One patient down. Nine more to go. My attending politely closed the door behind him and walked back to his computer to chart his patient. His pen crossed off a line from the list that he pulled from his pocket. His schedule was listed in 15-minute inte…
Once again, at 1 a.m., I was knee-deep in patient charts and the cacophony of messages that our “user-friendly” EHR employs to allow various staff members to reach us. One of these was about a simple, inexpensive radiologic test I had order…
How do you learn to deliver the worst news anyone will ever hear? And equally important, how do you find the resilience to go on when difficult conversations don’t go well? My profession for the past 15 years has been to train the next generation of ph…
It felt like watching a train go by with no control over its destination and no way to stop it. We simply had to watch our loved one as he made his way towards death. The doctor said he had a traumatic brain injury with herniation. His pupils were fixe…
This article was written before COVID-19 social distancing recommendations. I want to start off by saying that I fully know my breastfeeding journey is a success story. There are so many women who struggle with medical illness, latch issues, an unsuppo…
“Frontline workers may have temporarily experienced a heightened sense of personal success and gratification, but I doubt many of us are still able to feel satisfied at this point, after all the repeated moral injuries and losing so many patients…
“When will I go home?” asked the patient. “Hopefully, by the end of the week, if everything goes well,” said the doctor. “What do you mean by ‘if’?” Uncertainty. It’s the one thing that is common am…
How many minutes have you given yourself to read this post? There was a time when none of us could tell time. Imagine not knowing what the ever-moving hands of a clock are trying to reveal. My memories skew, but in that era before I could tell time, al…
Little did I know that after October 2, 2020, my life would completely change forever. I want to start by saying I am a pharmacist by profession, and I now finally understand the saying, “take charge of your health.” My brother and I had taken my dad t…
Being a doctor is often more about talking to people and communicating than it is about the scientific practice of medicine. This is something that is unfortunately not taught enough in medical school, and it’s left to newly qualified doctors to realiz…
