Welcome to my world … or some loose approximation thereof
✍ Scribed by Bradley Flansbaum
- Book ID
- 102339601
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2009
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 50 KB
- Volume
- 4
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1553-5592
- DOI
- 10.1002/jhm.380
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Welcome to My World . . . or Some Loose Approximation Thereof I s hospital medicine a bona fide specialty? Do something long enough, and as Justice Potter Stewart said when defining a certain taboo carnal subject many years ago, ''I know it when I see it.'' Although working groups may struggle to conceive a master set of core competencies for hospitalists, I will tell you this: no texts are needed, and you know that you are on to something when 2 hospitalists practicing 3000 miles apart shoot each other a knowing glance and, without words, ''just understand'' what the other is thinking. After 10 years of practice in several hospitals, I have had enough mind melds to last a lifetime. Who needs science after all? I mean, how many of us can keep a straight face when asked if we have ever heard this line: ''Ah, yes, Dr. Flansbaum, umm, I am Dr. Smith from the surgical ICU, and we have a patient hospital day 34 status post Whipple that is no longer surgically active. . . .'' See, you are smiling already. Do I have to finish the sentence for you?
What follows is a collective experience of things that I call the grind: things so small, so inconsequential, that no one will ever cite them individually as the deal breakers of the day. Collectively, they are the fabric of who we are and that little sore on the inside of our cheek that we just have to touch every few minutes in order to remind ourselves of why dermatologists always look so happy. Any accompanying sage lessons are also free of charge.