As we navigate everyday life in the midst of battling COVID-19, our thoughts naturally migrate to what medicine might look like post viral pandemic.
As the new norms of social distancing, virtual meetings, and little to no human contact continue, we cannot help but wonder will these new social norms become permanent behavior patterns? And if so, what implications do they have for the physician and patient alike?
Humans are a social …
Human kindness is a trait that, though inherent within our genetic make-up, can also be a learned behavior.
The absence of human kindness is blatantly visible to others when a lack of compassion and/or empathy permeates within an interaction with another human being.
As our daily life responsibilities continue at a steady state: mundane things such as paying bills, holding down a job and successfully interacting with co-workers, our ability to respond …
The impact of COVID-19 on human kindness
I recently read a medical school commencement, delivered by a physician, that was both inspiring and sadly reminiscent of what physicians should aspire to throughout their careers.
This physician relayed how patients throughout her training and career had provided her with moments of clarity, helping her identify the “why” she chose a career in medicine. She went so far as to describe how a group of patients saved her from choosing …
Entitlement, arrogance, and isolation in modern-day medical practice
There was a time, before treatment algorithms, when physicians would rely on the detailed bedside and/or office observations of their patients in conjunction with the most recent published peer-reviewed studies.
Time spent with each patient was considered essential and appropriate to reach a proper diagnosis and treatment plan. Now, due to corporate mandates to produce higher RVUs, time is regarded as an unnecessary luxury, to be controlled and curtailed. Yet recent …
Experienced-based medicine has value
As a woman physician, practicing for over 31 years, I have faced many misogynistic occurrences as well as misperceptions about my career choice. This blatant devaluation of women within medicine may be similar to what other women have had or continue to face daily. At large, these experiences resulted in a journey not always easy, nor welcomed, but in the end, accepted for the maturity obtained.
My hope is that by …
Misogyny in this physician’s medical career
As physicians, we are constantly faced with a daily barrage of meeting minimum RVUs, while keeping up with EMRs as part of the necessary components to successfully practice medicine. This has resulted in a decrease in personal interactions with patients, which has caused an increase in physician burnout and suicides. Attempts to reverse these negative impacts have resulted in instituting wellness and meditation clinics and debriefing after traumatic clinical events …
Fight burnout with a higher power
I have been a neonatologist for 30-plus years. Throughout my career, nurses and neonatal nurse practitioners (NNPs) have guided me, assisted me and comforted me through difficult patient care issues that arose. Even more importantly, they allowed me to leave the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) without worrying about how my patients were being taken care of.
I am writing this because our profession (MDs and DOs) continue to devalue these …
The discrimination against nurse practitioners must stop
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