April 1, 2009
Category:
Oh, readers. Is there anything I can say that will appease you?
Thank you for the inquiries, the orders, and the pleading tones. I swear, I'm alive; medicine is still interesting and worth writing about; and although Scienceblogs.com may eventually lose patience with the intermittent nature of my writing, I haven't yet lost interest in writing intermittently.
Soon, I'll tell you about the things that have happened since November. (November! I'm going to blogger hell.) I'll tell you about running codes by myself; about coming as close as I've ever come to saving someone's life; about the thrill of contemplating a specialty. I might even publish a picture of something delicious.
It might be next week. It might be next year. Who can predict these sorts of things?
I hope you are all well and--in the northern hemisphere, anyway--enjoying the anticipation of spring. More as it comes.
Posted by Signout at 2:20 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 14, 2008
Category: End-of-Life Care • ICU • Medical Education
I've been away from the blog for a while, working on fellowship applications and riding the wave of the ICU. Thank you for your patience, as ever.
As you might remember from my days as an intern, I used to love the ICU. That love is no longer: doing procedures to people whose fate is inevitable isn't as much fun as it used to be, and I feel powerless in the face of a culture that doesn't exactly embrace the avoidance of unnecessary intervention.
This most recent time in the ICU, I worked with an intern who seemed to me less eager than some to take on the burden of her responsibility. About three days into the rotation, she--let's call her Dawanna--remarked to me with some irritation that "all I ever do is put in orders."
"Yes," I replied. "That's kind of your job."
Read on »
Posted by Signout at 4:22 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 2, 2008
Category: Miscellany
It's October 1st (well it was yesterday, anyway), and I'm pretty excited, because this means it's the start of another DonorsChoose challenge. For those of you who weren't around at this time last year, DonorsChoose is an organization that pairs up your ka$hmoney with educational projects in public schools. You get to choose the project your money goes to fund from an enormous range of schools, subjects, and students. It's sort of like what tax dollars are supposed to do, only it actually works.
Last year, I set what I thought was an ambitious fundraising goal for Signout's readership, and you guys absolutely blew it out of the water. This year, there are more of you--and with you all being so fabulously wealthy (and devastatingly attractive), I figure we can aim even higher. Watch the graphic to your left to see how we're doing.
Read on »
Posted by Signout at 8:30 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 24, 2008
Category: Ethics
Courtesy of the excellent bioephemera's Jess Palmer comes this item of news, which concerns photographs of patients taken at the University of New Mexico Hospital and posted to a website. The photographs were reportedly close-ups of injuries being treated--no faces or patient-identifying features were shown. The employees who took and posted the photos have been fired, and several others have been disciplined as a result of these events.
Read on »
Posted by Signout at 7:51 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 12, 2008
Category: Medical Education
From the Department of the Maximally Self-Righteous comes this delightful little piece of scholarship, a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that describes a survey of internal medicine interns on the subject of professionalism. In it, participants were asked to rate their participation in and perception of "unprofessional behaviors" related to residency. The survey* was created based on the input of third-year medical students, residents, and faculty, and was administered in the first three months of the subjects' intern years.
Among behaviors rated as most unprofessional by the participating interns were: discussing patient information in public spaces (yeah, that's a no-brainer); falsification of patient records (illegal, and bad medicine); reporting patient information as normal when uncertain of true results (dumb); not alerting the patient that the individual [made] an error (not always helpful, especially if it didn't result in harm, but certainly ethically reasonable); making fun of patients to colleagues (poor form, indee--wait, what?).
Read on »
Posted by Signout at 10:00 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 11, 2008
Category: Internal Medicine
While I slowly scrape together some original Signout blather on one of my favorite subjects, please to enjoy this terrific post by Dr. Rob about why much of the crap patients go through is not the fault of their providers. When you're done, read PalMD's interesting piece that follows up his first answer to "Would you do it all over again?" (See also the comments section in Orac's pointer.) Then, as a snack, go here for some outstanding fashion photography. After which you may enjoy this week's Change of Shift.
Also, my heart goes out to those memorializing loved ones lost on this day in 2001.
I promise, content is coming. Ayyy, it is so hard to write in complete sentences when I am working the night shift!
Posted by Signout at 10:59 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 9, 2008
Category: Media
There was a very nice piece in the New York Times yesterday about an oncology nurse's first code. Go read!
Posted by Signout at 10:45 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 2, 2008
Category: Grand Rounds
Anyone wishing to consume some tasty medical writing around the theme of "education" should have a peek at this week's Grand Rounds at A Chronic Dose. Laurie has kindly included not one, but two of Signout's snowflakes in her recent flurry of activity.
Speaking of which, this daily-plus blogging thing is exhausting. I need a vacation.
Posted by Signout at 9:50 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 1, 2008
Category: Adolescent Medicine
You heard it here first: John McCain got Sarah Palin's daughter pregnant.
You think I'm kidding?
Read on »
Posted by Signout at 5:16 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Signout is hospital slang for the transfer of information between patient care teams. It is also the name of this blog, which represents one of the less dysfunctional ways in which Dr. Signout copes with her participation in a U.S. medical residency program.
