Anonymous

Should doctors be allowed to concealed carry at work?

October 24, 2015Oct 24, 2015

One word: gun. That is all it takes to spark a debate between two very different camps. One end of the spectrum feels guns are an evil haunting the nation by their mere existence, and they need to be dealt with by restricting (or even eliminating) everyone’s ability to possess them. The other end believes it is a core right to keep and use firearms for sport, personal defense, collecting, etc., and that no …

Maternity leave for physicians is a disgrace. It’s time to fix that.

October 22, 2015Oct 22, 2015

Netflix listens to doctors. Google, Facebook, and Apple listen to doctors. The United States Navy and Marine Corps listen. The above companies have updated their maternity leave policies -- lengthening them all past 12 weeks. And all paid. But yet,…

Netflix listens to doctors. Google, Facebook, and Apple listen to doctors. The United States Navy and Marine Corps listen.

The above companies have updated their maternity leave policies — lengthening them all past 12 weeks. And all paid.

But yet, health care doesn’t listen to doctors. And let me tell you how.

I am pregnant. Which is a blessing in of itself. In fact, this is my 4th pregnancy, but I only have one child living. …

A patient’s death drove this physician to tears

October 21, 2015Oct 21, 2015

“Doctor, I am ready to die.” I knew her from a few years back. This patient of mine. I am a hospitalist and the patients in my care come and go, making it difficult to really form relationships like the…

“Doctor, I am ready to die.”

I knew her from a few years back. This patient of mine.

I am a hospitalist and the patients in my care come and go, making it difficult to really form relationships like the ones primary care physicians have with their panel of patients. But this patient was different. I saw her once many years ago when she was gravely ill, and we managed to pull her …

A medical student’s psychiatric hospitalization

October 19, 2015Oct 19, 2015

“You work here?!” I nodded, a hint of a smile revealing my bemusement at his incredulity. “Well … probably not after this.” The other patients in the psych waiting area of the ER nodded in agreement. In my newly issued…

“You work here?!”

I nodded, a hint of a smile revealing my bemusement at his incredulity.

“Well … probably not after this.”

The other patients in the psych waiting area of the ER nodded in agreement. In my newly issued brown scrubs, stripped of my belongings, I was no longer a research coordinator at a top hospital, but rather one of them. And sadly, they believed being one of them meant you couldn’t …

Conditions and Diseases

Patient autonomy is held to be sacrosanct. A doctor reconsiders this view.

September 26, 2015Sep 26, 2015

The refusal of blood products by the Jehovah’s witnesses has often been cited as a great example of patient religious freedom triumphing over the traditional paternalism of medicine. Patients are free to refuse transfusion even at the risk of death. Many hospital-based physicians have, at one time or another, been witness to the demise of a patient refusing blood products, perhaps a preventable demise. Patient autonomy is held to be …

How anatomy lab changed this medical student forever

September 13, 2015Sep 13, 2015

I’m supposed to speak at the body donor memorial in September. I told the organizers my speech was written. “Don’t worry,” I assured them. “I have it all in my head, just need to get it down on paper. I’m a writer; it’s my process.” But the truth is that I am struggling with what to say. I’ve tried to write it, but I just end up drinking a pot …

Academic medicine still discriminates against women. Here’s one story.

September 11, 2015Sep 11, 2015

My idealism has been stolen. No other way to express how I feel just days past my third anniversary from graduating from fellowship. Post college, I spent thirteen additional years in training to become the specialist physician I am. I am reminded now of my Facebook post stating I was about to start my first “real job” with a picture of the beautifully lit signs at night of the university …

Judging without judging is the physician’s paradox

September 3, 2015Sep 3, 2015

Let me be the first to admit that my mind’s internal and unspoken dialogue produces scathing critiques of the people whose behavior or ideologies are divergent from my own. This isn’t to say that I intentionally treat anyone differently because…

On the contrary, I make a conscious effort to make my actions and spoken words consistent among everyone with whom I interact, particularly when I’m …

How a physician recovered from the vicious cycle of addiction

August 27, 2015Aug 27, 2015

I was an overachieving, well-rounded and sagacious undergraduate student. I majored in psychology, minored in biology and was an active member of the Psi Chi honor society. I was drawn to the study of psychology, and fascinated by the complexities of mental illness. I became certified as a research assistant and spent many hours with severely depressed individuals, who had become crippled by their illness. I was intensely intrigued by …

