Brian Rifkin is a nephrologist.

It is overwhelming hopelessness that crushes caregivers’ collective souls

Conditions
November 9, 2020

I started my medical training in the late 1990s. This was after the AIDS epidemic; that is to say, by that time, the human immunodeficiency virus was known, and there were already proven treatments. So, for doctors of a certain age, this is the first time we have battled an emerging disease. This has created a torrent of confusion and therapeutic missteps. The gold standard double-blinded, randomized, well planned, placebo-controlled …

Read more…

It is overwhelming hopelessness that crushes caregivers’ collective souls

“You’re fired”: 2 words this doctor never expected to hear

Physician
October 20, 2020

It took me 47 years to hear those two devastating words, “You’re fired.”

It’s not like I didn’t have a slew of jobs before becoming a physician.  I cut lawns and raked leaves as an early teen; I worked in a fast-food restaurant when I was 14 using my older brother’s ID, I worked in a carwash one summer, I even worked for a national department store. I was always polite, …

Read more…

“You’re fired”: 2 words this doctor never expected to hear

Is there life after medicine?

Physician
October 14, 2020

My group of nephrologists is trying to convince our 75-year-old colleague to retire from full-time clinical practice.  I think he truly believes that the day he retires, his essence, soul, chi — whatever you want to call it — will be forcibly removed from his body, and he will cease to exist. He has told me, more than once, that he will be dead in less than a year if …

Read more…

Is there life after medicine?