Today was like no other day. It was our first day together. Me and my “virtual” scribe — an actual person who seems to “virtually” to exist inside of a Jabra speaker on my desk and so subtlety that I forgot to mute a few times w…
Category: Psychiatry
This is grief. This is life.
I had a brief, quiet, intense conversation with a friend today. She had just lost another friend, a close one, to a sudden and tragic accident. “How are you doing?” I asked. “OK,” she replied as she turned to go up the hallway. In a second, I knew bett…
Hopefully, learning this physician’s secret will help you
I love my husband. Not in a common way. My emotional reserve was so shallow that by afternoon, anything but solitude felt like an assault. I was obligated and determined to meet the needs of my daughters, and after that, I had nothing left. I love my k…
Medical schools cause burnout. Here’s how to fix that.
Students’ time in medical school should help them grow and become insightful, caring doctors. Instead, medical education is somehow turning smart, gifted, enthusiastic applicants into exhausted and unhappy students who become interns, residents, and ph…
Social media: a social disease killing our kids?
Much has been written and said about the role of Facebook and social media in our society. Only recently has the increasingly dark side of what was once thought to be a monumental transformation of humanity come into public discourse. Initially, the p…
Is overachieving a sign of past trauma?
Ever feel like you are always on the go, not feeling comfortable slowing down? All through school, college, medical school, residency, and then practicing medicine, the one thing that I got really good at was staying busy. Planning projects, test-takin…
Sharing mental health issues on social media
Susanna Harris was sitting in her lab class for her graduate program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when she received an email that told her she had failed what she describes as “the most important exam in grad school,” the doctoral…
Want to crush USMLE Step 1? Here are some evidence-based study tips.
Interleveling strategy Interleveling is the process of studying/learning multiple unrelated concepts across different subjects during the same study session. This can make studying appear difficult and more disjointed. However, research shows it yields…
Have you forgotten the most important health care leadership skill?
Physician burnout is a hot topic right now. Some don’t agree with the term and choose to use “moral injury.” Regardless of the term you want to use, the problem is real. Christina Maslach describes burnout as “an erosion of the …
An interview with a medical student who failed the Boards
The first two years of medical school are geared towards learning enough so you can pass your first round of Boards. All the sleepless nights and the tears can be overwhelming, but to finally get to the finish line is an incredible achievement. It rein…
