Heart of a doctor. Mind of a doctor. Soul of a giver.

Here are the stories you missed on KevinMD. Thank you for your continuing readership. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ --------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the stories you missed on [KevinMD](. Thank you for your continuing readership. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsors [Reducing alarm fatigue: The essential guide for hospitals](. It’s time to make alarm management a priority, to protect patient safety, and to mitigate provider burnout. Find 8 steps in a [successful alarm management improvement process](. [Improving lifestyle, especially nutrition and diet]( is the most powerful approach to preventing or reversing heart disease. The challenge for physicians is finding an effective way to [talk about nutrition with their patients](. [Up to 58% of patients leave]( due to perceived poor treatment or poor service. Learn the true cost of losing patients and simple steps to [improve patient loyalty to benefit your business](. [Thousands of physicians are browsing this job board](. They love its selection of over 12,000 openings across the U.S. [Physicians are finding opportunities they almost missed](. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Plus: Feb 17, 2020 [Heart of a doctor. Mind of a doctor. Soul of a giver.]( Calling. I am awakened by the loud, screeching sound of my pager. I feel my heart race. I look at the clock. It is 3:07 a.m. It’s cold in the room. I am shivering. I stand up quickly, instinctively. I feel the soreness of my feet for a brief moment, but push that thought aside […] [Intelligence does not protect against the worst of life’s cruelties]( Mr. O has a drinking problem. More specifically, Mr. O drinks far too much and far too often, and for reasons that can’t be addressed with the tool he’s chosen. I met him at what could be called the low point of his life, except I know better than to hope things will look up. […] [Cultivating your personal partnerships as a physician]( The center of a physician’s job is the doctor-patient relationship. Without a healthy one, the physician is unable to help the patient make meaningful changes in their life to maintain a state of wellness. Too often, in the process of medical training, a physician’s personal relationships suffer the consequences of long hours, financial strain, and […] [The great bidet mystery]( An excerpt from Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome. The great bidet mystery: What’s it for? Americans can live here for decades thinking Italians go to the trouble of installing bidets just so they can soak their feet. If they’ve read Henry Miller, they add so women can wash before and after sex. The truth is […] [As I become a better baker, I hope that I will continue to become a better doctor]( Growing up in a Korean household meant that I had very little experience with the type of baking that most Americans are used to; My grandma made rice cakes, not birthday cakes. But during my third year of medical school, an intern recommended a show called The Great British Bake Off. After watching a few episodes […] [The simple step that helped this physician lose 10 pounds]( By the time I turned 40, I had gained and lost 40 pounds at least ten times. It started with the “freshman fifteen” plus another twenty-five in college. In medical school, I was introduced to sweetened coffee beverages, and I snacked on pretzels and candy to stay awake while studying. I got through overnight call […] [USMLE Step 1 pass/fail winners and losers]( On February 12, 2020, the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) announced that the USMLE Step 1 will transition to a pass/fail exam in January 2022 at the earliest. This move comes amidst increasing pressure on the NBME regarding its financial conflicts of interest, as well as the tangible sense among medical school deans that […] [How serving LGBTQ patients teaches valuable lessons on patient experience and the practice of medicine]( As clinicians, our medical training teaches us to categorize and diagnose. But caring for people can sometimes be gray – it’s not always black or white. In 2017, my colleague Dr. Kyle Christiason launched our health system’s first clinic dedicated to providing compassionate and affirming care to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning communities. […] [Teenagers also need routine annual well visits]( Life can be hectic. We all feel the effects of the “busyness” of our daily business, especially with the beginning of a New Year, when we tend to hyper-focus on our “to-do lists” and resolutions. We can often forget to take care of ourselves and the ones we love. For example, when was the last […] [The sexual side effects after prostate cancer treatment]( I first met JB* when the receptionist at the clinic called to tell me that a patient was asking to see me. His name did not ring a bell, and on a quick review of my patient schedule for the week, his name did not appear. I went to the waiting room to see if […] [Dementia is worse when coupled with inadequate preparation]( The chances that you or someone you love will be diagnosed with dementia are shockingly high. By age 65, your chances are already at 9 percent. Make it to age 85, and the chances go up to 33 percent. Of course, if you’re diagnosed with dementia, it will be a struggle for you to think […] [Numb: How I survived as a physician]( On my final day of work before beginning my self-imposed burnout sabbatical, a colleague asked, “Why don’t you just get on medication?” I remember thinking, “What am I medicating? I feel nothing.” I was in the vice grip of burnout, overwhelmed, and physically and emotionally exhausted. But mostly, I was numb. But in reality, I […] [Not only do the worst need love, the best are made better by offering it]( I once saw an older gentleman who was mentally impaired from birth. A hard enough blow, he had slowly, inexorably drifted into dementia. He cut his head in a fall, suffering the ravages of gravity as so many do every day, every night. He was Caucasian. His full-time care-giver was African-American. That young man was […] [As a registered nurse, I do not want to violate my patients’ rights anymore]( I am a critical care RN, and I violated my patients’ rights. For decades, every day that I worked in the emergency department or the intensive care unit, I violated my patients’ federally protected rights to participate in their plan of care. I didn’t mean to, or want to, but my tasks to maintain their […] [Physicians are excellent at floccinaucinihilipilification. What is that?]( Physicians are excellent at floccinaucinihilipilification, which is seeing something as unimportant or worthless. We engage in floccinaucinihilipilification every time we see a patient. We listen to their story and symptoms, and quickly filter, accept, or discard information until we arrive at our presumed diagnosis. The 18-second rule In 1984, Beckman and Frankel wrote in the Annals of […] [When the problem representation and the illness script do not match]( Recently we had a patient admitted for a diagnosis that did not really fit his problem representation. The diagnosis was a convenient one, and easily treated. He initially responded to treatment, and we discharged him. The diagnosis assumption nagged at me, but I did not push forward with a test that my mind wanted. A […] [The Hufflepuff of medicine]( Recently, my mother waited for over an hour for what turned out to be a 5-minute visit with her primary care doctor. Her doctor seemed rushed and stressed, her questions perfunctory, the management plan hurried. And then she was gone. “It’s like she didn’t even know I was there,” my mom relayed to me. This […] --------------------------------------------------------------- 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](