Friday, August 20, 2004
Errata
Holy Cow, how did I get so busy so fast? It seems like only 2 days ago our service had 12 patients and now it has 26. Oh wait - that is because it WAS two days ago. My gosh, what a change.
I went from comfortably completing all my tasks with plenty of time to spare to now only getting finished with a few minutes before lecture. I really need to get faster at writing notes. I can see and examine a patient in about 5 minutes, but then it takes me 15 to write down everything I did - maybe my notes are just too long and detailed. It must come from all the time spent working as a nurse - we notoriously make overly detailed notes, while doctors frequently make under-detailed notes. I need to find a happy medium in there somewhere. I'm sure it will come with time. Any ideas for ways to pare down?
I saw this article today and thought it was kind of interesting. It goes against everything we were taught in physical education classes. Maybe the new paradigm will be just warm-up without stretching to help prevent injuries. I know that this spring, while volunteering at football games in a women's league, I saw lots of ligamentous and muscle sprain/strain type injuries. And what did the team doctor always say? "You need to stretch more before games!" Maybe now, he'll have to tell the players to stretch less before the games and perform more warm up exercises. I never would have thought to study something like this. I wonder what gets into people's heads to make them think to study these simple "truths" that we've been fed all our lives. I just don't think that way, I guess.
More about the physician-scientist role: I think some people are just born with it and are interested in furthering the body of medical knowledge. I see myself as more of a people-person: I would rather use that body of knowledge and my own interpersonal skills to help the masses. Unfortunately for me, a "scholarly project" is required of every resident in Emergency Medicine. I have long feared the day when I would be forced to do research, and that day is rapidly approaching.
Not that I think doing research is inherently bad - in fact, a lot of good things have come from research. We (the human race) would never have eradicated smallpox if it weren't for the experiments that found that vaccinia (cowpox) injections could prevent smallpox. Nevermind the suffering eased by the secretions of a lowly mold: Penicillin was perhaps the most fortuitous discovery ever. After all these wonderful discoveries (and the millions that have been made since), I just don't see what I possibly have to offer the world. No, just let me take what has been found and put it to good use, thank you very much.
Now, I'm sure there are those of you that could give me a million reasons why every physician should be a physician-scientist. And I would answer back to you that, in a way, every physician is a scientist, and an artist, teacher, healer, and friend. Yes, friend. When all else has failed you, when all your art and science has left you behind and your patient is dying, all that is left is the relationship you have built with your patient, your friend. And you won't have that if you are too busy with the science to let yourself shine through.
Wow, that was macabre. But food for thought, nonetheless.
And now, for something COMPLETELY different (in the words of the infamous Monty Python)...
I just returned from watching, Exorcist, the Beginning, and it wasn't half bad. It wasn't nearly as good as the original (don't you just hate it when people compare something to the original? I'm sorry....), but I didn't expect it to be. The original was a once in a lifetime, luck of the draw kind of movie. I don't think even if they remade the whole thing over again with today's technology that it would be the same as the old black and white. The chemistry just isn't there, the mood, the fear rampant in the community at large. We (as a society) are too used to seeing gore, blood, death and mayhem that it is commonplace now. Is it any wonder that a kid took a gun to school today here in the metroplex? Our society has made it ok for everyone to carry guns without a thought as to the ramifications of such an act. If guns are readily available, of course people are going to use them. We're weak - we are ruled by our emotions and we do things in a moment of passion we might later regret. So, let's take away the temptation.
We need to seriously look at where we are going as a society and make changes now, while we still can. Stop war for the sake of war. Sure as hell stop war for the sake of getting re-elected to a freaking office. We need to take care of our own country before we go sticking our nose in other people's business. We have a horrid educational system, crime is rampant, the healthcare system is a joke, and 60% of our population is overweight and the other 40% is starving and on welfare, drugs or both. We need to take care of our own for awhile. The US is entering a midlife crisis right now - we're big enough to throw our weight around, and like the playground bully, we've started doing it. But just like the bully, we only do it because we feel bad about ourselves - we don't know where we're going, and the only thing we know to do is to strike out at others. We need to get our heads on straight and take care of our own problems for a few decades. Today, Kobe Bryant made more than I'll make in my entire life. And I can guarantee he never went to graduate school - and his entire school career probably wasn't as long as my college, medical school, and residency career will be. Our priorities are in the wrong place. We spend $8 on a movie ticket and $10 more on a soda and popcorn or candy, but then bitch when we have to lay down a $20 co-pay at our physician's office. What is more important - your health or the latest Tom Cruise movie? I think it made 24.4 million it's opening weekend or something. That's more than the GDP of several small countries. Come on, people, get your priorities straight.
