KevinMD.com: Social media’s leading physician voice
The KevinMD newsletterReal physician voices, twice a weekFree, and one click to unsubscribe.
Subscribe free →
NEWExperts by KevinMDPhysicians and health care experts, by specialty.Shveta GuptaHematology physicianDevin ZarkowskyVascular surgeonKenneth RoInternistEmily WattersPsychiatristAleksandra FilipovicMedical oncologistReuben MathewMed-peds residentRobert MurryFamily physicianKayvan HaddadanPhysiatristPaul HainPediatricianBarbara SparacinoPsychiatristHussain Isma'eelCardiologistAnn LebeckFamily physicianLynn R. WebsterPain medicine physicianAngelika LuehrsConsultant psychiatristBobby DuboisInternistLaurel A. CoonsScientistNathaniel AranaHealth care CEOCraig HaubenHealth care CEOJessica ChalkPatient advocateBrowse experts

Hospital medicine

5,188 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 25

Physician voices

Do not underestimate the power of spending an extra minute with a patient and family member

One aspect of medicine that anyone who reads my work knows I’m most passionate about is keeping excellent communication at the core of health care. It’s a vastly under-taught skill, and although medical schools are certainly getting a lot better…

One aspect of medicine that anyone who reads my work knows I’m most passionate about is keeping excellent communication at the core of health care. It’s a vastly under-taught skill, and although medical schools are certainly getting a lot better at teaching the fundamentals than they were a few years ago, there’s still nowhere enough reinforcement throughout one’s medical career. It’s therefore easy for all of us to slip into …

Read more…

Do not underestimate the power of spending an extra minute with a patient and family member

Physician voices

The key to success as an intern is to be a great teammate

Many people wonder what it’s like to be an intern and how to succeed during your first year as a physician. Is it really as bad as everyone makes it out to be? Are you able to sleep without constantly…

Many people wonder what it’s like to be an intern and how to succeed during your first year as a physician. Is it really as bad as everyone makes it out to be? Are you able to sleep without constantly thinking about your patients and the diagnoses that you may have missed? Were you compassionate and empathetic enough toward the family of the patient who was dying? Did your attending …

Read more…

The key to success as an intern is to be a great teammate

Physician voices

Advice for new interns: How to earn respect the right way

2

July is a very special time of year in the medical community. We welcome thousands of newly minted physicians donning their spotless white coats and nervous smiles as they begin what will be one of the most difficult but also…

July is a very special time of year in the medical community. We welcome thousands of newly minted physicians donning their spotless white coats and nervous smiles as they begin what will be one of the most difficult but also most rewarding and exciting times of their lives. Reflecting back on that first day as a brand new intern, I can’t help but think of how nervous I was over …

Read more…

Advice for new interns: How to earn respect the right way

Real physician voices, twice a week

Free, and one click to unsubscribe.

No spam. We never share your email.

Physician voices

Dear interns: We have your backs

14

Every July, the same tired “new interns: be scared to go to the hospital” memes and jokes appear. I disagree. I believe that July is as safe as any other month to go to the hospital. July should be celebrated.…

Every July, the same tired “new interns: be scared to go to the hospital” memes and jokes appear. I disagree. I believe that July is as safe as any other month to go to the hospital.

July should be celebrated. Medical students and resident physicians are the lifeblood of our profession. Clinical physicians have never felt more exhausted, harassed, commoditized, and defeated by the “health care machine.” We need your eagerness, …

Read more…

Dear interns: We have your backs

The Podcast by KevinMD

In these times of crisis, remember the Golden Rule [PODCAST]

"We are in the midst of a crisis in humanity. While we are still dealing with COVID pandemic and its deleterious health, economic and societal consequences, our troubling past of racism and inequality is rearing its ugly head. The senseless…

Listen on Apple Podcasts · Spotify

Listen and followApple PodcastsSpotifyYouTubeMore apps · Browse all episodes

“We are in the midst of a crisis in humanity. While we are still dealing with COVID pandemic and its deleterious health, economic and societal consequences, our troubling past of racism and inequality is rearing its ugly head.

The senseless killings at the hands of police, the shameful subjugation of persons of color, the systemic prejudice of a person based upon gender, …

Read more…

In these times of crisis, remember the Golden Rule [PODCAST]

Physician voices

Are doctors damaged goods?

4

We sat down at a sun-drenched table in an outdoor restaurant enjoying the fresh breeze while sipping on our favorite drinks. He is a man with immense talent, a slight frame, and the art of the skill in dissecting the…

We sat down at a sun-drenched table in an outdoor restaurant enjoying the fresh breeze while sipping on our favorite drinks. He is a man with immense talent, a slight frame, and the art of the skill in dissecting the arborized vessels away from his main focus during surgery.

