Last week I took my final oral exam to be a certified internist and nephrologist.* I had three weeks of preparation time, during which I had to work. Two hours of learning per day for three weeks for the complete internal medicine and nephrology sounded frightening to me. But with a strategy and a little bit […]
Whenever you start an internship you should introduce yourself to everyone, who’s working there. But some people will be absent, busy, or just not interested you. So you have to identify the most important ones. There are three people you absolutely must introduce yourself to. The Attending Doctor: She is the one, who is in […]
To me it feels like the medical knowledge I need to treat my patients doubles every month. Keeping all of the important information in your head is impossible. You need resources and tools that help you to stay on top of all the information. Here I introduce my favorite tool: Uptodate. And I mention three […]
One of the first things I do at every internship, rotation or whatever is optimize my workflow. To do great work you need a good workspace and a workflow that assists you in delivering high quality work. All day long I hear doctors complaining about the circumstances they have to work under because the computer doesn’t […]
I am not about to whine about how busy we are and how much work there is to do. Being busy at work is a given, I get it. Residency programs are tough. But what we really have to talk about is this: What is a doctor’s job and what not? I have worked on more than ten different […]
Whether you feel good about yourself as a doctor will not be related to the amount of money you make or to whether you are good at heart valve operation, colonoscopies or even kidney biopsies. Being the best at these things matter and that’s OK. We need great and gifted interventionalists and thinkers and surgeons, that’s all good. And I […]
Starting a rotation at your dream institution and you really want a job there? A residency position? A fellowship spot? There is one way to that: Hustle. Work like you have never worked before. Work your butt off. Here is how: It happens at the beginning of every rotation. If you are not a pretty […]
Medical education is expensive. Many graduates don’t only receive a diploma after finishing their studies but also a student loan bill of $ 200.000! During their studies they rationalize that one day they’ll have a big income to clean this mess up easily. But going into debt during medical school is not a must, that is for sure. […]
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” ― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. During the first years of my career I tried to save every second. One main strategy was to prepare a quick answer while the patient was still talking. As soon as I […]
If we can believe the movies and the TV shows the great doctors are always right. They don’t make mistakes always have the right diagnosis at hand and always know what to do. This description could not be further from the truth. It’s a fairy tale. Instead, the great ones that I have worked with practice […]