Ok.. I'm sorry for the rant. I'm going to count to ten and stop now before I do something I might regret.
more to come... ¶ 7:41 PM
I went from comfortably completing all my tasks with plenty of time to spare to now only getting finished with a few minutes before lecture. I really need to get faster at writing notes. I can see and examine a patient in about 5 minutes, but then it takes me 15 to write down everything I did - maybe my notes are just too long and detailed. It must come from all the time spent working as a nurse - we notoriously make overly detailed notes, while doctors frequently make under-detailed notes. I need to find a happy medium in there somewhere. I'm sure it will come with time. Any ideas for ways to pare down?
I saw this article today and thought it was kind of interesting. It goes against everything we were taught in physical education classes. Maybe the new paradigm will be just warm-up without stretching to help prevent injuries. I know that this spring, while volunteering at football games in a women's league, I saw lots of ligamentous and muscle sprain/strain type injuries. And what did the team doctor always say? "You need to stretch more before games!" Maybe now, he'll have to tell the players to stretch less before the games and perform more warm up exercises. I never would have thought to study something like this. I wonder what gets into people's heads to make them think to study these simple "truths" that we've been fed all our lives. I just don't think that way, I guess.
More about the physician-scientist role: I think some people are just born with it and are interested in furthering the body of medical knowledge. I see myself as more of a people-person: I would rather use that body of knowledge and my own interpersonal skills to help the masses. Unfortunately for me, a "scholarly project" is required of every resident in Emergency Medicine. I have long feared the day when I would be forced to do research, and that day is rapidly approaching.
Not that I think doing research is inherently bad - in fact, a lot of good things have come from research. We (the human race) would never have eradicated smallpox if it weren't for the experiments that found that vaccinia (cowpox) injections could prevent smallpox. Nevermind the suffering eased by the secretions of a lowly mold: Penicillin was perhaps the most fortuitous discovery ever. After all these wonderful discoveries (and the millions that have been made since), I just don't see what I possibly have to offer the world. No, just let me take what has been found and put it to good use, thank you very much.
Now, I'm sure there are those of you that could give me a million reasons why every physician should be a physician-scientist. And I would answer back to you that, in a way, every physician is a scientist, and an artist, teacher, healer, and friend. Yes, friend. When all else has failed you, when all your art and science has left you behind and your patient is dying, all that is left is the relationship you have built with your patient, your friend. And you won't have that if you are too busy with the science to let yourself shine through.
Wow, that was macabre. But food for thought, nonetheless.
And now, for something COMPLETELY different (in the words of the infamous Monty Python)...
I just returned from watching, Exorcist, the Beginning, and it wasn't half bad. It wasn't nearly as good as the original (don't you just hate it when people compare something to the original? I'm sorry....), but I didn't expect it to be. The original was a once in a lifetime, luck of the draw kind of movie. I don't think even if they remade the whole thing over again with today's technology that it would be the same as the old black and white. The chemistry just isn't there, the mood, the fear rampant in the community at large. We (as a society) are too used to seeing gore, blood, death and mayhem that it is commonplace now. Is it any wonder that a kid took a gun to school today here in the metroplex? Our society has made it ok for everyone to carry guns without a thought as to the ramifications of such an act. If guns are readily available, of course people are going to use them. We're weak - we are ruled by our emotions and we do things in a moment of passion we might later regret. So, let's take away the temptation.
We need to seriously look at where we are going as a society and make changes now, while we still can. Stop war for the sake of war. Sure as hell stop war for the sake of getting re-elected to a freaking office. We need to take care of our own country before we go sticking our nose in other people's business. We have a horrid educational system, crime is rampant, the healthcare system is a joke, and 60% of our population is overweight and the other 40% is starving and on welfare, drugs or both. We need to take care of our own for awhile. The US is entering a midlife crisis right now - we're big enough to throw our weight around, and like the playground bully, we've started doing it. But just like the bully, we only do it because we feel bad about ourselves - we don't know where we're going, and the only thing we know to do is to strike out at others. We need to get our heads on straight and take care of our own problems for a few decades. Today, Kobe Bryant made more than I'll make in my entire life. And I can guarantee he never went to graduate school - and his entire school career probably wasn't as long as my college, medical school, and residency career will be. Our priorities are in the wrong place. We spend $8 on a movie ticket and $10 more on a soda and popcorn or candy, but then bitch when we have to lay down a $20 co-pay at our physician's office. What is more important - your health or the latest Tom Cruise movie? I think it made 24.4 million it's opening weekend or something. That's more than the GDP of several small countries. Come on, people, get your priorities straight.
Ok.. I'm sorry for the rant. I'm going to count to ten and stop now before I do something I might regret.
more to come... ¶ 7:41 PM
