“Hey Daniel, greetings from Jack [our attending, name changed]: Don’t ever put in a pneumocath in a patient’s chest again, your patient suffered a pneumothorax”. That’s how I was greeted to my late shift after I had put a chest tube in a patient the day before, which obviously hadn’t work out as we had […]
During a recent night shift I was called to a patient who obviously was acutely ill. She had been transferred from the ICU to the ward today. Further workup showed she didn’t have urinary tract infection (UTI) as suspected, but: necrotizing fasciitis. She was operated on immediately and survived. The initial misdiagnosis had almost killed […]
The most important skill for doctors regardless of your specialty is this one: Decide which crisis you deal with first. Many tasks will appear very urgent, and some actually are. However, you can only effectively focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking is a myth. So here is an example: Welcome to your shift: You start at 3PM […]
I’m convinced that there has never been a better time in history to be a doctor. However, many doctors use a great part of their time to complain how hard life is as a doctor. They talk about the good old days, when everything was better and easier. So I put together my top ten of reasons, why […]
Getting through a night without a minute of sleep is what I find the hardest about being a doctor. Lack of sleep will make me unconcentrated, irritable, and more error-prone. And during a night shift, it’s not your only task to stay awake: you are supposed to work, make good decisions, and save lives. During my […]
Every time you end your shift, you’ll be criticised. Your colleagues and bosses try to understand why you did what you did. That’s why they will question why you initiated this diagnostic procedure started that therapeutic regimen established this diagnosis or didn’t do all of the above. That’s OK: Three doctors, four opinions. However, many doctors […]