Latest Journal Posts
Who Are You?
Want to know who doctors are when no one is looking over their shoulders to make sure they are performing the standard of care, doing all their notes and tasks, and meeting their “quality metrics”?
Stop Being An Emergency
I recently read a story written by a friend and business coach about a time when she volunteered at an event. During the event, she had given away all her food to support others. Now she was hungry and the event was still going on. Instead of being praised (as she had expected) by one of the more senior volunteers, she was told “If you don’t take care of yourself you can become an emergency someone else needs to tend to.”
That’s what has happened to our healthcare system.
It’s become an emergency that someone else has to tend to.
How Are You Breathing?
“Until I know you better, I will be telling you how to breathe!”
It’s my first day at the Pediatric Orthopedic Hand Specialty Clinic on my peds rotation in my third year of residency.
I have just been barked at by the Professor Emeritus, a retired Army colonel, who runs the service.
Focus on Your Intentions
Why you should set intentions, not goals
Intentions and goals can seem synonymous at first. And they are related. But one of the things I’ve learned in life coaching is how important language is. Using more precise language has a direct effect on how you feel in the moment.
Goals Are Like a Diagnosis
Having a goal for your life is like having a diagnosis for a patient.
Now you have a direction (for healing). You know what you have to do to get there (the specific treatment), you know what the obstacles might be (complications) and yet you have to keep an open mind in case you need to change your plan of action or even pivot away from the goal (change the treatment, or the diagnosis, or both).
Goals: Friend or Foe?
It’s January, so much of social media, news, magazine articles, and the like turns to goals, goals, goals. For physicians, goals are like breathing. We set them almost without thinking about it. Our entire young adult lives were controlled by goals. So much so that not having goals can lead to feeling adrift, without purpose. But new goals don't have to be so long-term as becoming a doctor. We would be better off setting our sights on shorter-term goals that enrich our lives in the here and now.
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