Tag: medical ethics

Tehreem Rehman (4 Posts)

Contributing Writer

Yale School of Medicine

Tehreem Rehman is an MD/MPH candidate at Yale/Johns Hopkins. She is invested in addressing the impact of adversity and trauma on psychopathology, clinical and community interventions for violence, and the relationship between healthcare provider biases and health inequity. Tehreem blogs at www.tehreemrehman.wordpress.com and can be reached on Twitter @tehreem_rehman.




Laws that Shackle Doctors: How Can We Prevent Another Planned Parenthood Shooting?

Published by Tehreem Rehman

On November 27, 2015, a horrific shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs left three people dead. This tragedy is a stark reminder of the grave consequences that may accompany inflammatory political rhetoric and poor legislation. After his arrest, Gunman Robert Dear declared “no more baby parts” to investigators. Dear’s terrifying actions have been linked to the national ongoing attack on reproductive rights as well as inadequate gun control laws. As a medical student, I fear that we will have many more Robert Dear’s in this country unless we make sure that political interests do not continue to impede on patient-provider relationships.

Safeguarding Your Professional Freedom in a Treacherous Environment, by Michel Accad, MD

Published by Eric Donahue

I am honored by this opportunity to offer you some advice on how to prepare for your professional career in what has become a treacherous health care system. I will not elaborate on why I think the health care system is “treacherous.” I will assume — and even hope — that you have at least some inkling that things are not rosy in the world of medicine.

Our Responsibility Starts on Day One: A Response to Anesthesiologist Dr. Tiffany M. Ingham, MD

Published by Eric Donahue

As physicians-in-training, it is tempting to accept that we have no place to stand up to our colleagues or superiors. That we should just hold our tongues, keep our mouths shut, dodging confrontation like the plague. This is false. From the day you received that acceptance letter in the mail, you committed your life to protecting others. What was it uncle Ben said to Peter Parker? “With great power comes great responsibility.” At times, this might mean getting uncomfortable to do the right thing.

Medical Tourism and the Definition of Helping

Published by Lexy Adams

“Puedo tomar su presión? Puedo tomar su pulso?” I butchered in Spanish, over and over again. Sometimes I received a smile and laugh in return, sometimes a look of confusion, sometimes a placid unfolding of the patient’s arm. I pumped the cuff up repeatedly and listened intently over the screams of playing children and the chatting of a long line of patients.

Palliative Care: What Makes a Life Worth Living?

Published by Alison Trainor

The traditional structure of medical education begins with teaching normal anatomy and physiology followed by the various pathologies and treatments. Once students reach the clinical years, we are taught to think in the form of a SOAP note. First, perform a history and physical; then, order the necessary diagnostic tests to obtain your subjective and objective information. Next, form your assessment and plan — what is the problem, and how do you fix it?

Bedside Ethics: The Story of Jane and John

Published by Sean Sanker

The circumstances under which Jane and I met were less than ideal. That day, I had already seen a family of maggots making a happy living in someone’s foot and been chastised by my attending for failing to recognize the imprecision of my visual acuity in assessing a patient’s ascites — how else could I do so without a measuring tape in my pocket and daily charts of his abdominal circumference?

Cynical Yet? A Med Student One Year Later

Published by Malone V Hill III

I used to work as an anesthesia tech at a hospital in Austin, TX. I was surprised the first time a doctor asked me, his incredulous tone dripping with disbelief, “Why would you want to want to go to medical school?” It wasn’t the last time that happened, it wasn’t exactly making me excited to go to school, and it wasn’t a flattering reflection of the doctors that said it, but physician cynicism about the future of health care wasn’t something new to me, either. People fear change, but I think people’s perceptions about impending change are shaped just as much by their perceptions of themselves, especially the interacting dynamics between themselves and their evolving environment.

A Trip to (and at) the Dentist’s: Funny Reality Clashes and their Not-So-Funny Implications for Patient Care

Published by Trevor Mooney

This is one of the more disturbing sequences in a show that is invariably unafraid to tackle uncomfortable topics head-on, such as terrorism and sexual misconduct. The fact that this also happens to be my favorite sequence in television might warrant a discussion with my therapist. But that’s neither here nor there. Notwithstanding the resounding innuendo of the unpeeled banana, Louis CK left nothing for the viewers’ imagination as he dreams of a scenario in which Al Qaeda finally understands the merits of liberal society.

A Call to Physicians for Environmental Awareness

Published by Zoe Feld

We have made it to an era when even fast food restaurants stock biodegradable straws. Corn-derived utensils have been released from the confines of the Whole Foods salad bar and have made their way into a wider range of restaurants and delis. There are pockets in this nation where composting is a city-maintained public service, where green bins enlist each and every home in the neighborhood to move one step closer to a greener lifestyle and to leave a lighter footprint on this earth. But the medical community — perhaps the one institution that has the most potential for enacting change — is lagging in the area of environmental consciousness.

Is it Better to Trust or to Hope?

Published by Robert Ethel

Since the start of my third year as a medical student, I have been quite interested in observing how people interact with me now that I am wearing a white coat. To be more specific, I find it amazing that people do not realize that my white coat is so much shorter than everyone else’s. To me, the length of my coat should act as a warning to those around me; I do not know where things are, and I do not know what’s going on most of the time.

Robert Ethel Robert Ethel (1 Posts)

Contributing Writer Emeritus

University of Oklahoma College of Medicine

I am a medical student in the Class of 2016 at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. I spent seven years up and down California developing medical technologies but decided I wanted to see them work first-hand, and now I'm trying to add some length to this white coat.