I always said yes, taking on numerous tasks and roles, but now question the value of unpaid work in my career trajectory as a colorectal surgeon. I always said yes. That’s what you’re supposed to do, right? Always say yes because you don…
Category: surgery
The truth about employee turnover: It’s inevitable (and OK!)
It is a simple idea, but we don’t think about it. Everyone will leave their job, including us. This thought occurred to me as our office was undergoing a painful turnover. I started my private practice in 2020, expecting it to be a small, close-k…
Finding my calling: a surgeon’s path through medical school
September 1974. I was a third-year medical student at NYU. My husband and I, newlyweds, lived in a single room in the med student dorm. Fortunately, third-year students took night calls, so on those nights, my husband had the single pull-out bed all to…
Toxic work culture in surgery: Can it be fixed?
After destroying a light fixture in the OR and being written up for another episode of disorderly conduct, John was at the end of his wits. His marriage, profession, and self-respect were all on the line, and in the eyes of everyone around him, he was …
Healing together: patient and physician well-being [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Join Kim Downey, a physical therapist, and Anthony Avellino, a pediatric neurosurgeon and author of Finding Purpose: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey of Hope and Healing, as they …
Gender bias is pervasive within state medical board official documents and websites
“Each licensee shall furnish the board his current address.” “When a practitioner is closing, selling or relocating his practice, he shall meet the requirements …“. “The practitioner shall retain in his records.” Whe…
A hypothetical case of medical malpractice. This can be you.
A patient presents to the emergency room of a major local hospital with ulcers on the heels of both feet. The patient is more than 40 years old, smokes, and has hypertension but is not a diabetic. It is determined that the patient has peripheral artery…
Medicine’s struggle for inclusivity
Medicine, with its somewhat tarred history in the matter, has woken to the cause of inclusivity. Not too long ago, in the early twentieth century, the American Medical Association (AMA) orchestrated reforms requiring immigrant European doctors to pass …
From perfunctory to profound: 4 self-evaluation questions that blew my mind
The McLaughlin 360 Evaluation: preparation (part one) Have you ever heard the expression, “The truth will set you free”? Well, it might. But before it sets you free, it’s probably going to piss you off. If you are seriously interested…
A young surgeon’s night: from calm to chaos
When you are a young academic general surgeon, even the nights are sometimes good. A good on-call night unfolds something like this. You might have spent the day working in the operating room or in the clinic seeing patients. Your on-call typically beg…
