Tag: Dr. Dike Drummond

Is the practice of medicine making doctors sick?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 24 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters   

Sue Robins of Vancouver has an irresistible writing talent that’s somehow both quietly approachable and yet sneakily explosive. We see this talent in her books A Bird’s Eye View: Stories of  a Life Lived in Health Care or Ducks in a Row: Healthcare Reimagined.  We also see it in her compelling blog essay, “We Are All In This Together” as she explores the “basic lack of humanity that ails health care – a lack of humanity for patients, families, staff, clinicians, physicians and administrators.”  As Sue says:

“We are all in this mess together.    .     . Continue reading “Is the practice of medicine making doctors sick?” →

The medical hierarchy shift

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 15 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters   

treeJWVein-3832108_1280Many years before I finally left a decades-long professional relationship with my family physician, I had observed distressing changes in her practice. I didn’t say anything about these changes at first. They began with her new all-cash medical aesthetics clinic (think: nonstop before-and-after Botox videos looping in every exam room).

She did not post an actual sign in her waiting room telling her longtime patients what we all knew: “I Am No Longer Interested in the Practice of Family Medicine”  – but everything about her behaviours clearly announced that she’d already moved on without telling us.     . Continue reading “The medical hierarchy shift” →

When patients are seen as “The Enemy”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 30 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

My daughter loves her career as a probation officer. She is very good at what she does, and finds the work both challenging and rewarding. Yet her client case load includes some of the most unsavoury of individuals, found guilty by the courts of child abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault or worse, many of them  living with added complexities like addictions or mental health issues. She’s been insulted and screamed at by distraught clients. Police are sometimes dispatched to her workplace to intervene in potentially dangerous crises. Few of us could even imagine working in her office every day.

Yet whenever I ask my daughter what kind of day she’s had today, I marvel at her continuing ability to truly care about the work she does, despite the many challenges of working within the criminal justice system, dealing with an often-desperate clientele, and an almost overwhelming legal bureaucracy.

Contrast that perspective with the collective unrest among physicians who seem to hate their jobs.  Continue reading “When patients are seen as “The Enemy”” →