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 […]
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 […]
I showed up to my first overnight call in a tie, a dress shirt, and khakis. The chief resident took one look at me and laughed. “Put on scrubs,” she said. “You’re going to be more comfortable.” She was right about the scrubs. She was also right, in ways I wouldn’t understand for months, about […]
I trained before resident work-hour restrictions. During one stretch of residency, my car broke down. I dropped it at a mechanic at 5:30 AM before call, took a cab to the hospital, worked a full day, stayed overnight, rounded the next morning, and finished clinic around 5:30 PM the following day. A shuttle picked me […]
Spring has arrived in the Midwest, and recently I’ve spent a good chunk of my Saturday blowing leaves, trimming back deadwood, and preparing the yard for the growing season. I love getting my hands dirty. Our yard is a bit of an experiment. We grow vegetables and herbs, have a raspberry patch and a few […]
Author’s Note: As a pediatric cardiologist, a medical educator, and a coach, I’ve sat on every side of the table. I’ve interviewed anxious premeds, shepherded fellows through subspecialty training, served on promotion committees, and now lead an academic division. I’m also a learning-community director who welcomes medical students on their first day of orientation and […]
The Operating System I walked into medical school orientation in shorts and a T-shirt. Everyone else had business casual. I had showed up dressed for the wrong century. At some point that first morning, the facilitator asked us to go around the room and share three words that described us. I don’t remember most of […]
Excellence is not a destination. It is a lifelong journey. And for physicians, that journey often begins with purpose, gets distorted by performance, and is restored through truth. We started with purpose. Maybe it was the optimism of youth. Maybe a bit of naïveté. But we wanted to serve. To help. To make a difference. […]
