It was a hard week.

A colleague was suddenly gone, thirteen years of patients, of history, of complicated cases, and just like that, the rest of us were absorbing it. The calls. The messages. The patients showing up at my clinic needing someone. My own patients waiting longer. Notes to review that weren’t mine. Work landing on my desk that nobody planned for and nobody asked me about.

I kept my charts …

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Like most existential questions, the answer to this question really depends on who you ask.

A patient may have one answer, and a physician a completely different response.

Ask ten people, and you’re likely to get ten different replies.

What does being a great doctor mean to you?

If you’re a doctor, this is an important question to ask yourself because your answers impact how you practice and interact with your patients. Even more …

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Difficult patients.

We’ve all encountered them.

Maybe we are them. (After all, they say doctors make the worst patients, and there’s probably some truth to that.)

But what makes a patient “difficult”?

Is it someone with multiple complex medical issues or a condition you haven’t been able to diagnose or don’t fully understand?

Is it someone with many questions, especially right at the end of their visit?

Is it someone who doesn’t follow your treatment plan …

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