It’s an odd thing doing what I do sometimes. Dichotomies of highs and lows, life and death, joy and sorrow. In the past 15 years that I have been in health care — a nurse’s assistant, to registered nurse, to now pediatric nurse practitioner …
Category: KevinMD
Invest in real estate with money you have already saved for retirement
So you’ve done your research and you are sold on the idea of investing as a limited partner in real estate syndications such as apartments, mobile home parks, or self-storage facilities. “But,” you lament, “that means I need to …
Overcoming the challenges prosperity can bring to teens and young adults
They received a call that their 19-year-old son had been transported to the local hospital, extremely agitated and intoxicated, with a blood alcohol level of .245. What they learned over the next few days was that this wasn’t the first time their son h…
When hospitals are like prisons
Some weeks ago, this writer visited with a friend who had been admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit of a New York hospital. The friend had been there for a few weeks. Other patients have been there for longer. After spending approximately an hour …
The randomness of cancer: bad luck or something else?
Randomness in life is inevitable because the universe is a pretty random place, although the extent to which you believe that depends upon your own value system. This notion comes into play almost every day of my practice in the PICU because many of th…
Clearing up the confusion surrounding Medicare for all
The Democratic debates this summer demonstrated massive confusion around Medicare for all. Does it mean Medicare for all who want it? Medicare Advantage? A “public option” on an Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange? Democrats need to get thei…
A psychiatrist closes his practice
After practicing psychiatry and behavioral health for nearly 25 years, I’m done. I feel sick, and especially sicker from my occupation. Not merely burned out, but ill. Primarily mentally. I’ve always had complex post-traumatic stress disorder. And depr…
Getting into medical school: Q&A with an admissions officer
Whether you’re hoping to become the first doctor in your family or you hail from a long line of physicians, navigating the path to medical school can be a daunting experience that takes years of preparation. Providing a peek inside the mind of an admis…
7 questions every doctor asks about locum tenens
When it comes to locum tenens, doctors have a lot of questions. Maybe you even have some of your own. But first, let me ask you a few: Did you know that there are more than 50,000 doctors working locum tenens in the U.S.? Or that 90% of health care fac…
We focus on the financial sacrifices of physician training. The personal sacrifices are worse.
The sky was overcast as my girlfriend dropped me off at the airport on a June day several years back. I was headed to Chicago to take the last meaningful high stakes exam of my medical training, a mandatory board exam available only at two sites, a tes…
