Category: Infectious disease

5 ways to manage anxiety during the coronavirus pandemic

Since the coronavirus outbreak, reports of anxiety have increased, especially among physicians. Physicians face numerous stressors, including fears of contracting the coronavirus, concerns about potentially infecting loved ones, PPE shortages, testing …

Physicians are not “giving up”

We are scared. This virus threatens our lives.  It threatens our families.  It threatens our friends.  We have physician friends crying between patients in fear that their partners who work in the emergency department (ED) may contract this virus, know…

A psychiatric services response to the COVID-19 crisis

Past experiences should inform, but not determine, future action.  This has been much on my mind as we bolstered outpatient psychiatric services in response to the COVID-19 crisis.  The effort has felt deeply personal, as well as professionally imperat…

Coronavirus is a crisis. And an opportunity.

I’m bombarded with emails of rapidly changing policies to prevent infections and identify COVID-19 patients (in the course of writing this, I’ve already received three more emails), I’m having a hard time finding masks because the nurses are hoarding t…

Coronavirus has slowly but surely made its way to Middle America

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has slowly but surely made its way to Middle America, stowing away on well-meaning citizens who have traveled to the coasts or overseas for one reason or another. It has sneakily hitchhiked its way into Creighton Universi…

We don’t have the luxury of losing health care workers at this critical juncture

What prompted me to write this essay is seeing a chest X-ray of a physician fighting the COVID-19 disease, and it did not look promising. I wish for the speedy recovery of this unknown physician. With the current state of affairs that our country and m…

Coronavirus made simple by your friendly neighborhood emergency physician

I have been answering a bunch of questions about this virus. There is a lot of confusion, and there are a few questions that I seem to hear over and over. So, here is a simple primer. 1. Why is personal distance of 6 feet a thing? The measles virus can…

A negative COVID-19 test doesn’t mean you’re in the clear

We are in an unprecedented time. With the amount of information available, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Sometimes the information we consume is confusing. For example, at a March 16th press briefing, President Donald Trump addressed the public about…

It’s the R-word again: rationing

Here in the U.S., we slip and slide around the reality of rationing. We like to believe we can have it all, do it all, that there are no bounds. And if you have money in the U.S., that is more or less true. Until now. Personal protective equipment and …

Hospitals run on much more than doctors and nurses, so spread the love

As a hospitalist in Minnesota, my colleagues and I are busy preparing for the coming viral storm. It is starting to rain. We read the harrowing front line stories from overwhelmed hospitals in China, Italy, and now here in the U.S., and reach for a sub…