How journaling can help physician wellness

Physician
February 23, 2017

Health behavior was my emphasis in my MPH. Add a faculty development fellowship, time as residency faculty, work in a private practice, and increasing interaction with medical students now as faculty at a medical school; the outcome is not just an emphasis, but a mindset. A mindset of health behavior that is not just for patients, but for physicians, as well.

I must have company in this concept as ten invitations …

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How journaling can help physician wellness

Having a baby during medical school wasn’t such a bad idea

Education
February 22, 2017

My stomach had been in knots that morning.

“Are you pregnant?” my classmate laughed after I returned to the gross anatomy lab for the second time after leaving for fresh air.

“No,” I spat, dissection through fat and fascia, teasing out muscles from nerves.

But, I wondered.

After lab, I bought a pregnancy test. I began medical school in my late 20s, already having discussed with my husband appropriate times to start a family during …

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Having a baby during medical school wasn’t such a bad idea

How to publish as a medical trainee

Physician
February 22, 2017

With all this talk about medical student, resident, and fellow burnout, I thought we might take a break to discuss the small delights that sprinkle throughout medical training. This is not a “You should publish as a trainee” manifesto. It’s more of a DIY guide for those who are interested but can’t find the time or the mentor. And after a decade of rejected manuscripts, unfortunately, I’ve …

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How to publish as a medical trainee

Once upon a time, being a doctor was great. Not anymore.

Physician
February 16, 2017

Gather round kids! Let Grandpa Doctor Leap tell you a few things about the old days of doctoring in the emergency room:

Back in the good old days, medicine was what we liked to call “fun.” Not because it was fun to see people get sick or hurt or die, but because we were supposed to do our best and people didn’t wring their hands all the time about rules and …

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Once upon a time, being a doctor was great. Not anymore.

Should patients order their own lab tests?

Physician
February 16, 2017

Knowledge is power. Increasingly, patients are demanding and receiving access to levers in the medical machine that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. The informed consent process, which I support, can overwhelm ordinary patients and families with conflicting and bewildering options.

Television and the airwaves routinely advertise prescription drugs directly to the public. Consider the strategy of direct-to-consumer drug marketing when millions of dollars are spent advertising a drug that …

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Should patients order their own lab tests?

Patients are unique with individual needs. That is the art of medicine.

Physician
February 15, 2017

On a busy day in the office, a patient was added to my schedule for “bleeding, early pregnancy.” She was one of my partner’s patients, but he was not in the office that day. We talked for a minute, then I examined her and did an ultrasound. As I expected, she was in the process of a miscarriage. Unfortunately, I, who wasn’t her regular doctor, had to give her this …

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Patients are unique with individual needs. That is the art of medicine.

The blame game: It’s not alright to blame the patient

Physician
February 14, 2017

Most of the lawsuits I deal with have more than one named defendant. For example, the plaintiff (typically a deceased patient’s next of kin) might sue a hospital, a nursing home, and the attending physician at each facility. Sometimes they go a bit further and may even include the administrator, the director of nursing, and individual HCPs, such as the wound care nurse or the registered dietitian nutritionist.

When a lawsuit …

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The blame game: It’s not alright to blame the patient

4 reasons why being a doctor is worth it

Physician
February 14, 2017

2016 closed around a continued effort to “salvage” the medical profession’s reputation, but the notion that it’s broken continues to be counterproductive.

The brightest students, for example, question the long journey and delayed gratification being a physician entails. They do the math and continue to engage in other professions that are medical but not specifically Medical Doctorate degrees or Doctor of Osteopathic degrees. These same students conclude there is no longer …

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4 reasons why being a doctor is worth it

Words of wisdom for new nurses

Education
February 13, 2017

Welcome to the land of happiness, sadness, confusion, self-doubt, defeat and heroism. You have only just begun. This is not an easy job. And countless times you will say, “What was I thinking?” Or “Why did I do this?”

But it’s not really a job. It is a lifelong sentence. It can be insanely gratifying, or you can throw in the towel.

But be patient. It will consume you, and you will …

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Words of wisdom for new nurses

The Physician’s Bill of Rights

Physician
February 10, 2017

I love teaching my children about history, and in the process, I often see a clearer perspective of events I learned about at a young age when I had less life experience under my belt.

