Hospital medicine

5,188 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 38

Packing for the next level of your medical career

June 25, 2019Jun 25, 2019

As July draws near, it is a moving day in medicine. For physicians, it signifies entering the next level of professional growth. Let's think about what moving entails. When we move from one physical location to the next, like into…

As July draws near, it is a moving day in medicine. For physicians, it signifies entering the next level of professional growth.

Let’s think about what moving entails. When we move from one physical location to the next, like into a new apartment or from one city, state, or country to another one, there is the process of sorting through our belongings. We make two lists: what stays and moves with …

Drugs and prescribing

How hospitals can help with the opioid epidemic

Christopher Moriates, MD & Richard Bottner, PA-C

June 21, 2019Jun 21, 2019

Nearly half a million individuals with opioid use disorders are hospitalized each year in the United States. While they are in the hospital, medical providers often treat complications of this disorder, such as bloodstream infections, but rarely directly address their…

Physician voices

Words of wisdom to a residency’s graduating class

Lisa Sieczkowski, MD

June 21, 2019Jun 21, 2019

To my residency class: The clock is ticking, its hands spinning around its face faster and faster until I feel dizzy and disoriented. The remainder of the academic year can be measured in days, even hours for some. The carousel…

To my residency class:

The clock is ticking, its hands spinning around its face faster and faster until I feel dizzy and disoriented. The remainder of the academic year can be measured in days, even hours for some. The carousel is slowing down to let some off, some on. Some, like me, will remain in the saddles of their brightly painted ponies. The cheerful calliope melody becomes distorted with the change …

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Physician voices

Fasting for Ramadan and being the on-call orthopedic trauma resident

Adil Shahzad Ahmed, MD

June 20, 2019Jun 20, 2019

A patient groans in agony lying atop a rigid spine board, carried by paramedics into the ER, his neck in a protective collar. The paramedics shout a summary of the accident. Monitors are attached to the man, flashing and beeping the cadence of vital signs. Nurses and physicians swarm. Gloved hands comb through brown hair for bumps or lacerations. They remove his clothes, feeling for pulses in the neck and …

Medical education

A medical student’s reflection of “firsts”

Grant Wallenfelsz

June 20, 2019Jun 20, 2019

It is honorable to fight a battle in the face of an inevitable ending while not knowing when that end may come. First day of third year — the year most medical students take a sigh of relief as they…

It is honorable to fight a battle in the face of an inevitable ending while not knowing when that end may come.

First day of third year — the year most medical students take a sigh of relief as they put their Step 1 book on the shelf and prepare to face the wards:

I happened to draw the short straw by having my surgical rotation first, one that often brings an …

Health policy

A new rule that could be a game changer for health care

Elisabeth Rosenthal, MD

June 19, 2019Jun 19, 20193

As President Donald Trump was fighting with Congress over the shutdown and funding for a border wall, his administration implemented a new rule that could be a game changer for health care. Now, hospitals must publicly reveal the contents of…

As President Donald Trump was fighting with Congress over the shutdown and funding for a border wall, his administration implemented a new rule that could be a game changer for health care.

Now, hospitals must publicly reveal the contents of their master price lists — called “chargemasters” — online. These are the prices that most patients never notice because their insurers negotiate them down or they appear buried as line …

Physician voices

Should we change resident duty hours?

Michael Grzeskowiak, MD

June 19, 2019Jun 19, 20192

As I listened to my attending explain how during her residency training she was on call every third night, I realized how the definition of "call" had significantly changed since that time. For her, it meant her shift started at…

As I listened to my attending explain how during her residency training she was on call every third night, I realized how the definition of “call” had significantly changed since that time. For her, it meant her shift started at 6 a.m. and ended at 8 p.m. the next day, totaling the shift to upwards of 36 hours. My call, on the other hand, was a mere 6 a.m. to …

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Should we change resident duty hours?

Conditions and diseases

The importance of being there for your patients

Albert Jang, MD

June 18, 2019Jun 18, 2019

Halfway into my four-week hematology consults elective at the county hospital during my fourth year of medical school, I was surprised that one of my patients was a 25-year-old woman from Romania — exactly my age. This was highly unusual,…

What was even more unique was that she had just arrived from …

Conditions and diseases

Everyone has value. Even the angry man screaming at you.

Zach Reichert

June 18, 2019Jun 18, 2019

In my third year of medical school, I started a rotation at the nearby VA hospital. Walking toward the polished glass doors that morning, I saw my reflection — clean white coat, assured expression to cover up how lost I…

I found my team and soon met a patient I’d be seeing for the next month. …

Medical education

You’re given feedback to “read more.” What do you do next?

