Blog Archives

Doctors not allowed to ask patients, “How are you?” →

Medical Insanity

Another indication that health care is sick—doctors are being told to stop asking patients open-ended questions like:

“How are you feeling?”

“What worries you?”

“What’s on your mind?”

Today a physician just e-mailed me:

“I am really,

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Tags: ideal medical care, pamela wible, patient abuse, Physician abuse, physician depression, physician suicide

Top 10 ways to know it’s time to quit your job →

QUIT

Attention all doctors: The first three are mine. The rest are from miserable colleagues. All true. And common. If you’re a doctor and you recognize anything on this list, please quit your job.

10. You feel nauseated when you see your clinic logo; you alter your commute to avoid streets with your clinic’s billboard.

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Wow! Man discovers simple way to prevent suicide →

While I struggle to prevent physician suicide. I discover a man who didn’t seem to struggle at all. With no training in suicide prevention, no training in mental heath, and no medical background, one man saved hundreds of souls from suicide.

Meet Don Ritchie.

He lived beside a popular suicide spot.

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Tags: medical student depression, medical student suicide, pamela wible, physician depression, physician suicide

How one TED talk is changing the world of medicine →

I’ve never been a small-talk doc. My therapist calls me “the Dr. Kevorkian of medical taboos.” I’m most comfortable discussing the uncomfortable—topics that scare most physicians. In my TED talk, I bust through three taboos: human sexuality, physician-patient intimacy, and doctor suicides.

Taboo #1: Sexuality. Americans are oversexualized and sexually repressed.

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House Call on a Hundred-Foot Cliff →

Johnny’s disabled. He can’t get to my office anymore. So I drive 100 miles up the Oregon coast to check in on him. I get lost, but finally discover his little white house on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

_GVE1074 _GVE1080 _GVE1082