Medicine is fast becoming a field of editing for the sake of efficiency

Physician
February 27, 2018

Have you ever written something that didn’t seem to come across the way you intended? Because I have, many times, almost every day. Not necessarily works of art, but text messages, emails, and pretty much every writing assignment I completed in high school and college. I happened to be thinking about this recently while reading through a story I had written about a patient experience during my residency.

My mind drifted …

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Medicine is fast becoming a field of editing for the sake of efficiency

Vital signs only tell you so much about a patient

Physician
January 12, 2018

It’s another day for me as an intern on the labor-and-delivery floor of my large urban hospital — another day scrambling to help pregnant women deliver and trying to keep pace with the unpredictable timetable of the birthing process.

My hospital phone rings. I’m really starting to dread that sound.

It’s the triage nurse. We’re admitting a patient: Mrs. Harris, age thirty-four, who’s had several prior deliveries and therefore carries the label …

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Vital signs only tell you so much about a patient