I was a four-year-old kid when I was about to begin my first day of school. I was born and raised 20 kilometers away from the big city in a small rural area with minimal essential amenities — schools, roads, and hospitals. Like all other kids, it was a momentous occasion for me to start my first day of school, and I remember how exciting it was.
As I started to …
A patient becomes a medical student
“Why are you in seminary?”
As a “non-traditional applicant,” I was asked this question on every medical school interview four years ago.
I’ve come to learn that seminary training engenders stereotypes and mythopoeia. My mentors knew this, and advised me to have examples ready related to the importance of being trained in fields that both study the human condition and provide the skill set necessary to critically assess paradigms.
Some interviewers appreciated the …
Why seminary? Or, why are you non-traditional?
An excerpt from Physician: How Science Transformed the Art of Medicine.
While working at a community hospital in the Midwest in the early 2000s, I came to know Walter Stephenson (name changed), who was under my medical care during a lengthy …
Do doctors see patients as machines?
HIPAA (Health Information Portability Accountability Act of 1996) is the privacy care act involving electronic transfer of records so that the identity of a patient remains unknown. It includes any electronic, written or oral transfer of information. When I was a kid, there was no such thing. As a grown-up medical professional, you are surrounded constantly by HIPAA. Charts are placed on doors, so the names are hidden, instead of …
One of the definitions of “academic” is the following: Not of practical relevance; of only theoretical interest.
When we look at the term academic medicine, sadly the descriptor “academic” increasingly falls under this definition.
To be fair, there have been some wonderful scholars in the field of medicine: Semmelweis, Fleming, Salk, Sabine, Starzl, and Marshall to name a few. And these few were not readily embraced by their peers in medicine. Barry Marshall was ridiculed …
If academic medicine is to avoid becoming academic, it must prioritize patient care
Eight-year-old Tommy has trouble paying attention in school, is always restless in class, unable to complete his tasks, hyperactive both in school and home and his teacher discusses the possibility of him having ADHD with his parents. They decide to take him to see a pediatric psychiatrist. After some analysis, he’s diagnosed with ADHD, prescribed with Ritalin and is on his way home with his medicine. Classic childhood ADHD story, …
Many things in life can only be truly appreciated once reflected upon — like the onset of dementia, depression, and cancer, just to name a few. This got me thinking about the onset of burnout and how the true presentation in life is quite different than reading about it.
The term “burnout” is often thrown around loosely but is an actual syndrome comprised of the progression of “exhaustion, cynicism and reduced …
Is your spouse experiencing physician burnout?
When my friend was in her fourth year of medical school, she and her boyfriend sat down with their dean to discuss their residency applications. Both have since gone on to have successful academic medicine careers, but on that day in the dean’s office, they were nervous. My friend asked the dean for reassurance.
“I’m sure it will all work out,” she recalled the dean saying. “After all, in 20 years …
Medicine systematically disadvantages women physicians at every stage of their careers
Patients have a lot of choices when it comes to physicians. Making sure your online profile is up to date, complete, and contains these five items will improve the chances that a website visitor will become a patient.
Create a personal connection. Having good rapport with patients is important, and that process starts before patients ever walk in the door.
How often have you seen a physician bio that only contains a single, …
5 must-haves for great physician online profiles
Those of you that follow me know that I write and speak often on the topic of physician burnout. About a year ago, after my grandmother passed away, my extended family and I got together for a few days. One night, my cousin and I got to talking about my work, and he pressed me on a question that so many have asked me before, “What makes physician burnout different than that which every other profession experiences — and if …
If physicians are burned out, why don’t they just quit? Here’s why.
I’m about two-thirds of the way through my 3rd year of medical school, and I have hit my wall. I have become so fed up with the set up of medical school. I think a decent amount of this comes from the fact I am on my 6th week of an eight-week surgery clerkship (an area of medicine that I literally have zero interest in). I’m tired of waking up …
Is apathy needed to survive medical school?
If you’re a physician-parent, no doubt you’re familiar with the helplessness associated with the phone call informing you that your child is sick — and needs to be picked up within the hour. You know, the one that coincides with when you were about to start a procedure or a time where there’s no backup available to take over your responsibilities. Murphy’s law.
Many of us have nannies exactly for this …
You’re a physician and a parent. Which comes first?
Recently, a form showed up on my desk to sign, approval for something or other. Not uncommon, given my role at the time as a chief psychiatrist, I signed dozens of such letters, memos, or forms, drafted by an administrative assistant. I signed so many; I never looked at the last line — at how my name had been typed out. Just once my eyes wandered to the end and …
How psychiatrists became lesser physicians
Dr. Pramela Ganji had just finished her lunch when she was told that the appellate court had reversed and vacated her conviction. At first, she didn’t believe it.
After all, this whole experience had been surreal. Dr. Ganji, a 68-year-old well-respected medical doctor and married mother of 3 children, had practiced medicine for 40 years without incident. Her patients loved her, and she had dedicated her life to helping others. …
The unjust prosecution of physicians is not unique
Physicians face a host of challenges in practice, but the one that looms largest is often this — they don’t know everything.
It would be tempting to think that they do. As patients, we want them to. We want our doctors to tell us that they know what’s wrong and how to fix it. Medical mysteries are fun on television, but in our real lives, they’re profoundly unsettling and can have …
Physicians don’t know everything, and that’s OK
Part of a series.
We are all aging every day, but mostly we ignore, do not recognize or deny it. Then all of a sudden, we look in the mirror and realize that older age has found us. Even then each person deals with aging differently. There is Dr. Seuss’ “Cat in the Hat” who sees nothing but adversity in aging. There are others who accept aging but …
We are all aging every day. But mostly we ignore, do not recognize, or deny it.
Bruce Wilson, MD, is a hospice doctor and former cardiologist who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February of 2017. In the months that followed, he publicly discussed events as they unfolded on a CaringBridge blog. The irony of the situation was profound: a hospice doctor being handed what some consider a death sentence. A physician who dedicated his career to changing the conversation about end of life care now …
Radical realism: A hospice doctor prepares for death
She could have been my charming tiny kindergarten teacher, sitting there nonchalantly in her wheelchair with neatly folded arms in her lap. The delicate, airy cloud of silvery blonde hair on her head resembled Queen Elizabeth’s style. I named her Ms. Elizabeth. A few moments ago, though, she looked like a young child who could not comprehend the meaning of her condition. Whenever she was spoken to, her mind seemed …
There’s more to the story of the fired patient
I have worked with some great nurse practitioners (NPs) who I consider to be friends. They play a vital role in team-based practice. This is not about NP bashing. Nor is it a turf war; now that I’m retired, I have no turf to protect. I am a member of Physicians for Patient Protection out of real concern for the future of medicine in this country.
I want there to be …
Are diploma mills hurting the nursing profession?
John Grover is a nice guy. He’s fifty-five, short, a little chubby, and he has a neatly trimmed red beard. He’s the kind of guy whose eyes light up the moment you walk into the room; The kind of guy who remembers your kids’ names, their ages, and their interests. I’d met him a few times before. He’d come in once to refill his blood pressure medication because he couldn’t …
Fixation error can be deadly in medicine
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