Author's posts
Navigating the abortion debate: How physicians foster healing and bridge societal divides
Weighing in on abortion invites scorn and derision from all sides. However, physicians should help frame the medical context with the aim of therapeutically healing the gaping societal wounds that the abortion debate has opened. Our Declaration of Inde…
The heartbreaking reality of a nurse’s struggle: a father’s tale
I love two nurses. One of them is my son, and the other is someone very close to me. She’ll have her own article. My son has just finished his seventh 12-hour ICU shift. He’s wiped out, devastated, and shell-shocked. Let me introduce him to…
Navigating gender-affirming care: Pediatricians’ perspective on open discussions and societal fears
“We fear that CPS is going to take them away,” the mother of my patient chokes with tears. My patient on the inpatient pediatric wards looks at me with guarded eyes. I can still see the markings on their neck where they tried to strangle th…
Revealing America’s expansion: the dark truth of Native American suffering and unjustified abuses
It is nearly universally agreed that the United States of America is a “great nation” with the world’s strongest economy, an expansive international presence, and being physically one of the largest countries in the world. The groundw…
Revolutionizing emergency medicine: Overcoming long-term challenges with innovative solutions for physicians and patients
My previous post on this topic described long-term cultural and organizational challenges facing emergency medicine (EM) that pose greater threats to the specialty than temporal challenges (e.g., overproduction of emergency physicians (EPs)). Some chal…
Breaking the stigma: Encouraging mental health help-seeking in medical trainees
I won’t judge you for asking for help because that is how I hope you treat me. It took me five years to accept the fact that I needed help. As I pursued athletic endeavors at the highest level in high school and college, my mind developed a twist…
The inherent problems with emergency medicine that make it contradict new values and behaviors
There has been much hand-wringing about the 555 (18.4 percent) unfilled match spots in this year’s emergency medicine (EM) residency match. Several long-standing, excellent programs with outstanding patient pathology and well-known faculty in maj…
The 4 habits of highly effective physician leaders
How big is my ego? The trouble with a career in medicine is that you spend four years in a classroom and not managing people. It is impossible to gauge the size of your ego if you don’t have a stack of small unit leadership situations with which to cal…
Ratcheting down the hypercompetitive medical school application process
Premedical students are more stressed out and burned out than ever. It’s easy to see why: pre-med courses, medical school admissions committee expectations, and application process and cost are daunting and, in their current iteration, often harm…
Do residents deserve the title of physician?
I was unsettled by an email that our graduate medical education (GME) office recently sent out to all residents at my institution “sharing a friendly reminder that parking spaces identified as ‘physician parking’ are for attending phy…
