About a year ago, I had an interesting encounter on my way back home to Texas after visiting my parents. I was casually chatting with an older female acquaintance as I got situated on the plane. She asked me what kind of medicine I practice. This woman is in medicine, not a physician, but knowledgeable about the varying specialties. I told her that I was an internist working as a …
I am a hospitalist and I love my job
I’m a cardiology fellow on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many, I know suffering. In 2017, I lost my father to rapidly progressive dementia. I was postpartum at the time, and he did not even know I was ever pregnant. My stepfather — my father since I was eight years old — the only man who appreciated me and celebrated all my uniqueness and success, passed away …
Quotes and songs to help you survive COVID-19
Washington State has benefited from an early response to COVID-19; organized and isolated, the curve seems to have flattened. Within our hospitals, we continue to prepare for the worst. This includes addressing the reality of limited resources and an insurmountable number of patients, a “crisis” standard-of-care.
For many health care workers, fatigue and fear of exposure pale compared to the emotional toll of countless COVID-19 tragedies. At the forefront of our …
Hold on to humanity while we still can
It seems that many physicians finally realize that they are expendable. The fact that U.S. health care institutions view doctors (and every other employee) as disposable cogs in a machine is not a new phenomenon. I learned this lesson over a year ago as a vulnerable type of provider – a resident physician.
From someone who has already been …
Are you angry, doctor? It’s about time.
Just another day as you work into the depths of the night. Medicine engulfs your life as your focus is centered on your responsibilities for tomorrow. You may or may not have time to sit down and enjoy a meal in silence. You may or may not have the opportunity to say good-bye or hello to a loved one. I hope we all had the foresight to realize what we …
What does sacrifice in medicine really mean?
On a sticky summer day four years ago, a class of eager medical students and I harmoniously chimed the Hippocratic oath, binding us to the highest standards and code of medical ethics.
As newly accepted and unassuming medical students, how could we understand the sacred nature of this rehearsed and recited ‘covenant?’
While pledging the words embedded in this sacred vow, we were completely unaware that the culmination of our medical education …
COVID-19 and the Hippocratic Oath
I just lost my uncle to COVID-19. I am writing this to honor him because I cannot leave the country to travel to Canada to see him, I could not visit him in the hospital when he needed us the most, I cannot attend his funeral, and I could not tell him in person how much I love him and appreciate everything he has done for me.
He was …
My uncle’s battle against COVID-19
On the front lines, America’s emergency departments (ED) are currently in at the center of a crisis treating patients with COVID-19. Emergency physicians and other clinicians are placing themselves and their families at risk. Yet, there is also another important crisis facing hospital-based EDs: surprise billing legislation. Certain forms of surprise billing legislation have the potential have a substantial and negative impact on how America’s EDs are supported, and our …
The fragile economics of America’s emergency departments
About a decade ago, I had my first doctor-client. And part of what they wanted to discuss was budgeting in order to save more. They just got new jobs and wanted some general planning for the sake of making good decisions.
Software for budgeting and spending history didn’t exist the way it does now. I wanted to provide the best help I could on this topic, and I knew about budgeting, …
The doctor’s budget — remastered
All my life, I’ve been told that I will have job security. No matter what, as a doctor, I will always have a job despite whatever may come. I have chosen one of the most stable and secure jobs that exist. But did I?
Coming from a family of clinicians — seven physicians, two nurses, and one LPN — one would assume that we are safe and secure, for …
Being a doctor is not what it used to be
As a society, we are faced with levels of uncertainty that are unprecedented for our times. This tension and fear doesn’t discriminate and permeates every corner of the globe.
People might compare the magnitude of this pandemic to events like 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina, but that misses a key element. The disasters we have lived through in our lifetimes up until now were, of course, tragic and devastating in their own …
The world is a scary place right now, and that’s OK
It was Christmas Eve, and where most people are home with their families, residents are all too familiar with spending holidays inside the hospital. As such, I was traveling back to Austin for an early morning shift on hospital service, when I encountered an ethical dilemma that has stuck with me since.
A mere 20 minutes after the plane took off, I heard the dreaded words: “A passenger requires medical attention. …
The ethics of being a doctor on board
“Dark times lie ahead of us, and there will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right.”
– Albus Dumbledore
After Voldemort’s return in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, the students of Hogwarts are faced with much fear and uncertainty. Suddenly a future that many had envisioned – progress through school, graduate, find a job – was no longer as straightforward as it …
Choose not what’s easy, but what is right
The image of patients dying in the intensive care unit is changing. Over the phone, family members cry on the other end as I tell them that we are not allowing visitors due to “the coronavirus” at this time. They tell me, “but I help make his decisions for him.” These decisions now have to be made over the phone.
This is just what we have to do to keep society …
Grieving the end of life experience from an ICU nurse
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced several measures guiding the care of patients during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Another important action that will immensely help the health care workers at the forefront is to reduce the documentation requirements for all patients. Health care workers should be unshackled from endless documentation, freeing up their time and resources to take care of the increasing number of …
Relax documentation requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic
In my career as an outpatient family physician, triage is not something that I commonly do. But now, with the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing, it seems the large percentage of my day is spent in triaging patients. And I have to say, I don’t really care for it. (This is an understatement. I’m trying really hard not to use other four-letter words in describing how I truly feel.)
In my …
In the midst of COVID-19, triage is a four-letter word
As I write this, hand sanitizers, disinfecting wipes, gloves, and masks are sold out everywhere in the panic over COVID-19. People are writing about increased anxiety, and mental health professionals cite a massive surge in requests for help. Go anywhere, and it is not unusual to see people wearing personal protective equipment. Welcome to my world 16 years ago when my daughter was born prematurely at 30 weeks’ gestation …
COVID-19 is rattling the nerves of preemie parents everywhere
The percentage of U.S. college students who are living with mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance, and alcohol misuse, and self-harm are significant. Approximately 39% of college students experience a significant mental health issue. The 2018-2019 Healthy Minds study found that:
Mental health and college students: What parents can do to support their children
As I sit here nervously reading the news and awaiting my next shift at the hospital tonight, I cannot help but wonder what the world will look like when the coronavirus pandemic passes. While I cannot predict when this will be, or how much more damage this outbreak will cause, I do know that medicine will never be the same. Here are some thoughts on what could change and the …
5 things that should change in medicine after COVID-19
Upon walking through the revolving door that guards the hospital’s main entrance, I was ushered by security staff to join the queues of my peers, also seeking passage to their respective posts.
“The new policy,” the officer explained, examining my hospital ID to confirm that I am, indeed, an employee. Visitors are no longer allowed.
“Please sanitize your hands,” another instructed me, as he pointed to the neat rows of surgical masks …
I’m a physician and I’m not a hero
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