What is your gut reaction when you hear the words “hospital chaplain?” Maybe it’s an eye roll or confused stare about what you believe to be an incoming attempt at religious conversion. As a family member anxious about a loved one in …
Category: Hospital-Based Medicine
Debunking the myth that life gets easier once you finish medical training
Residents and fellows around the country have bought into the “medical training myth.” The myth states: “Life will get so much better when I finish residency/fellowship.” Sadly, too many house staff buy into this false belief an…
4 essential tips for residency interviews
I have just finished another round of that dreaded process that we call “the interview process.” Without fail, this process has haunted me almost cyclically every 3 to 4 years in the last 11 years of my life. First, there were medical school interviews…
The healing patient-physician analog relationship is in critical condition
In the history of medical care, medical records served one purpose and two masters: to record diagnosis and treatment for physicians to refer to and for patients to use to transfer care when they desired. The medical record was a simple 3 x 5 or ledger…
Nurturing professional identity and maintaining pass rates: an important goal in medical education
The doctor shortage across the United States is coming and has the potential to be painful to millions of Americans. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, by 2023, the country may experience a deficit of up to nearly 122,000 physic…
Over 2,000 prayers for the dead. This was my hardest.
The day began in Mom’s room with a 10:00 a.m. conference at Upper Valley Medical Center, west of Columbus, Ohio. In attendance were my 93-year-old mother Joanne (now in her third week of hospitalization), her palliative-care nurse Richard, her Ep…
Psychological safety in health care: simple, important, fragile
With the epidemic in health care of overwork, stress, and burnout, psychological safety is a crucial factor in achieving the highest levels of quality of care and quality of work environment. While simple in concept, psychological safety is also quite …
Patients: Be proactive in your health care
If you’ve ever been in the hospital for a surgery, you probably had a resident speak to you about the procedure; you were presented a laundry list of risks, the benefits mentioned, asked if everything was understood. And finally, you initial in several…
A physician’s plea to patients
I am a cardiac anesthesiologist. I meet most patients I care for minutes before I take them to the operating room and render them unconscious. I breathe for them, administer pain medicine and drugs to give them amnesia, and I keep their hearts, lungs, …
The bedside nurse is under siege
Nurses are the very heart of health care. These wonderful professionals work tirelessly for the good of their patients, spending the most time with them and often being their biggest advocates and best friends during what is a frightening experience in…