Conditions and Diseases

Doctors and nurses need to be better trained in palliative care

July 15, 2015Jul 15, 2015

Doctors and nurses said patients and their families created the largest obstacles to end-of-life decision-making in the ICU in a large survey published in JAMA Internal Medicine. About 1,300 staff at 13 academic hospitals in Canada rated barriers to end-of-life…

Doctors and nurses said patients and their families created the largest obstacles to end-of-life decision-making in the ICU in a large survey published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

About 1,300 staff at 13 academic hospitals in Canada rated barriers to end-of-life goals of care on a 1 to 7 scale. Doctors and nurses considered the largest barriers to end-of-life …

Medications

Antipsychotics in the elderly: Sometimes it’s excellent palliative care

July 8, 2015Jul 8, 2015

The outcry over antipsychotics has ranged far and wide. Everyone from governmental agencies to senior advocacy organizations have pointed to the abysmal data. Antipsychotics have a negative impact on morbidity and mortality. They say we are chemically restraining those who…

And I disagree wholeheartedly.

I manage a …

A physician enters rehab. What happens next should disturb you.

July 4, 2015Jul 4, 2015

I’m a physician, and I’m adrift. I am pretty much lost at sea. I’ve often thought of writing this column, but afraid I’d be recognized, I’ve hesitated for years. Even now, I’ll most likely remain anonymous, because I’m in a…

I developed dependence on opioids several …

I’m a physician. But please don’t call me doctor.

June 5, 2015Jun 5, 2015

I work in a place where nobody calls me by my name. They all address me by a moniker of their choosing that I have asked them not to use. I have asked them to use my name. Aside from…

I work in a place where nobody calls me by my name.

They all address me by a moniker of their choosing that I have asked them not to use. I have asked them to use my name. Aside from a few who respect my wish, most of my co-workers just call me by the impersonal-sounding phrase they’ve selected instead. It creates …

Patient

Hospitals are not built for doctors. Hospitals are for patients and their families.

June 1, 2015Jun 1, 2015

Before I got into medical school, while I was still in my first year of graduate school, I learned what hell was like. The hospital was a rabbit warren. Walking down the long empty beige halls fueled my hatred for…

Before I got into medical school, while I was still in my first year of graduate school, I learned what hell was like.

The hospital was a rabbit warren. Walking down the long empty beige halls fueled my hatred for hospitals. And, of the color beige.

When I volunteered during college, I would press myself up against the wall whenever a gaggle of doctors passed by. They ruled the hospital: powerful, scary, …

A vision for a more efficient, more elegant health care visit

April 24, 2015Apr 24, 2015

As a patient, I would like a primary care visit that is pleasant, comprehensive, convenient, and efficient. As a future practitioner, I hope for a visit that is unhurried, educational, efficient, and holistic. We may have through all these years grown accustomed to the status quo — on both ends — that is, we have come to expect the 45-minute wait in the atrium prior to our beckoning by the …

Abortion: Caught between an oath and beliefs

April 11, 2015Apr 11, 2015

Medicine is an area of study that is bursting with countless gut-wrenching ethical debates. Throughout our medical training, even in some medical school interviews, we are asked and tested on how we would personally navigate the delicate tightrope of right…

Trying to maintain equilibrium between our personal beliefs and those that are best for our patients can often be difficult. On one side of our acrobatic act, we are …

I’m not apologizing for my part-time role in medicine

March 26, 2015Mar 26, 2015

Over the course of pre-professional and professional education, my colleagues and I have had numerous moments of self-doubt. Would the next organic chemistry exam eliminate my 3.99 GPA? Would the MCAT decide what medical schools would immediately ignore me without…

Patient

A message to those taking care of my medically-complex child

March 18, 2015Mar 18, 2015

To the staff overseeing my medically-complex child, My child has been in this world much longer than you expected; thus I’ve been in this relationship with you much longer than I expected. If I could break up with you and…

To the staff overseeing my medically-complex child,

My child has been in this world much longer than you expected; thus I’ve been in this relationship with you much longer than I expected. If I could break up with you and find someone new, believe me I would (I’m sure so would you some days). But that isn’t possible; we’re in a dysfunctional relationship. If we recognize this together and just come to an …

Medications

A domperidone dilemma: A patient’s perspective on ordering from Canada