As I have been revisiting the evolution of our country, the formation and restructuring of our society, and the emergence of periods of oppression, rebellion, and social change, I have been struck by the concept that …

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The Physician’s Bill of Rights

Are you asking students questions or “pimping?”

Education
February 10, 2017

One of the most respected and skilled clinician-educators — of course, he is an infectious diseases specialist — at our institute came into my office, sat down and immediately starting eating pretzels. “Let me know what you think about this,” he said between bites. He went on to recapitulate a recent interaction he had with the members of the internal medicine team (medical students, house staff and the attending physician) …

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Are you asking students questions or “pimping?”

How to navigate the language barrier with patients

Education
February 10, 2017

William Osler once said, “Listen to your patient; he is telling you the diagnosis.”  Anybody who practices medicine knows that is easier said than done. The ability to take a skillful history takes years to develop. There are many nuances in a medical history and physicians must know the right questions to ask. The next step is to avoid asking the wrong questions and the wrong wording of the right …

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How to navigate the language barrier with patients

This doctor is a pro-choice physician. Which means she promotes life.

Physician
February 9, 2017

To my friends who view abortion as a betrayal of their religious values: I want you to know that I love you for who you are and understand where you are coming from.

I grew up with many friends for whom the church was an important part of family and community. I was, perhaps unwittingly, towed along to vacation bible camp” at said friends’ churches and for several summers in high …

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This doctor is a pro-choice physician. Which means she promotes life.

Hospital color codes, and what they mean

Physician
February 9, 2017

Hospitals have lots of codes. The most famous one is Code Blue (medical emergency), but it turns out there are lots of color-based codes. This can be confusing, as the connection between the code colors and the situations they represent are usually tenuous at best. Today we explore all of the types of codes, and shed some light these arcane medical euphemisms.

Code Blue

What it sounds like it means: Aggressively-scented cologne from Armani.

What it actually means: …

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Hospital color codes, and what they mean

Should we stop burping babies?

Conditions
February 7, 2017

One evening this past week, after my wife finished feeding our 5-week-old daughter, I took over baby duty. I sat her up on my lap and gave her a few thumps on the back. Not hard enough to hurt, obviously, but just to make her burp.

She didn’t burp. So I gave her a couple more gentle-but-firm whacks, still without a result.

And then I remembered the phone call I got a …

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Should we stop burping babies?

Should we treat anti-vaxxers with more respect?

Physician
February 7, 2017

Years ago, when I was less flexible, I took up Pilates. My instructor, Jim, a charming chap with an infectious laughter, was a 9/11 truther. I’d egg him on to hear about his conspiracy theories. Jim believed that 9/11 was concocted by Bush and Halliburton so that the U.S. could invade Iraq to capture their oil. He thought that United Flight 93 never took off. Whatever happened after 9/11 became …

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Should we treat anti-vaxxers with more respect?

How running marathons helped prepare me for medical training

Education
February 5, 2017

It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

You often hear this analogy about the medical training process, but, having run a few marathons myself, I think it’s particularly apt. I’m working my way through my fourth and final year of residency now, and I can attest that running marathons was one of the better things that prepared me mentally for the challenges of med school and beyond.

26.2 miles is no trivial …

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How running marathons helped prepare me for medical training

The doctor fired for having cancer speaks up

Physician
February 3, 2017

I recently reported on Stephanie Waggel, the doctor fired by a prestigious U.S. hospital for getting cancer (story also the Washington Post). In a transcription of her whistleblower video, Stephanie describes how she nearly died due to obstruction of medical care:

It started during my intern year of residency. Which, bizarrely, was the happiest year of my life. And all my friends are …

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The doctor fired for having cancer speaks up

Have a mean patient? Don’t take it personally.

Physician
February 3, 2017

My brother-in-law, Ron, was a curmudgeon; grumpy, sullen, even downright mean at times.

By blood, he and my husband Bill were cousins. In the 1950s, when Bill was just a child, his mother died unexpectedly, and Ron’s mother took Bill in to live with her and her four children. They were an African-American family living in the midst of a middle-class, predominantly white Connecticut township. Their home, located on a wealthy …

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Have a mean patient? Don’t take it personally.

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