Establishing a medical career inevitably requires signing a number of contracts along the way that we are not trained to evaluate, leaving us at risk for malignant retention strategies. At the beginnings of our careers, we were obligated to sign all contracts offered to us without question. The medical school match did not leave much choice, and salary negotiations were nonexistent. This lack of choice later changed, as most of …
We are human, we are not indestructible. We have feelings and emotions that can get hurt, probably more than the average person based on the careers we have chosen. Yes, we will pass up on our well-being (such as sleep, hygiene, exercise, relationships with family and friends) to be there for our patients. To receive our critical training to be able to care for others. This is our sacrifice, and …
“Yes, there is a pay gap. Female physicians do not work as hard and do not see as many patients as male physicians. This is because they choose to, or simply don’t want to be rushed, or they don’t want to work long hours. Most of the time, their priority is something else … family, social, whatever. Nothing needs to be “done” about this unless female physicians actually want to …
I’ve been river rafting just one time in my life. We paid for a guided trip down Idaho’s famous “River of No Return — the Salmon,” and spent the day traveling stretches of rapids and stretches of calm. It was exhilarating enough for a newbie but not enough to ever feel like my life or livelihood was seriously at risk.
But I’ve also seen that same river at flood stage, and …
Do you ever wonder
what compels someone to walk away from their current life
to leave all they worked for — jobs, spouses, kids — behind?
The community around them are caught off guard
of how unhappy or unfulfilled or
the silent suffering
that made their life so hard.
We say it is shocking and act so surprised.
But that seems a pretense.
It’s no secret that compassion fatigue and physician burnout
are both on a steady rise.
The pay gap between men and women has been a subject of interest recently, particularly in 2018 reports by Doximity and Medscape.
Notably, the gap favors men, is not explained by obvious factors such as hours worked or choice of specialty, and does not seem to be improving. In-depth studies published in the medical literature have examined the relationship between gender …
Physicians are overwhelmed by patient loads, 10-minute visits, the wealth of documentation dictated by health insurance requirements and the overwhelming overtaking of medicine by non-physician personnel.
Wellness programs abound, which addresses the symptoms of a problem.
As medicine changed from patient to profit-centered, it marked the beginning of the end. We see articles on physicians fired or coerced into resignation for speaking up about non-physicians overstepping boundaries putting patients at risk. Physicians …
So last week, I did the bravest thing I have done in a very long time — I quit my job. Yes, I put in my 60-day notice. This was my dream job post service in the U.S. Air Force. I had dreamed of working in this establishment for months before my service time was up. I could not have been happier when I joined their team, a group practice …
1. Our health care system is broken, and there isn’t going to be an easy way out. Costs are too high and our outcomes too poor. There’s a lot of finger-pointing in how we got to this point, but one thing is for certain — physicians must lead the way to a better system. The heart of health care is still the doctor-patient relationship and that needs to be protected at …
I have a few hundred thousand dollars in 529 plans. We have been growing them for years. Although not everyone’s cup of tea, this lump of money invested in this manner suggests that not only am I prepared to drop a boatload on college education, but also feel that it is cash well spent. Although this type of thinking was self-evident a decade ago, there is a growing chorus of …
It comes down to the people. It is not about their work, but how they feel: feeling valued, feeling their work is valuable to those they serve, and feeling valuable doing the work. It is work as an extension of what you believe, what you love and how you want the world to be reflected back to you.
There’s this prevailing theme in modern medicine that I don’t understand. It’s called: “Do no harm to others, but neglect yourself.”
It’s perpetuated by ridiculous working hours, emotional, psychological and sometimes physical stress, minimal vacation and maximum pressure to always do a little more. Did you overwork yourself as an undergrad, watch your hair fall out during MCAT studying, then give up family and friends for a fire hydrant of information …
First of all, I am far from a financial genius. I am also not a natural saver. Thanks to scholarships and jobs, I made it out of college without loans. But, I took out a $191K for medical school. In the middle of med school, I took a year off to teach. During that year, I didn’t put anything towards student loans and lived it up. Unfortunately, in forbearance, those …
A store cashier sees dozens of customers during a shift. A car tire shop mechanic may work on 20 cars. Workdays can be hard across professions.
Medicine surely does not escape this. We just don’t deal with customers or goods, despite efforts to make it look like that. A simple runny nose visit may be the closest thing to a customer who is …
Burnout has been a descriptive term for years, but lately, psychologists and others have assigned it specific characteristics with a view toward being able actually to study and measure it. One common definition of burnout is a state of chronic stress that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism, detachment, and feelings of ineffectiveness. The PICU environment is often one of high stress, so it’s a place where this …
A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine explored the gender roles of career-oriented academic MDs in the workplace juxtaposed with domestic responsibilities. Dr. Jolly and colleagues hypothesized that by examining a specific cohort of younger physicians, more likely exposed to dual-income households, that there would be few, if any, differences in time spent on nonprofessional activities. The paper titled, “Gender Differences in Time Spent on Parenting …
Believe it or not, the topic of work-life balance can be quite controversial. It’s a concept that can seem almost impossible to attain, so some people regard it as a myth: “a pie in the sky” idea of sorts. As surprising as it seems, work-life balance is very much attainable, and my personal experience is a testament to that.
This concept is the best thing since sliced bread. Honestly, why would …
I usually simplify things here on the blog. Sometimes it is easier to glaze over a part of the story instead of pulling out all the details. Others, the point is clearer when not bogged down by tangentially related details. What’s lost in nuance, however, often adds shades of complexity to the picture. Occasionally another viewpoint is suppressed on purpose. I have frequently referred to the fact that I Read more…
This was the end-of-the-hallway conversation with an elderly patient after wrapping up a recent office visit, as we walked away from the exam room toward the front desk to schedule her follow-up appointment, and she realized that we were “celebrating” 20 years together.
I met her when she was admitted as an inpatient when I was on service as a junior attending just starting out, and after going home she came …
I’m not really sure who is at fault, but somewhere along the way, our educational system decided that teaching personal finance is unnecessary. We learn calculus, the rules of dodgeball and even sewing, but financial management is taboo. Then, all of a sudden, we head to undergrad and medical school, and before we know it, we’re in our late 20s or early 30s financially illiterate.
