Category: Medical Education
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How do you say it?
I am often the bearer of bad news. I don’t think I’ve ever been formally taught how to deliver bad news, but I’ve developed a style over the years, and I’m pretty good at it. I work with medical residents every day in their outpatient clinics. Most of them have never had to deliver bad…
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Never say “hopeless”
I can’t tell you the number of people who complain to me about having their hope taken away. Exactly what this means, though, isn’t always clear. Sometimes an oncologist will tell them (so they say) that they have a month to live. Sometimes their cardiologist tells them (so they say) not to travel to their…
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Do I have clients or patients?
One of my duties involves teaching nurse practitioner students. Nursing is quite different from medicine, and many of the linguistic markers of nursing differ significantly from medicine. As more physicians’ assistants and nurse practitioners enter the primary care world there will be a bit of a culture clash. For instance, my NP students often refer…
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Women physicians—a waste of a good education?
Think about your own experiences—you’re at a party or a restaurant, and someone you’re with says something obviously racist. You cringe, but given the setting, you can’t decide how to react; after a pause, you probably decide to say something. Now imagine you’re at meeting for work, and a senior partner says something racist. You…