Difficult patients. We’ve all encountered them. Maybe we are them. (After all, they say doctors make the worst patients, and there’s probably some truth to that.) But what makes a patient “difficult”? Is it someone with multiple…
Category: primary care
Letting go of perfectionism: a New Year’s resolution for self-compassion
Last week I drove to my favorite trails in Point Defiance Park. The roads seemed oddly empty and quiet, even for “the time between the years” as I’ve heard it called. Perhaps I hadn’t noticed it before, since in medicine, itR…
Accelerate your career with mentorship
As a lifelong learner who takes pride in self-directed learning, the importance of mentorship has not always been readily obvious to me. When I completed my residency and embarked on a career in academic medicine, little did I realize how important the…
Why Barbie resonated with me as a mid-career woman physician: a reflection for National Women Physicians Day
(Spoiler alert: contains spoilers for the movie Barbie.) In Barbie, a singular scene resonated powerfully with Women in Medicine across the land. You know the one. Shortly after Ken and Barbie leave Barbie Land and arrive in the Real World, Ken venture…
A surprising resolution in primary care
I normally don’t make professional resolutions, but this year I am making an important exception. Why would I do such a thing? Like most of my evolution as a doctor, it comes from the wellspring of wisdom, namely listening to my patients. I had a…
Unveiling the power of healing: a journey through stories [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! Join Dustin Grinnell, the author of The Healing Book. Dustin takes us on a journey through this thought-provoking collection of short stories, where characters embark on paths of self-disco…
Dressing to inspire confidence: How the clothes you wear can change perceptions
There are a lot of things that I’ve forgotten since 1984, the year I started medical school. But I will never forget the Dean of Students’ proclamation on the very first day of class: “You must dress to inspire confidence,” he t…
The superhero spectrum in health care
Strategic thinking: The Doctor Strange of health care. Health care professionals, much like Doctor Strange, often engage in complex decision-making, foreseeing multiple outcomes to choose the best path for patient care. Your ability to strategize and a…
Resilience beyond self-care [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! Join Beth Boynton, a nurse consultant, as we delve into the pressing issue of health care worker resilience. Discover the importance of empowering health care professionals, developing esse…
From timed essays to time mastery: a doctor’s journey through the power of belief
One of my most stressful high school class memories was an AP English class I took during my junior year. Each week, we had timed writings where we were given a specific amount of time to write an essay on a given topic. As soon as the timer went off, …
