3 Major Keys To A Successful Medical Career

There are many ways to Rome, but in my experience there are three major keys to a successful medical career. Here they are:

The importance of being honest – 4 ways to improve your patient’s satisfaction ratings

Whether our patients are content with our work greatly depends on their expectation prior to the treatment.
While we should always do our best to deliver high quality work, modulating -and many times lowering- their expectations can further maximize your patient’s satisfaction ratings. Here are 4 ways how you can do that.

Here Are 7 Steps To Telling Your Colleague About His Error – Without Becoming His Enemy

“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 hoped.

As it turned out, the patient had a pneumothorax before I even saw him. But either way, I wasn’t all that happy about this kind of feedback in front of all my colleagues. Obviously someone was happy I had caused a complication.

10 Reasons Why Now Is the Best Time to Be a Doctor. Ever.

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.

Photo courtesy of IStockphoto.com

So I put together my top ten of reasons, why this is the best time to be a doctor. Ever. Consider this post an antidepressant for doctors and feel free to share it. 

Four steps to dealing with criticism so YOU profit from it

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 take that form of criticism personal and react defensive. Here are my four steps to handling criticism, so you profit from it:

10 easy ways how to make the nurses respect and like you.

When you start off as a doctor you depend on the nurses. Oh man, some of them saved my butt several times, I can tell you. There were times when they suggested adequate therapies when I had no clue what to do next. It depends almost entirely on you, whether they help you out or make your life a living hell.

Here is what I learned during my first years in residency. More.

10 ways to show respect to the patient

If you want your patient to follow your medical advice, you need her to feel respected by you. There are easy-to implement things we can do reach that goal.

Photo courtesy of IStockphoto.com

Photo courtesy of IStockphoto.com

 

  1. Start with a smile.
    Create a positive atmosphere. That doesn’t always work but surely has never harmed anyone.
  2. Introduce yourself.Mumbling your name at the beginning won’t do it. Even if you speak loud and clearly the patient probably won’t remember it. That is why you also have to wear a name tag, so the patient doesn’t have to ask you again.
  3. Listen, when the patient talks.That sounds easy, but trust me, it’s not. There are many things wandering through my mind: what I have to do, who has to be called. The patient notices that. You should look in his eyes, take notes and really listen.
  4. Do not sit in the patient’s bed.We have a long shift, we are up on our legs all day. So to relax, we can sit down in the patient’s bed while listening, right? No!!! First of all: It’s unhygienic, but that’s not the point. For a certain time the patient has lost his home and his privacy.
    Here in the hospital every ten minutes somebody enters without knocking to measure something. All he has left of personal property IS THIS BED!
    Respect this and don’t just sit down there. Take a chair. BTW: It doesn’t make it any better, if you ask prior to that, because many patients can’t say no to a doctor.
  5. Kick out visitors (politely) before you start examining a patient. There shouldn’t be anybody else is in the room besides: medical personell and bed neighbors. Don’t ask the patient if they can stay, because that would make him the bad guy. Some visitors can’t understand why they are kicked out. In that case you should be the bad guy, not the patient.
  6. Get the patient’s permission to lift up the blanket, shirt, night gown etc. before the examination. Whenever I do that most patients are surprised to be asked, because they are used to doctors just doing that without asking.
  7. Use draping techniques. While you examine the patient only uncover body parts that are examined right now. Most hospitals provide night gowns, which can be untied or unbottoned easily.
  8. Explain the long wait: If the patient had to wait for a long time provide an explanation for that. Tell her that now your whole focus and concentration is on them.
  9. Explain the next steps: Before leaving the patients room you should explain what you found out and what is going to happen next. Ask whether she has any questions.
  10. Leave the room as you found it. Remove all garbage, bring the bed back to the position you found it in, and make sure the patient can reach her personal belongings.

Question: What gives you the feeling to not be respected by a doctor? Leave a comment below!

Make more time to read: my five-step-strategy

When I started my residency in 2008 I only read two books in three years. ALTOGETHER!
But as I wrote in my last blogpost: It is critical for our personal development and our career to read non-medical books. But how can I make time for that?
Photo courtesy of IStockphoto.com

Photo courtesy of IStockphoto.com

Three reasons why reading non-medical books will boost your career.

“The man who doesn’t read has no advantage over the man who can’t.” Epictetus. 

Reading is the most effective way to stay well-informed in your field.  But is it okay to limit our literature to medical-only? When I started off my career all I read was medical literature and noticed quickly, that I missed important points. I now read at least one non-medical book a month. Here is why:

Photo courtesy of IStockphoto.com

Photo courtesy of IStockphoto.com

5 Typical Interruptions of Your Workflow – and How To Handle Them!

Interruptions of your workflow are common in your work as a doctor. Most of them are legitimate, after all we get paid for solving medical problems.

Photo courtesy of IStockphoto.com

Photo courtesy of IStockphoto.com

But if we manage to channel these interruptions in time slots that work for us, your concentration and your work will improve tremendously.