“F*ck!”
I pried my eyes open and had the realization of exactly what time it was. I was going to be late — again. I jumped out of bed as fast as my stiff and weary body would allow, threw scrubs on I was mostly sure were clean, ran a brush through my hair so I didn’t look totally disheveled when I had to look like professional in a few minutes …
An on-call weekend: 48 hours of being at any moment “on,” of being edgy, of being exhausted. This weekend included a full house of patients to see in the hospital, a patient list of three pages to be exact. As I went from patient to patient, room to room, each held its own unique story filled with the yin and yang of life. I realize too, this may be a …
“You find joy that people are doing better because of what you did for them.” #BornToHeal
Courtesy of the American Medical Association (AMA).
The rise of the Internet has changed many things in the world of the customer. Now, in the age of the online consumer, a person can search for not only the exact item or service he or she wants, but read hundreds of reviews on that particular item or service. Thanks to Yelp and a host of other online rating sites, a person can find a reputable painter or contractor …
As you look at the above image, please let me ask you a simple question: “What do you see?”
Do you see a sick man lying on a bed with a friendly looking doctor standing by his bedside?
Do you see only men in the picture and wonder, “Why not women?”
Do you see a clinical setting of an engaging sketch of a doctor and …
“He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.”
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge
I was a third-year medical student on a Sunday morning when the reality of what I had chosen as my life career truly hit me in the gut. At that moment, I realized how intimate the practice of medicine was and that I would have to bring not only my brain and skills to work …
The Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine has on its website this quote:
The current focus on diagnostic error raises an interesting question: Is this a larger problem in 2017 than in the 1970s and 1980s?
In this post, I …
To me, five years ago:
Right now you are 28, seated at the top of everything: chief resident of the entire pediatric department. You are in charge of 19 other interns and residents. You are resilient, kind, funny and determined. You seem to have the solution for everything, yet you don’t actually have the answer to anything. At least that’s how you’ll feel on most days in your new leadership role. …
“OK, one more patient to go,” I said to myself with my eyes quickly scanning the patient list in my hands. I was in the elevator, going up the spanking new glass tower in the giant tertiary care hospital I call my workplace. Today was turning out to be a better Monday than usual. I had worked over the weekend, so I knew the patients. And there were no major …
Fireworks, champagne toasts, sparkly hats, and the ball drop are all items that we conger up in our minds as we think of the New Year. For the majority of the world, January 1st represents the transition from one year to another on the calendar. New resolutions are made, and there is a global fresh start. However, for those of us in the medical field, there is another new year …
I came into work last night for the last time. Though I was on a service full of sick patients, I was not nervous. After three years of this, three years of people trying to die in creative ways, and my friends and I trying to stop them — I have no nervousness left. There is just nothing left for the hospital to throw at me.
“Dan,” I asked my intern, …
There are many different theories out there about the direction that health care should go, and what we need to be doing in the future.
Passions run high, and peoples’ opinions vary wildly. It’s frequently difficult to find agreement on anything. There is, however, one universal truth I’ve found about the everyday practice of medicine, and what constitutes great medical care for any individual in any health care system. Having worked …
Thinking outside the box is a somewhat cliché way to illustrate thinking beyond the norm and imagining what “could be” with an innovative mindset. This imagery of being stuck in a box rings true for many physicians, given how many of us are quite literally surrounded by the four white walls of an exam room most of our lives.
Physicians work hard to treat each patient individually, but this feeling of …
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The patient in front of me is trying to die. Elderly and frail, he is lying in bed. His ribs outlined under the skin that should be smooth. His temples are concave where they should be flat. Both are an outward display of internal damage from his lung cancer. More striking than his cachexia are the strained muscles in his neck and his pursed-lip breathing. He is working hard for …
The first thing I remember as I regained consciousness, lying in a hospital emergency room, was hearing a nurse ask my mom if I was allergic to any foods. With my eyes still closed, I said, “asparagus,” thinking this might reduce the chances of anyone serving me what was then a dreaded vegetable.
“Asparagus,” repeated the nurse, making a note on my admission form.
And then, with a chuckle and what must …
Every time I walk into a bookstore, I pass Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air and am reminded of a specific anecdote he shared.
Kalanithi, MD, was a seventh-year neurosurgery resident and his lung cancer had metastasized – a process which was only being controlled by a new drug his oncologist had decided to try. But one day, Kalanithi had severe nausea and had to be hospitalized to stay hydrated. A …
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I receive a significant amount of email in response to my blog posts about locum tenens work. Curious colleagues (from surgeons to internists and emergency medicine physicians) ask for insider insight into this “mysterious business” of being a part-time or traveling physician. I am always happy to respond individually, but suddenly realized that I should probably post these conversations on my blog so that all can benefit.
The most common question …
Throughout training, I had an idea. And that idea was — I would be a great academic physician. I had the right training. I had done research from college through fellowship. I had received research grants from medical school through fellowship, published numerous papers and started defining a niche. Everything was going great.
Academia — here I come!
Then attending-hood arrived. I looked for positions in academic centers. I was limited by …
A inmate, while a patient at Delnor Hospital in surburban Chicago, escaped and took two nurses hostage. One of nurses was raped and tortured at gunpoint. There is little mention of this horrific story in mainstream media. Violence against health care workers cannot remain silent.
ZDoggMD recently spoke with this individual, who shared her story. #silentnomore
Please send your notes of support to her:
Delnor Nurse
PO Box …
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It’s common knowledge in medicine: Doctors routinely order tests on hospital patients that are unnecessary and wasteful. Sutter Health, a giant hospital chain in Northern California, thought it had found a simple solution.
The Sacramento-based health system deleted the button physicians used to order daily blood tests. “We took it out and couldn’t wait to see the data,” said Ann Marie Giusto, a Sutter Health executive.
Alas, the number of orders hardly …
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