He is also one with a keen perception of absolute relations between right and wrong. He has the finely formed hands with …

Read more…

Are doctors damaged goods?

Physician voices

On the last day of intern year, ready to take the next step

When you are a week out from finishing your intern year, you start to feel pretty confident. When you are a week out from finishing your intern year, and you spent the last four months of it on a COVID…

When you are a week out from finishing your intern year, you start to feel pretty confident. When you are a week out from finishing your intern year, and you spent the last four months of it on a COVID floor in a major New York City hospital, you start to feel particularly confident. Whether you’re about to become a senior resident, with interns of your own, or about to …

Read more…

On the last day of intern year, ready to take the next step

Health policy

Hospital-based preparedness in the post-COVID era

COVID-19 has made the inadequacy of our public health and hospital-based health care system to identify, mitigate, and resolve pandemic disaster self-evident. Gaps in hospital-based preparedness capacity are abundant, including the inadequacy of stockpiles for personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators,…

COVID-19 has made the inadequacy of our public health and hospital-based health care system to identify, mitigate, and resolve pandemic disaster self-evident. Gaps in hospital-based preparedness capacity are abundant, including the inadequacy of stockpiles for personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, medications, lack of surge inpatient and ICU capacity, and an inability to rapidly scale testing or interventions to meet pandemic demands.

The initial outcry placed blame on Federal and State governments, …

Read more…

Hospital-based preparedness in the post-COVID era

Physician voices

Patients deserve our best all the time, in a pandemic, and at 5:59

It’s 4:30 a.m. as I trudge to the parking garage with a sense of defeat. I am an internal medicine resident wrapping up a swing shift, the magnanimous buffer to admission responsibilities between the day and overnight ward teams. Though…

It’s 4:30 a.m. as I trudge to the parking garage with a sense of defeat. I am an internal medicine resident wrapping up a swing shift, the magnanimous buffer to admission responsibilities between the day and overnight ward teams. Though clinically tucking in patients that arrive before six o’clock is often easily accomplished well before midnight, this time had been different. Not two hours into the shift, I reached my …

Read more…

Patients deserve our best all the time, in a pandemic, and at 5:59

Physician voices

In yoga and medicine: I am an expert in neither, but I am practicing both

Seven years ago, I took a hot yoga class in a packed studio, an R&B playlist bumping loudly, the woman next to me sporadically singing along with the music. Afterward, she smiled at me and said, “It was nice to…

Seven years ago, I took a hot yoga class in a packed studio, an R&B playlist bumping loudly, the woman next to me sporadically singing along with the music. Afterward, she smiled at me and said, “It was nice to practice with you!” I was new to yoga, and this was the first time I considered yoga as a practice, a word signifying a skill performed repeatedly in order to …

Read more…

In yoga and medicine: I am an expert in neither, but I am practicing both

Physician voices

COVID-19: a medical resident’s tale of sign-outs and ID bands

Two-paged signouts This was the picture of the unusually higher than normal patient load we have in the wards. The hospital looked grim and eerie. Gone were the days when we would start with morning report and see plastered smiles…

Two-paged signouts

This was the picture of the unusually higher than normal patient load we have in the wards. The hospital looked grim and eerie. Gone were the days when we would start with morning report and see plastered smiles on colleagues’ faces, relaxed and ready to conquer the day.

I saw patients without visitors. I’d hear rapid response teams more frequently – so I made a habit of memorizing …

Read more…

COVID-19: a medical resident’s tale of sign-outs and ID bands

Physician voices

Parenting as an ICU physician

COVID-19 has upended the medical community. Nowhere more so than in the intensive care unit. Life as an intensivist with two young children and a working spouse is never dull. I liken it to tight-rope walking with a pole for…

COVID-19 has upended the medical community. Nowhere more so than in the intensive care unit. Life as an intensivist with two young children and a working spouse is never dull. I liken it to tight-rope walking with a pole for balance. I wake up every morning and balance the clinical responsibilities, teaching, reviewing journals, learning, school assignments, lunches, after school activities, bedtimes, repeat, repeat, repeat.  The balance remains just

…

Read more…

Parenting as an ICU physician

Physician voices

Can we help residents feel happier about taking call for free?

“I stayed up all night, and for what, $10 a consult?” A clearly exhausted and exasperated colleague and friend said to me one morning after his very busy call shift. As a chief resident, one of my roles is to…

“I stayed up all night, and for what, $10 a consult?” A clearly exhausted and exasperated colleague and friend said to me one morning after his very busy call shift.

