However, like superheroes facing adversity, they found their own escape from the confines of their world to their imaginary world of superheroes. During the day, my son insists on wearing a frayed and …
The superhero within during the time of COVID-19
“Physicians have struggled and sacrificed to develop the clinical judgment and skill needed to provide competent clinical care. They have undergone over a decade of schooling and training, taken on excessive student loan debt, worked backbreaking hours for low pay during residency, and risked their lives during the process. Yet when they have completed their training, they often times have to …
Why physicians need to diversify their incomes [PODCAST]
Most incarcerated individuals — over 95 percent of them — will return to their communities. Medical students have a unique opportunity, as a part of their training, to learn about the medical needs of this group and help provide care for a vulnerable population that has historically been abused. Moreover, prison health services have been shown to reduce the stigma of those …
Why a prison psychiatry rotation should be mandatory for all medical students
“Alright, sir, that’s the plan, and we will take good care of you. What questions do you have for me?” I asked after discussing the patient’s condition and hospital course. The patient looked satisfied and nodded as if he understood the plan, and asked: “Well, one question, where are you from?” I immediately let out an internal sigh, knowing where this conversation was going and replied, “Well sir, I was …
The story of an Indian doctor with vitiligo
“Sitting in front of my laptop with both of us on the screen, I can maintain decent eye contact even if I look something up or type something into the medical record. The patient sees me as paying more attention than when I couldn’t effectively both maintain eye contact and look at the screen while talking to him or her (because …
Will telemedicine make us better diagnosticians? [PODCAST]
“Give ‘em out like candy,” advised a senior resident while handing me a stack of small flyers. The text outlined a list of services provided by a nearby community resource center for help with things like housing, food, education, employment, and legal issues. I never thought this quarter page of paper would prove so critical throughout my time working as a psychiatry resident in our county clinic.
Read more…
What the police and psychiatrists have in common
The Match is a stressful time during any physician’s life. Applicants study for, arrange for, and lose sleep over their USMLE steps, their letters of recommendation, and their personal statements. The matching process is particularly difficult during a global pandemic.
As COVID-19 spread in March 2020, all USMLE testing was suspended. Applicants were reassured that tests would either be rescheduled, or that an alternative testing format would be proposed. The National …
IMGs are abandoned during COVID
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