Stephanie Wellington, MD

June 16, 2019Jun 16, 2019

Doctors are lifelong learners. Medical students and residents often hear the feedback to read more in their quest to acquire the knowledge to understand health and disease processes and direct patient care. With so many demands on a resident and…

With so many demands on a resident and early career physician’s time, how do you make the most of the directive to read more? During residency training and throughout your medical career, the patient case mix guides your reading …

Physician voices

7 pearls of residency training

Ali Rafiq, MD

June 15, 2019Jun 15, 2019

Residency training is often considered to be one of the most daunting experiences in a physician’s career. Each day comes with its own package of highs and lows. Every year is a new challenge, and a young physician has to adapt significantly as the journey unfolds. Having gone through this process over the past three years as an internal medicine resident, I thought it would be useful for me to …

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7 pearls of residency training

Physician voices

This physician takes the time to be humbled and amazed by the stories patients share

Zachary G. Jacobs, MD

June 13, 2019Jun 13, 2019

What if I told you that, as your doctor, I’d rather listen to your memoir than to your lungs? Or that while I find the sound of a beating heart a marvel to behold, I’m more interested in hearing the jazz song that you wrote or talking about the words tattooed on your left wrist. What if …

Physician voices

How failing Step 1 helped me pass the boards. Twice.

Erica Howe, MD

June 13, 2019Jun 13, 20194

I remember the day well. The dean of my medical school called me directly. As soon as she announced herself on the other end of the line, I knew it was bad news. Deans don’t tend to make social calls, and I was right. She was calling to tell me that I had failed the USMLE Step 1, the first in a long series of standardized national exams to complete …

Physician voices

My caffeine-free residency

Rebekah Fenton, MD

June 12, 2019Jun 12, 20192

A kind resident or attending asks me, "I'm going for a coffee run. Can I get you anything?" I politely decline. "You sure?" "Yeah, I'm actually doing a caffeine-free residency." A mix of utter disbelief and disgust crosses their faces,…

A kind resident or attending asks me, “I’m going for a coffee run. Can I get you anything?” I politely decline. “You sure?” “Yeah, I’m actually doing a caffeine-free residency.” A mix of utter disbelief and disgust crosses their faces, probably yours too. With skepticism, people ask: “Why?” I actually hate the taste of coffee. (That is absurd in Seattle, where I’m doing my residency training.) Whenever I try a …

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My caffeine-free residency

Physician voices

Speaking out about practicing medicine in Ethiopia

Dr. Yohannes Mengistu

June 11, 2019Jun 11, 2019

I am a young physician practicing medicine in the "motherland" of God-gifted Ethiopia, which is located in eastern Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. I want to share my personal story, as well as to expose some of the serious…

I am a young physician practicing medicine in the “motherland” of God-gifted Ethiopia, which is located in eastern Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. I want to share my personal story, as well as to expose some of the serious problems facing physicians and patients in my country.

I started medical school, which requires the highest academic performance of any career path when I was 18 after completing secondary school. Despite …

Physician voices

If you won the lottery, would you quit being a doctor?

Anonymous

June 10, 2019Jun 10, 20195

On October 23, 2018, the Mega Millions lottery jackpot was 1.6 billion dollars, making it one of the largest lottery jackpots in history. The hospital was abuzz with chatter in the week leading up to the drawing. Discussions about the…

On October 23, 2018, the Mega Millions lottery jackpot was 1.6 billion dollars, making it one of the largest lottery jackpots in history.

The hospital was abuzz with chatter in the week leading up to the drawing. Discussions about the possibility of becoming an instant billionaire were just too good to resist.

During that week, I found myself sitting at the nurse’s station in one of the ICUs at midnight. A nurse …

Physician voices

Please, be kind to your doctor. We need it.

Dr. Sara R. Ahronheim

June 10, 2019Jun 10, 20196

There’s always so much to write about, and there’s never any time. I work too much; it’s become evident recently that I need to cut down. I have started noticing that things affect me much more than they ever did; there are days I hide my tears, and days I show my tears, when before the tears would have waited for the occasional (yes, occasional) shower. This is a function …

Physician voices

How acknowledging others can keep us from burning out

Erica Howe, MD

June 9, 2019Jun 9, 2019

Last Thursday I got up at 5 a.m. to bake a lasagna. Admittedly, lasagna for breakfast is not my typical go-to, but last Thursday was the last session of a year-long advanced faculty development course on teaching skills that I…

In one of our first sessions of the year, we used the ice-breaker, “What would you choose for your last meal?” In the past, when I’ve asked this …

Physician voices

Talk with family members about their wishes long before you think you’ll need to

Kristin Puhl, MD

June 9, 2019Jun 9, 2019

I’ve been a doctor for a bit under a year now. I am a family medicine intern, working in blocks at a city hospital, wearing a lot of different hats. Sometimes I’m on the labor and delivery floor, helping new lives begin; sometimes I’m on the family medicine service, caring for ill patients who may be dying. Some of the moments that have stuck with me the most this year …

Conditions and diseases

How families maintain hope of improvement, regardless of logic and science

Justine G. Bedolla

June 8, 2019Jun 8, 2019

I’ve always thought that I’ve understood illness and mortality very matter-of-factly. You live your life, you’ll most likely end up with some medical conditions along the way, and ultimately everyone’s life will come to an end because the body is not designed to function indefinitely. And do I cry at every funeral I attend? Absolutely. I understand physiologically and pathologically why things happen, but also realize human relationships will always …

Hospital medicine

Articles, page 38

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