As a chief resident, one of my roles is to manage the call duty schedule. As such, I frequently hear about how residents feel about call. Interestingly, many comments have to do with the economics of call: “It’s just not worth …

Read more…

Can we help residents feel happier about taking call for free?

Physician voices

A flurry of emotions as internal medicine residency comes to an end

As I come to the end of my internal medicine residency, I cannot help but experience a flurry of emotions. I am sure many of you, like myself, are feeling a whole host of sensations: relief at the fact that…

As I come to the end of my internal medicine residency, I cannot help but experience a flurry of emotions. I am sure many of you, like myself, are feeling a whole host of sensations: relief at the fact that you have now completed over 23 years of education/training; exuberant joy when you click on your schedule and realize that you have no more 28-hour calls; and sadness when you …

Read more…

A flurry of emotions as internal medicine residency comes to an end

Conditions and diseases

Ventilator rationing is guided by rules that could worsen health inequities

2

Imagine there are two individuals who have been admitted to a hospital due to COVID-19, and both desperately need ventilators. One is a 60-year-old with a heart condition, and another is a 63-year-old with chronic kidney disease. Because of resource…

Imagine there are two individuals who have been admitted to a hospital due to COVID-19, and both desperately need ventilators. One is a 60-year-old with a heart condition, and another is a 63-year-old with chronic kidney disease. Because of resource constraints, you have to decide which patient will be able to receive a ventilator. Both patients’ families are looking to you to help their loved one through this illness. With …

Read more…

Ventilator rationing is guided by rules that could worsen health inequities

Physician voices

An internal moral and ethical conflict doctors face every day during this pandemic

One of the most memorable milestones in my life was my journey to becoming a doctor. A path that I look upon so fondly as it marks a time that molded much of who I am today. Charles Dickens describes…

One of the most memorable milestones in my life was my journey to becoming a doctor. A path that I look upon so fondly as it marks a time that molded much of who I am today. Charles Dickens describes my experience perfectly, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness …”

Like many of …

Read more…

An internal moral and ethical conflict doctors face every day during this pandemic

Physician voices

Opening America: Should we really have to choose between economic revival and human life?

2

Let me tell you a story about Francisco, a recent patient under my care in one of New York City’s hardest-hit hospitals. Suffering from severe COVID pneumonia, he gasped for air as I tried to exude empathy underneath the cold…

Let me tell you a story about Francisco, a recent patient under my care in one of New York City’s hardest-hit hospitals. Suffering from severe COVID pneumonia, he gasped for air as I tried to exude empathy underneath the cold appearance of my head-to-toe, blue protective equipment. Carefully placing a breathing tube into his airway, I connected his lungs to a machine by a single plastic lifeline. Hoping also

…

Read more…

Opening America: Should we really have to choose between economic revival and human life?

Physician voices

Reflecting on Elmhurst Hospital: past, present, and future

Elmhurst 2014 I first arrived at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, NY, in the summer of 2014 as a medical student on my surgery rotation. We would take occasional night shifts as part of the trauma team. It was the first…

Elmhurst 2014

I first arrived at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, NY, in the summer of 2014 as a medical student on my surgery rotation. We would take occasional night shifts as part of the trauma team. It was the first time I held a pager. Code yellow meant hurry; code red meant run. One of our first patients was a code red, a young man, not much older than I am now, …

Read more…

Reflecting on Elmhurst Hospital: past, present, and future

Physician voices

I’m ready for the change COVID-19 will bring

I am a graduating fourth-year medical student and new internal medicine resident — one of many newly minted physicians that will be thrown into the frontline to take care of COVID-19 patients in a little over a month. It's a…

I am a graduating fourth-year medical student and new internal medicine resident — one of many newly minted physicians that will be thrown into the frontline to take care of COVID-19 patients in a little over a month. It’s a strange time to be graduating – we have spent years training to get to this point, yet celebrating is the last thing on our minds as we gear up for …

Read more…

I’m ready for the change COVID-19 will bring

Physician voices

A physician wedding in the age of COVID

April 2020 was to be a month of personal milestones. I would be traveling to Mexico with sixty closest friends and family to marry the woman of my dreams. Twelve days later, I would celebrate my thirtieth birthday. Suffice it…

April 2020 was to be a month of personal milestones. I would be traveling to Mexico with sixty closest friends and family to marry the woman of my dreams. Twelve days later, I would celebrate my thirtieth birthday. Suffice it to say, I was looking forward to April with the excited anticipation of a child on Christmas Eve.

But that was before COVID. Before all eyes were focused on the novel …

Read more…

A physician wedding in the age of COVID

152
pages