In appreciation of oncology nurses everywhere. In recognition of National Nurses Week: Thank you to oncology nurses for: staying behind in the room with patients and families after we deliver difficult news, not letting us shirk the tough questions, professionalism in the most difficult of circumstances, being partners in care, remembering what size gloves we wear,…
Comments closedThe term “compassion fatigue” might imply that physical fatigue leads to the loss of ability to feel compassion for others. After all, what physician hasn’t experienced running on too little reserve? Feeling some degree of emotional numbness? Many physicians may not realize, however, that compassion fatigue can go much deeper. Physicians and other health caregivers…
4 CommentsThe doctors’ office: an insider glimpse. (A facetious piece. Inspired my my kids’ love of Mad Libs) Directions (in case you were raised by wolves and never played Mad Libs): Play with a friend or colleague. Ask them to say a word for each type of word specified. Read the story using their words to…
Comments closed(published also online on 4/10/17 in The ASCO Post, under the title The Mystery of Grace. re-published here on my home blog with permission of the editor). The day after I told Nell she had seven metastases to her brain, she sent me flowers. She was my patient; I was her oncologist. I had met her…
3 Commentsupdated 3/17/19 A short story on the meaning of burnout. The return from a vacation weighed on me physically. This had been a true vacation – an entire week away spent with my family, away from clinic and the burden of care. I even managed to unplug to the point of only checking email on…
Comments closedThere is a shortage of doctors in rural community practice in the U.S. Medical oncology, is but one of many specialties where the shortage is especially glaring. In oncology, I think there is perhaps a fear of practicing outside the walls of a large tertiary center. Leaving the established framework and boundaries between the doctor…
Comments closedMy patient sat in a wheelchair. In his mid-forties, before the cancer, he had held a physically demanding job that he loved. Now, the cancer in his spine had ended not only his ability to work, but any ability to use his legs. His wife was devoted to him in a way that seemed as…
Comments closedupdated 3/17/19 I recently read on kevinmd.com the accounts of female physicians who attempted to help passengers in air flight emergencies . They were incredulously pushed aside and not allowed to provide emergency care. Yes, you read that correctly. Physicians blocked from providing emergency medical care because the flight attendants didn’t believe they were physicians.…
Comments closedHere is an example of “meaningful use” from the clinic, and how meaningless it is for actual practice: Mr. X. is a man in his 80s who was cured of his cancer, but at what cost. The therapies which eradicated the cancer left him with permanent frailties and the loss of his independence. A family…
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