In the Business of Medicine, Be Your Own Boss
As medical students, we exist between two worlds. On the one hand, we’re tasked with learning as much as we can about the practice of medicine from our preceptors, many of whom have decades of experience. On the other hand,…
Are you a cheerleader or a fan? Examining motivation in medicine
One of my favorite aspects of medicine is the relationship between health and lifestyle. I think of lifestyle as all of the “stuff” that affects patients outside of the exam room, including diet, exercise, family relationships, and living accommodations. All…
Gratitude: A Good Recipe for Holiday Cheer
The “most wonderful time of the year” is often filled with stark contrasts. While glitz and opulence surround us, sorrow and despair seem to grow emboldened. Nowhere is this truer than in a big city, where poverty and privilege so…
Robots: Not just for kids any more
Years ago, my brother and I shared a metal robot with moveable arms and legs. This plaything belonged to the same fantasy realm as Barbie dolls and Power Rangers, and the idea that it might one day be a colleague…
Reassessing Resilience
Recently, I had the opportunity to work with a young female patient whose healthcare history could rival that of an octogenarian in complexity. At the end of our 70-minute intake interview, the physician with whom I was working asked our…
Properly Unprepared
It was late afternoon, and the current nursing shift would be relieved in less than ninety minutes. The feeling of impending Friday freedom was palpable on the floor of the intensive care unit. I was on my way to meet…
The Opiate Epidemic: A tragedy for patients is a warning to physicians
As student doctors, we are entering the medical field in the middle of a raging wildfire: an “opiate abuse epidemic.”[1] The media would have us believe that addicted patients are perpetuating the problem of opiate misuse and overuse, but opiate…
No Time For Error
In November 1999, the Institute of Medicine released a study entitled “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System.” Within the first line of that study, a sobering statistic was revealed: between 44,000 and 98,000 hospital deaths each year…
A Caution Against the Extinction of Emotion
“Well, you know, I was recently diagnosed with cancer,” my friend said lightly in the middle of a spirited conversation about the merits of eating organic vegetables. She smiled as though she had just mentioned a factoid about organic kale,…
Keyboards and Stethoscopes: A reflection on digital etiquette in medical school
February 26th marks the 47th anniversary of the landmark freedom of speech case, Tinker v. Des Moines. This case concerned a group of students who wished to wear black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. When their school banned the…