Re-Enchanting A Physician’s Practice: Fish bones, Medical Records and More
John Graham, M.D., DMin, President & CEO, Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center
Today many physicians are opting for early retirement . The burden of working in a managed care environment with escalating paper work, long hours, and difficult patients can seem to not be worth it any more. This paper will look at these issues and consider how it might be possible to re-enchant one’s every day practice of medicine, so it can become a joy, instead of a burden.
It is likely most physicians experience one or more tasks during their daily practice that are considered an ordeal, something they wish they could make go away but can’t. For an ENT physician this may be a patient coming in at 2:00 in the morning with a fish bone caught in her throat. Medical record keeping can be an all-encompassing and painstaking chore. It is a task the physician must do in order for doctor, hospital and patient to receive payment from the insurance company.
The purpose of this paper will be to ponder how a physician can re-enchant the mundane tasks of one’s daily practice. We will consider how one’s faith and spiritual practices can influence our attitude concerning the challenging and frustrating aspects of the practice of medicine.
The author will describe how he was able to transform his practice of medicine in several areas that previously were less than pleasurable for him. This will include how, when an ENT physician, he was able to turn E.R. calls to remove fish bones at 2 and 3:00 in the morning into a blessing. And later, as a plastic surgeon, how he was profoundly moved at the end of his medical practice when transferring his charts to another doctor. In that experience he came to see his charts were much more than a folder containing office notes, operative reports, and lab results.
If maintaining medical charts can be “re-enchanted,” what about all aspects of one’s medical practice? This paper will invite the physician to ponder how every aspect of one’s daily practice can be re-enchanted, including the mundane task of medical records, working with difficult staff and patients, and answering emergency calls after hours.
Today many physicians are opting for early retirement . The burden of working in a managed care environment with escalating paper work, long hours, and difficult patients can seem to not be worth it any more. This paper will look at these issues and consider how it might be possible to re-enchant one’s every day practice of medicine, so it can become a joy, instead of a burden.
It is likely most physicians experience one or more tasks during their daily practice that are considered an ordeal, something they wish they could make go away but can’t. For an ENT physician this may be a patient coming in at 2:00 in the morning with a fish bone caught in her throat. Medical record keeping can be an all-encompassing and painstaking chore. It is a task the physician must do in order for doctor, hospital and patient to receive payment from the insurance company.
The purpose of this paper will be to ponder how a physician can re-enchant the mundane tasks of one’s daily practice. We will consider how one’s faith and spiritual practices can influence our attitude concerning the challenging and frustrating aspects of the practice of medicine.
The author will describe how he was able to transform his practice of medicine in several areas that previously were less than pleasurable for him. This will include how, when an ENT physician, he was able to turn E.R. calls to remove fish bones at 2 and 3:00 in the morning into a blessing. And later, as a plastic surgeon, how he was profoundly moved at the end of his medical practice when transferring his charts to another doctor. In that experience he came to see his charts were much more than a folder containing office notes, operative reports, and lab results.
If maintaining medical charts can be “re-enchanted,” what about all aspects of one’s medical practice? This paper will invite the physician to ponder how every aspect of one’s daily practice can be re-enchanted, including the mundane task of medical records, working with difficult staff and patients, and answering emergency calls after hours.