What this physician learned after coming back from a medical crisis

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[Find out why](. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Plus: Dec 3, 2018 [What this physician learned after coming back from a medical crisis]( Medical crises come in many forms: from illnesses to sudden injuries. Most often the victims are unsuspecting. They may be gradual in onset or happen in seconds. There are many causes, from faulty drivers to electrolyte disturbances. Mine was caused by a squirrel, a routine yard rodent. In less than three seconds, I went from […] [When the best prescription is no prescription]( “Get rest and drink plenty of fluids,” might not sound like adequately aggressive medical advice. If you’ve dragged yourself out of bed to visit an urgent care or your doctor’s office, you will probably feel somewhat cheated by an admonition to head right back to bed and stay there until you feel better. Most likely, […] [Lead your health care organization toward a culture of sustainability]( On a recent vacation, I went out to eat at a small, out-of-the-way restaurant we always visit on our trips to the Outer Banks. There, I spotted a poster on the wall explaining why the cafe no longer uses plastic bags or plastic straws: to keep the material out of the ocean where it never […] [KevinMD keynotes AACE 2019]( I’m excited to announce that I’ll be keynoting AACE 2019, the annual meeting of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, April 27, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA. Health professionals often hear about social media from a perspective of risk and negativity, especially with the headlines in the past year. But there’s another side: One where we can […] [Medicine is just a job]( A couple of years ago, I read an article by Dr. Profeta at LinkedIn called “These four words that may offend you … may also just save you.” He was invited to talk about burnout in medicine and did not get a warm reception. “It’s just a job.” The “it” in this case is medicine. […] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Conference planners!]( Find vetted, handpicked physician speakers that shine on stage. [Physician Speaking by KevinMD: Your audience deserves the best](. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Nurses aren’t commodities]( Corporate health care mentality set up nurses up to be inhuman while holding us to superhuman expectations. We’re told to be caring — but not allowed to do it. It’s time to demand that we stop being abandoned and dismissed by dysfunctional leadership. Early in my nursing career, I was assigned to the pediatric area […] [How to get the doctor to really see you]( Doctors are regularly deluged with advice on how to engage patients. But how can you, as a patient, get your doctor to engage with you as a person truly? Your health — and even your life — could depend upon it. A perceived absence of empathy can significantly harm physical and mental well-being. At a […] [A need for structural change to improve the safety and well-being of LGBTQ people]( In a previous post on LGBTQ care, Dr. Carlene MacMillan called attention to the importance of respecting patients’ pronouns. As she points out, discrepancies between patients’ chosen names/pronouns and gender markers on official documents can pose real challenges to providing patient-centered care. Even if health care providers know their patients’ self-determined identities, electronic health records […] [The problem with mental health funding and prisons]( Moving to the Bay Area from the Midwest was a culture shock in many ways. I was amazed by the diversity, the food, the openness of opinions. And I was struck by the traffic, the stark differences driving from one community to another and the homelessness — you could see signs of it everywhere. As […] [Computers are the modern stethoscope]( I wrote this a decade ago: It is a brave new world. I have used an electronic health record in my office for ten years. With a click of a mouse, I can show you how your blood pressure has varied over the last ten years. I can graph your hemoglobin, track your diabetes or […] [Beware the hazards of over-the-counter (OTC) pain medications]( A 30-year old male patient was recently admitted to my service via the emergency department. He came in complaining of abdominal pain and dark tarry stools. He mentioned a recent fall resulting in knee pain for which he had been taking 400 mg ibuprofen four times daily. He underwent upper GI endoscopy and was diagnosed […] [Employee recognition: How to show your appreciation this holiday season]( Holiday season is upon us, and it’s time to start thinking about staff appreciation. A recent survey found that over 70 percent of medical office assistants (MOAs) are expecting a holiday bonus this season. Based on the survey results, the average cash bonus in 2017 fell between $200 to $500, with a few outliers paying […] [Health care is on a different trajectory from most other businesses. Why is that?]( Health care is on a different trajectory from most other businesses today. It’s a little hard to understand why. In business, mass market products and services have always competed on price or perceived quality. Think Walmart or Mercedes-Benz, even the Model T Ford. But the real money and the real excitement in business is moving […] [Fear of missing out can be self-defeating]( It’s human nature to be social. The collective sensation of being in a group or organization helps us belong. We see this in school, where kids band together for activities. We see this in the doctor’s lounge, where the anesthesia guys chat about the latest hospital gossip. Occasionally we see the loners who shed the […] [What physicians should do today they don’t have wills]( I sadly read about another celebrity with significant wealth who died without a will. Aretha Franklin left behind an estate worth $80 million with significant future royalties and no instructions for who should receive her fortune. Over the next few years, we will hear about the fighting and legal battles over her estate. Abraham Lincoln […] [The secondary trauma physicians face]( I’ve been out of medicine a little over a month now. The first couple of weeks were crazy; I ran right to Boston to my MFA residency, and was too busy to really process much. When I got home, there were a lot of people and things to catch up with, and I had to figure out […] [Physicians who pursue financial independence and early retirement are not wrong. It may save them.]( When Jason Kilar graduated from college he experienced tremendous personal and professional adversity. Three days after graduation, Kilar’s father ended his own life after battling bipolar disorder. Kilar also battled professional valleys. In the months after graduation, the work-life he had long envisioned couldn’t have seemed further from the reality he faced. After building shelves at a […] [American anti-intellectualism and its impact on physicians]( For several years now, I’ve been the social media curmudgeon in medicine. In a 2011 New York Times op-ed titled “Don’t Quit This Day Job”, I argued that working part-time or leaving medicine goes against our obligation to patients and to the American taxpayers who subsidize graduate medical education to the tune of $15 billion […] [MKSAP: 58-year-old woman with left lower abdominal discomfort]( Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 58-year-old woman is evaluated in the emergency department for a 2-day history of left lower abdominal discomfort. The pain began insidiously and has gradually progressed. She has felt warm but has not had shaking chills, urinary symptoms such as dysuria […] [How to reduce burnout in emergency medicine]( This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com. As rewarding as working in emergency medicine can be, it also comes with some significant potential downsides. According to some recent studies, stress and burnout rates in the emergency room are some of the worst in the medical field. But don’t let that dampen your enthusiasm. Managing […] [The recent fish oil and vitamin D studies: Go beyond the headlines]( Results of a much-anticipated trial on fish oil and vitamin D generated conflicting headlines recently. Some stories declared good news about the popular supplements. Reuters wrote that fish oil “can dramatically reduce the odds of a heart attack while vitamin D’s benefits seem to come from lowering the risk of death from cancer.” The Washington Post reported […] [The loss a physician feels after partial retirement]( Retirement, or half retirement in my case, is a major life change. Transitioning from the accumulation phase, to the maintenance stage, and eventually to the deaccumulation phase can be daunting. These transitions are accompanied by a series of losses. We all understand the loss of income. But there are many other changes we don’t often talk about. There […] [Here’s what the corporatization of medicine is doing]( Have you ever been to a doctor’s office and felt that your evaluation was rushed? Have you been seen in the emergency room and felt that you were just a number in a long series of patients? Have you ever seen the same doctor for years and felt like the doctor just met you for […] --------------------------------------------------------------- If a friend sent you this email and you want to subscribe, go to [KevinMD](. --------------------------------------------------------------- 345 Hudson Street New York NY 10014 USA [Unsubscribe]( | [Change Subscriber Options](