Patients and caregivers writing on KevinMD about illness and the health care system from the other side of the exam table: navigating care, the doctor-patient relationship, being heard, cost, and what patients want physicians to understand. Physicians who have become patients write here too. For the record of what pain patients and physicians have said to each other about opioids since 2007, with patient authors cited at the same weight as physicians, see Opioids: what physicians and pain patients say, in their own words. For what patients pay and who is left out when physicians leave insurance, see Direct primary care: what physicians say, in their own words. For what patients, families, and physicians have said about dying, hospice, and the decisions families face, see End of life: what physicians say, in their own words. For what physicians and family caregivers have said about growing old, dementia, nursing homes, and caring for aging parents, see Aging and dementia: what physicians say, in their own words.
Like many physicians, I’m a people pleaser. On my medical school application, my personal statement was a literary cliché filled with my dreams of helping others, easing pain, soothing suffering — and I really meant it. What I didn’t know then was how difficult it would be to negotiate making patients happy while doing the right thing medically.
Medical school and residency didn’t adequately prepare me for the emotional strain of …
Among hospice staff, it is called “getting it.” One says, “He doesn’t get it,” “I think she gets it,” or, “They definitely get it.” It is a little hard to define, but as with pornography, you know it when you see it. Nonetheless, given the importance of “getting” good end-of-life care, let us take a moment to try and explain.
The 92-year-old patient is bleeding into her head, but has blood …
As a registered nurse and health care writer and editor for more than 25 years, I routinely wrote or assigned stories to other writers about the health of LGBT individuals. I valued these stories not only because I was a nurse, but also because I thought the subject was worthy of coverage. I believed our nurse readers should be aware of the specific health needs of their LGBT patients.
A 42-year-old patient arrived for her annual gynecologist appointment complaining of a self-detected breast lump. She had several questions about her condition and wanted to tell her doctor about a family history of breast cancer. The doctor was in a hurry and advised her to ask the staff, but the staff was busy with other patients and told her to call them later. The patient did not call.
Many of us who suffer from chronic pain and illness are on medications that carry side effects that, in some cases, can be as difficult to cope with as our initial health problems. I’ve recently started a medication that I’m scheduled to be on for five years. I’m taking it because it significantly reduces the risk of a recurrence of my recent bout with breast cancer.
We need to talk. I know I walk into your office fearing the worst of you, and I suspect that you may have some hesitation about some of your patients. (Need I say, “frequent flyers?”)
We both have baggage. You have your patient horror stories. I — as a female patient with fibromyalgia and mental health issues — have mine.
I was attending a 50th birthday party for a friend of mine, when I struck up a conversation with someone I had never met. The conversation, of course, was with a woman who seemed genuinely interested in my quest to make air travel safer for those with food allergies. I told her how my family often receives dirty looks from other passengers when we pre-board a plane to wipe down …
Here’s the most distressing piece of unsolicited advice I’ve received to date. It showed up in my Inbox two days after I’d completed a course of radiation for breast cancer. The email was in response to an article I’d written about this new, unexpected turn my life had taken; the article included the fact that, at the time, I was in the middle of a course of radiation treatment. Here’s …
“Don’t ever land in a teaching hospital on a holiday weekend, they always staff up with residents,” noted a close friend who was all too familiar with the inner workings of hospitals.
That statement sticks in my head heavily today as I prepare to visit my father’s year-old grave. My father, a man that was involved in the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and private sector research societies for decades, …
Have you ever been a patient? Yeah, me too. Many newly insured Americans will visit doctors’ offices this year. The average time you — or anyone — has with a primary care provider is 15 minutes. What’s a sick person to do?
Happier patients make happier doctors. Here’s a helpful list that I’ve developed to help patient visits go smoother:
1. Pick three questions or concerns that you have for your doctor and write …
Ask anyone connected with health care these days to provide a definition for patient engagement and you will likely receive as many answers as there are agendas surrounding the discipline.
While patient engagement has evolved as a critical strategy in support of the ultimate goal of creating improved health for a total population, you would think that a mandate for a unified …
A version of this speech was delivered May 14, 2015 to the graduating class at the University of Manitoba.
I’m not a doctor. I never will be. I’m a lowly journalist. I tell stories. For almost 30 years, I’ve tried to help Canadians understand their health system and their medical care.
In that time, I’ve seen tremendous advances in medicine and I’ve met, quite literally, thousands of health professionals, from students to …
As first-year family medicine residents, our patient care experiences really run the gamut, since our training truly encompasses “cradle to grave” care. With the exception of most pediatric care, the issue of narcotic prescribing and addiction is seen in all specialties, as well as frequently in continuity clinic where we care for our own primary care patients. As dangerous as opiate …
One Google search can sometimes change everything.
After learning something new about our child’s health or condition, especially for worried parents and caregivers, leveraging online search as a resource in diagnosis, clarification and education is typical behavior. Searching out support, camaraderie and tips online just makes sense. In fact, 2013 data from the Pew Research Center finds that 1 in 3 …
Before I got into medical school, while I was still in my first year of graduate school, I learned what hell was like.
The hospital was a rabbit warren. Walking down the long empty beige halls fueled my hatred for hospitals. And, of the color beige.
When I volunteered during college, I would press myself up against the wall whenever a gaggle of doctors passed by. They ruled the hospital: powerful, scary, …
On October 10, 2013, the Boston Public Library held an author event featuring Dr. Sheri Fink, she of the MD/PhD braininess that appears to be in constant triage mode; she famously skipped her own medical school graduation to assist refugees on the Kosovo-Macedonia border during the war in Kosovo. Five Days at Memorial had recently come out, and her talk that early fall evening definitely had the feel of a …
