An excerpt from The Addicted Child: A Parent’s Guide to Adolescent Substance Abuse. How do you know if your teen has a substance problem? The inability to control substance use despite negative consequences is a classic definition of a severe sub…
Category: Conditions
Treating formula as medicine may increase breastfeeding rates
Currently, there is an outcry against the pressures of breastfeeding, with an underlying backlash against the stigma of bottle feeding. Commercials from formula companies, such as Bobbie, are playing at the hearts of struggling breastfeeding mothers. T…
Could a pause in screenings increase missed cancer diagnoses?
When the COVID-19 pandemic began in the U.S. in 2020, most hospitals and physician’s offices paused elective and preventive care services to focus on treating large numbers of COVID patients, preserving medical supplies and bed space in hospitals, and …
The degradation and devaluation of nurses
Where do I begin? Maybe at the beginning. Let’s start with the degradation and devaluation of nurses across this country. For decades, I lived the devaluing of nurses. Daily huddles from our nurse managers, ER nurses, ICU nurses, and behavioral health …
The fundamental question that encircles the whole practice of psychiatry
Mary (identifying information changed) was extremely pleasant, to say the least. By the time I met her on the senior unit, she had seemingly befriended even the orneriest of our geriatric patients. She wandered and danced about the unit, speaking with …
COVID-19 vaccines: the state of the art
Effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccines appeared in record time, with 68% of Italians, 60% of Americans, and 32% of all human beings already having at least one dose. Most of the 138 candidates quit by Phase 2; the German mRNA vaccine CureVac went through an ent…
Don’t shut the phones down in the middle of the day
I work in a fantastic place. About 14 years ago, I transferred away from primary care to dermatology and have never looked back. I’m now seeing more patients per day than I’ve ever done, and I no longer stay hours behind after the office is close…
How do we explain the unexplainable? Are there words for the things we’ve experienced?
I’m usually good with words. The last year and a half of being a “front line nurse” has left me struggling to find the words. The frustration, anger, trauma, and sadness have so muddied my mind that I find it hard to sort through all of the complexitie…
Is it a badge of honor to refuse the vaccine but choose to die?
You know that if you don’t get vaccinated and you don’t wear a mask, you potentially will die. You go to super spreader events, big groups at beaches, football games, baseball games … loads of people laughing and clapping, and shoulder to shoulder. You…
The end, through the eyes of a critical care nurse
On the day you die from COVID, many things will happen. A colleague and I will enter the room to carefully prepare and clean your body. We will shut off all the IV pumps. We will turn off the ventilator. We will silence and turn off the monitor that is…
