Article
Code Status Discussions; Difficult but Necessary
April 1, 2024
I thought it was just where I practiced, but it turns out that, in the medical field, we’re really bad about having code discussions, which is a significant issue. When some of my patients revealed...
Article
A Clinician’s Romance with Uncertainty
March 4, 2024
It all started as a fling; harmless, unburdened. My tryst with uncertainty found its roots in those educational conferences where every case started as a mystery and was resolved with a definitive...
Article
My Journey
November 1, 2023
A startling diagnosis All of a sudden, I was sitting on the other side of the table from another physician, not a patient. I was not discussing my cholesterol levels, blood pressure, or anemia, but...
Gratitude is Good for Us
November 1, 2023
As our discussion about discharge ended, Ms. Jones, stooped, her thin grey hair pulled back, and moved slowly toward her husband’s hospital bed. Gently, she stroked his head and said, “We will...
Article
Finding Beauty in Our Patients’ Lives
October 4, 2023
Awe as a path to greater resilience for hospitalists With her grey hair pulled back and wearing her Sunday best, Ms. W. gracefully rose from the chair and approached the hospital bed where her...
Article
Mid-career “Phronesis”
July 5, 2023
The 2023 SHM Converge Conference in Austin, Texas was the backdrop for a chance encounter between two old friends. We and our spouses met during residency 20 years ago, became fast friends, and then...
Article
The Future of Hospital Medicine…Is Connected
April 18, 2023
Recently someone on Twitter, supposedly a physician, replied to one of my tweets calling out misinformation and tried to catch me in some trap about vaccine-induced cardiac events. She went on to...
Opinion
Females and the Future of Hospital Medicine
April 13, 2023
I was unknowingly the future of hospital medicine, but it was a future that almost didn’t come true. The first time I stepped onto the hospital wards was with a physician who called himself a...
Article
The Unsung Health Care Hero: When the Physician Advisor Saved a Life
April 11, 2023
Leaving against medical advice is not uncommon in hospitals, but when Ms. Lydia asked to sign out, the nurse and hospitalist were shocked. Ms. Lydia, a sweet, 72-year-old patient with sepsis from...
Article
Alternative Hospitalist “Uniform” When Hospitalists Were New (2003)
February 22, 2023
I read with interest the contrasting articles “Have We Gotten too Casual “ and “Heels, White Coats, Formal Wear, and Scrubs” all about hospitalists’ attire in the January 2023 issue. It...