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Join Grace Torres-Hodges, a podiatrist with a passion for physician autonomy and patient-centered care. We’ll delve into the significance of clarity in purpose and how the direct care model empowers physicians to prioritize their patients’ well-being. Discover how this approach not only enhances the doctor-patient relationship but …
Remember organic chemistry?
I have a distinct memory of a rainy December day many years ago. I am standing in the hallway of the chemistry building at UC Davis, looking at a list taped to the wall of social security numbers and corresponding grades. I have just found my grade in organic chemistry, which is a C minus. For a visual person like myself, OChem (as we called it then) was …
I don’t know about you, but I learned very little about variations in sexual development during my medical education over a decade ago. Commonly presented topics were usually of a genetic nature—this person has XXY or XO chromosomes and the “abnormalities” such chromosomal variations can bring. That’s about the extent of my education regarding sex development and gender, with the impression conveyed that these were minor topics.
Fast forward to now, …
“Become the doctor your parents always wanted you to marry,” said the T-shirt I purchased from the women in medicine interest group during my first year of medical school. I remember feeling like I should buy that T-shirt (and I did), yet it was also something I was never quite comfortable wearing. It was a “women’s cut” (how appropriate), which meant it fit snugly across the chest and sat high …
The role of a physician is not only to diagnose and treat physical ailments but also to provide emotional support to patients. Understanding and managing emotions is a crucial skill for physicians, impacting their ability to provide empathetic and effective care. Moreover, emotional intelligence also affects a physician’s well-being and relationships in their personal life. In this article, we will explore the eight primary emotions identified by psychologist Robert Plutchik …
Setting limits, asking for help, delegating, or even saying “no” are important assertiveness skills. Health care professionals should be proficient in assertiveness because of the potential impact on patient safety, patient experience, workforce health, and cost-effectiveness.
Assertiveness examples
How might these assertive statements influence outcomes?
My heart goes out to the doctors who write about the unbearable burdens of doctoring in a corporate setting, feeling driven to see more patients than they want to within the span of an 8-hour clinic day. They’re tasked with dividing their time into shorter and shorter clinic visits, devoting more time to inputting data points into the EMR rather than engaging in meaningful patient conversations.
I have experienced both ends …
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We’re joined by Landen Green, a family physician with a passion for transforming health care. Discover the game-changing concept of direct primary care (DPC) as Landen sheds light on its benefits – from accessible same-day appointments to …
After nearly a year of planning my exit strategy, my final day as a hospital-employed physician was June 30th, 2023. How surreal to finally be independent! In a recent phone call, a dear friend and fellow physician asked what drove me to my decision.
“Because I felt like a failure every day,” I disclosed to my normally sympathetic colleague. To my dismay, he responded with a chuckle. I asked why he …
As I clicked onto the homepage of Amazon Clinic, I got a little bit nervous. Low up-front costs, straight-forward medical decision-making, bread and butter medicine at the patient’s fingertips. Have a UTI? As long as it is simple, no problem, here’s your antibiotic. Just a few clicks. Male pattern baldness? Click. Erectile dysfunction? Click.
Just barebones medicine without the pesky face-to-face human interaction. And with easy-to-follow “guidelines,” we don’t even need …
As human needs continue to evolve, it is essential for our systems to adapt accordingly. One perplexing question is who bears the cost of human work. Do the systems pay for human labor, or do humans contribute to the systems, which, in turn, pay for their work? From an economic perspective, it boils down to humans paying for humans to work through human-devised systems. We won’t delve into the idea …
The cure for ailing health care lies in returning to ethical traditions, prioritizing patient care over profits, holding physicians accountable, and reforming existing oversight bodies and professional organizations. The ailing health care is curable. To be made whole again, it requires obvious but drastic steps. The crux of the problem is that medicine largely abandoned its own traditions and time-tested modus operandi in favor of the seemingly efficient and shiny …
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Join Tomi Mitchell, a family physician, as we tackle the pressing issue of physician burnout. This episode delves into the stark disparity between perception and reality in medical careers, exploring strategies to combat burnout and prioritize well-being. …
I saw shocking photos from Northern Italy and New York City, reviewed my life insurance, and thought about my three kids. I didn’t chicken out, but I thought about it long and hard as I sat, sipping tea through trembling lips, preparing—whatever that meant. In the end, I got COVID twice while working the frontlines. A few scars, disorders of my hearing, smelling, and tasting. I am dealing. Today, COVID …
In April of 2022, I decided to leave medicine after 18 years of practice, 13 of which were spent working with electronic medical records. During my final visit with a patient and her husband, as I informed them of my decision to retire from medicine, I noticed a peculiar look on the husband’s face. He was a quiet man who rarely said much during their visits, but I could tell …
A recent study in Annals of Family Medicine confirms what many providers have long believed: stronger patient-provider relationships can yield better patient health outcomes.
It only stands to reason. Patients and providers can better understand and manage health conditions when communicating regularly and sharing information openly. This is especially beneficial when patients have multiple chronic conditions.
Enhanced relationships and communication also help providers identify barriers to care, so they can serve …
Patient safety, patient experience, workforce health, and cost-effectiveness are critical outcomes that share important common roots. They are all impacted by our ability to communicate effectively and respectfully. This can be challenging, in part, because communication involves underlying emotional intelligence, which is hard to develop and practice, especially in high-stakes, high-stress work environments or toxic cultures.
Furthermore, our ability to communicate affects our capacity to establish healthy professional relationships, collaborate in …
Treating patients with respect and dignity is essential to the medical profession. This is true even when the patient lies unconscious in the operating room. It seems unnecessary to stress the importance of creating a secure and comfortable environment to ease the patient’s anxiety and stress and develop confidence. Respect is also crucial to promote successful outcomes. By prioritizing these values, medical professionals can ensure that patients feel valued and …
I recently returned to the hospital where I had first worked as an attending. Everything felt different. It seemed darker and smaller, reminiscent of the feeling when you revisit your elementary school, and the water fountains appear almost touching the ground, making you feel like a giant.
I walked through the same door I had used countless times over ten years, yet it now seemed more like a portal. The floor, …
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