What is the first question you hear when you walk in the front door after a long day? Or when you call a friend on Friday evening to check in? For me it is usually a variation of “How was your day?” Sometimes “What’s up?” or “Anything new?” Once in a while it is an […]
You have 15 minutes to make your case. Funding for the program you want to build. Protected time. A new hire for your division. The data sits in front of you. The slides are ready. You have thought through what you want to say and how you want it to come across. Now take a […]
It is July. You take over the inpatient service, and you can feel the tension before you open a single chart. The new senior is running rounds for the first time, and the pace is slow. The interns know the medicine. They do not know the system. One of them keeps locking himself out of […]
You forget the diagnosis. Most likely, you will forget names. You will never forget how someone made you feel. Every July, a new class of interns walks onto the wards. The patients change hands. The pagers change owners. Somewhere on the wards, a nervous young physician will learn what kind of place they joined. Not […]
In my time as a division director, no one has walked into my office and asked to do less. Not once. The requests run the other way. People want to build a program, start a lecture series, take on the students, design the thing they have been picturing for two years. I fortunate to work […]
I’m a grandfather. Those are words I wasn’t sure I’d ever say out loud. I grew up in a big, traditional family. Sunday supper at my grandparents’ table was a regular occurrence. An aunt or uncle would turn up unannounced, and there was always a place set. I’m the oldest of seven. A full house […]
The offer letter is sitting in your inbox. The title is better than the one you have now. The scope sounds like growth. On paper, you should be thrilled. So why does something keep nagging at you? That nag is data. Most physicians treat it as nerves and sign anyway. I did exactly that, and […]
You learned a lot of medicine in training. You also learned a lot of things that were never on the syllabus. Medical training conditioning is not a single lesson Be a good doctor. Be smart. Hardworking. Emotionally blunt. Perfectionist. We called all of this excellence. It was conditioning. The Tuesday I Stopped in My Tracks […]
When I started medical school, the curriculum had just shifted to small-group case discussion. Six to ten students sat around a table every week. A faculty member graded our participation. I dreaded it. I am naturally introspective. Generally, I think before I speak, and I process internally before I respond externally. In a room that […]
The first morning I signed out a patient as the attending, nobody behind me was going to catch what I missed. The pay was better. The call schedule looked lighter on paper. Vacation accrued. And I still stayed an extra hour to confirm a finding nobody had asked me to confirm. If you are a […]
