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Physician and non-physician burnout is a tremendous problem in medicine and a reason why so many great doctors and health care workers end up leaving the field. Physician burnout is described as a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged stress in the workplace (JAMA Network Open, 2023). According to a national …
Like most existential questions, the answer to this question really depends on who you ask. A patient may have one answer and a physician a completely different response. Ask ten people and you’re likely to get ten different replies. What does being a great doctor mean to YOU? If you’re a doctor, this is an …
I failed. Completely. I was supposed to be patient and kind, especially in front of my kids, but I lost it over the dumbest thing. I was buying my kids Dunkin and converted four hundred points from the Dunkin app for a donut and hashbrowns. When I went to pay and told them about the …
Difficult patients. We’ve all encountered them. Maybe we are them. (Afterall, they say doctors make the worst patients and there’s probably some truth to that.) But what makes a patient “difficult”? Is it someone with multiple complex medical issues or a condition you haven’t been able to diagnose or don’t fully understand? Is it someone …
One of my most stressful high school class memories was an AP English class I took my junior year. Each week we did these timed writings where we would get a certain amount of time to write an essay on some topic. As soon as the timer went off, you had to put your pencils …
A typical day in the life of a woman in medicine is filled with numerous decisions about tasks that need to be done. Some of these include: This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but as you can see, a work day in medicine is filled with nonstop decision-making that can take up …
I recently got hit hard with some nasty virus (not Covid). It had been going on low-level for about a week or so when things escalated and it developed into a situation of more intense upper respiratory symptoms, incessant coughing, and inability to breath or sleep that knocked me off my feet, or at least …
If you are a medical professional or speak to a medical professional, a common theme emerges. No matter your specialty or position, most people have experienced doing more with fewer resources. This could mean fewer doctors or mid-levels seeing more patients, or fewer nurses working with more doctors. It could mean fewer ancillary and support …
If you’re a busy clinician like me, it’s easy to overlook small things that can make a big difference in how you manage your workflow during a typical work day. Investing a little time up front can save you a lot of time on the back end. One of the best uses of this planning …
One of the things you can count on in a typical day in medicine is that everything and everyone is vying for your attention. You may have a schedule of patients to see or procedures to perform, but during that time there are numerous potential interruptions that can cause you to lose focus. Patients are …