I have a story to tell. And it’s going to be hard to read. Would you believe me if I told you that the health care industry is not immune to the same gender disparities and discrimination we see all over the news these days? I realize it’s difficult to marry the medical field — with its up-to-the-minute technology and zealous quest to stay ahead of the curve, with something …
A fight this physician didn’t ask for
Physicians have quietly shared stories about sexual harassment and microaggressions from patients for years. This year, Medscape published their first “Patients Sexually Harassing Physicians Report,” where they found that one in four physicians had been sexually harassed by a patient in the past 3 years. In the wake of #MeToo, some physicians have shared their personal stories of harassment by patients in the medical literature, and there …
“Hey, Sweetie.” When a physician’s #MeToo story involves a patient
I dedicate this to each of you who have cared for or are currently caring for an ill parent or family member.
Recently, due to the stress that several of my dearest friends have been experiencing in caring for their elderly parents, I am even more appreciative and respectful of my privilege in caring for elderly patients who have attentive and loving adult children who accompany them to our ER.
Although this …
Appreciative and respectful of my privilege in caring for elderly patients
Matt was 40, my sister’s age. He was training for a marathon and trying to talk his many friends into joining. He lay in bed with his three-year-old son every night to help him fall asleep. It’s hard to sleep train a toddler with a newborn to nurture at the same time, but he loved spending this time with his two kids and being the dad everyone counted on.
Matt’s best …
A tragic Fentanyl story without redemption
1. Cover your patients
It was my first year of practice. One day I saw a new patient, a 25-year-old man with hemorrhoidal pain. My nurse told him to disrobe and put on a lap sheet. When I entered the room, I was surprised to see that the young man was sitting on the exam table, naked from the waist down. The lap sheet sat neatly folded on the table behind …
6 essential tips (and more) that I never learned in medical school
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Burnout among physicians is at an epidemic proportion. National data suggests that more than 50 percent of our workforce is burned out, and this trend has been across the board from physicians in training to practicing physicians. Some of the specialties are more affected than others. Repercussions of provider burnout on health care …
Fixing burnout among hospitalists is a leadership challenge
“Why did you wait to schedule this meeting until September, why not July or August?” Candidly, I replied, “I have a family and being on nights, spending those 90 minutes with them a day is very important to me.” It was then, behind closed doors, in an office where he held all of the power that he said: “You know, I don’t think women with families make as good of …
In medicine, maternal discrimination is real
Going to medical school was a dream come true. I was excited; I couldn’t wait. I spent my childhood dreaming about it. It was this amazing fantasy in my head where nothing was impossible, and I would be able to help thousands of people, maybe millions? Biology, physiology, chemistry, physics — they resonated with me. I could not imagine doing anything else. I loved meeting new people. I loved learning …
Reminding ourselves why we practice medicine
AI, artificial intelligence, is all the rage right now in medical news media. And this has many practicing physicians, even medical students, concerned. Will AI make diagnose heavy specialties such as dermatology and radiology obsolete? Can AI give rise to new medical specialties? How many tasks traditionally done by doctors will now be handled by AI?
I believe that there is a right to be worried. We do not have any …
Carefully consider every aspect of the integration of AI into health care
People are told by big media that doctors will probably hurt you and you will never see it coming. They are told to stick up for themselves, be an advocate for your child/parent/dependent. Ask for more tests. They must be missing something. Ask for more consults. A second, third or fourth opinion must be better. Don’t leave without an answer and don’t compromise. Then they actually become patients. Or in …
The win-win solution for patient satisfaction
Doctors by our nature do not handle idleness well. We value our vacations, of course. I never sought out a study to see if doctors vacationed differently than others. Some probably hang out someplace warm, others seek out the best eats of the place they are visiting, some cannot wait for the cruise ship to dock so they can disembark for a tour of a new place. Vacations, though, are …
The social isolation physicians face after they retire
Rural hospitals are closing their obstetric wards and stopping all obstetric services — at least those hospitals that manage to remain open at all. The tertiary care centers don’t seem to mind. Always wary of those rural hospital disasters in the middle of the night. Accepting transfers from a place where they must not have the latest technology, clearly, your little hospital must be behind the times, only subspecialty care …
It is for these patients that the doctors at rural hospitals continue
In 2006, the Mayo Clinic asked 192 patients an important question: What makes an ideal physician? From their responses, several characteristics emerged. Among the top criteria, they wanted doctors to be “personal,” “empathetic” and “humane.” This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Of course, we want doctors who relate to their patients as people instead of just another “case.” We want doctors to have sympathy for patients …
What’s happened to clinician empathy?
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Practicing medicine at the frontlines is hard. It’s damn hard. Every minute you need to be alert, ready to respond to a potential life or death situation, and be called to another important problem. The current medical practice environment — with excessive bureaucracy, suboptimal information technology, and extreme time pressure with patients — adds exponentially to the mix, and can make for a very stressful job. Make no mistake, even …
3 health tips to help busy physicians
Back when I was a third-year medical student, I would sometimes bike to the hospital campus early enough to catch the groundskeepers cleaning the promenade in front of the medical school before the foot traffic arrived. Discovery Walk, as it’s called, is a beautiful promenade with stone murals commemorating the significant discoveries made at Stanford. It’s a beautiful scene, especially during sunrise or sunset, which many of my classmates have …
The difference between learning medicine and doing medicine
On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger disintegrated shortly after liftoff, resulting in the death of the entire seven-person crew. The subsequent investigation revealed that a joint in the right solid rocket booster failed during liftoff, which occurred due to the inadequacy of the O-ring seals. It was about 28-degrees on the morning of the space shuttle launch, and the O-ring seals were not designed to perform at such …
What do the Challenger disaster and medicine have in common?
The pediatric emergency department’s fluorescent light cast its glow on our heads, drifting and drooping, at 3 a.m.
Torn between taking a chance on rest and anticipating the next fever, headache, abdominal pain, wheezing or rash that came through the doors, we sat suspended.
The nurses tried to stay awake with a parade of old cat videos and Kardashian memes, their Facebook feeds stale – no one really posts much at that …
All corners of the world meet in the hospital
My wife and I once canoed across a glacial lake. There were twelve people in our 30-foot canoe. To reach the shore of the Mendenhall Glacier, we had to paddle two miles across a lake. All twelve of us had to paddle together to reach the shore. But what if we had different goals? What if the right side of the canoe wanted to paddle east and the left side …
Health care workers and administrators aren’t rowing in the same direction
When it comes to communication in the hospital setting, I have seen many iterations. My favorite version was at the VA on the inpatient medicine unit. Every morning, we all met in the medicine team room to discuss patients on the floor. The team’s social worker, nurses, residents, students, and the attending ran down the list to identify individual patient goals, what’s needed for safe and effective discharges home, and …
Communication in the hospital setting from a medical student perspective
I met Mr. B during my week on the endocrine service of my internal medicine rotation. My attending told me we were being consulted for this patient’s high sugars and a foot ulcer, and asked me to take the history.
I walked into Mr. B’s room and was immediately struck by its stench. Mr. B had undergone a resection of his bladder tumor the day before and as a result was …
The hidden curriculum of medical school can be overwhelming and unforgiving
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