In Candid Reflections on Bad Behavior, I reflected on the recently published ACPE Doctor-Nurse Behavior Study, in which 2,124 physicians and 696 nurses participated.  Nearly 85% of respondents experienced degrading comments, 73% yelling, 49% cursing, and 38% refusing to work together.

Those of you who have been with me know that I am on a continuous healing journey from being labeled “the problem” to helping find solutions.  Please let me recount a Read more »

This Community Impact Interview of Dr. Kenneth Cohn from WFME Broadcasting aired June 6, 2009. The following four segments contain the complete interview.

Topics include:

why physicians struggle to make it these days how Dr. Cohn’s being a cancer survivor changes the way he relates to patients

Topics include:

 what is wrong with US healthcare how we are all in this together  why the lines between doctors and administrators are blurring

Topics include:

 the challenge of universal healthcare Massachusetts healthcare issues  insurers in a difficult situation – there are Read more »

I  enjoyed reading “Physician Compact: A Tool for Enhancing Physician Satisfaction and Improving Communication” so much that I spoke with Dr. Sanjeev Shukla, the principal author and Regional Medical Director of the Wheaton Franciscan Medical Group in Milwaukee, WI to obtain more information.  The article was published in the Physician Executive Journal of Medical Management. 2009; 35(1):46-49.  Dr. Shukla wrote:

We needed to improve physicians’ collaboration in achieving strategic goals of the medical group. We felt that the compact can be used Read more »

I felt like I was at sea and hit by a 33-degree wave, as I listened to a group of women classmates group say, “Women are socialized to value relationships,” during the first day in Organizational Behavior in my MBA program.

It was as though all my past sins came back to haunt me.  I never heard any of their other points as I relived episodes where nurses asked, “Dr. Cohn, can we talk about what happened in the Operating Room yesterday?”  I thought that I Read more »

I am returning from Italy on a personal and professional high, which I owe to my wife and daughter, who convinced me to take my first 10-day vacation in over a decade.  We began in Florence, where I was invited to speak on “Working as a Team and Communicating with Patients in Oncology,” at the behest of the Instituto Toscano Tumori (more on that experience in a moment).  We then took a 45-minute train ride to Arezzo, where my daughter is Read more »

 I want to summarize the findings of “Road Map for Maintaining Career Satisfaction and Balance in Surgical Oncology,” (Kuerer HM et.al. 2008. Journal of the American College of Surgeons. 207(3):435-442).  The insights extend well beyond surgery.

In their survey of 549 surgical oncologists, 24% reported emotional exhaustion, 15% feelings of depersonalization (decreased empathy), and 10% low personal achievement.  These three domains of the Maslach burnout inventory are the antithesis of job engagement, energy, involvement, and a sense of efficacy, according to the authors.   Read more »

Maggie Mahar’s recent post, Surgeons and Other Physicians: A Cultural Divide, has prompted me to do something that I have never done before, defend my profession in writing.

The stories about abuse of medical students and nurses make it seem like the profession attracts only one type of personality, the tyrant.

I wrote in the comment field:

As a general surgeon, who trained at the Harvard Surgical Service affiliated with the New England Deaconess Hospital, I did not face the Read more »

Happy Independence Day and sincere gratitude to all who are serving in the armed forces to keep us independent, as well as to their loved ones.  My son, who is studying to become a naval aviator, is on a summer cruise off Cyprus, and it gives our family a different perspective on the 4th of July beyond fireworks and barbecues.

In 10 Powerful Ideas for Improving Patient Care, (ReinertsenJ, Schellekens W.  2005, 35-42), the authors Read more »

“We’re not stupid- we just need to be trained,” a general surgery section chief confided to me a few years ago.  He had been promoted to section chief based on his clinical competence and then realized that he needed to communicate, negotiate, and resolve conflicts in ways that he had never learned in medical school or residency.

I began using the term “co-mentoring” to describe this process because I believe that each person brings valuable knowledge, experience, and wisdom to the Read more »

Perhaps traveling to our nation’s capital is hazardous to one’s health.  Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking before approximately 50 physicians in an executive MBA program in Washington.  I was impressed with their energy and eagerness to learn new approaches.  They gave me hope and made me proud to be a physician.  Three days later, I awakened with a sore throat that progressed to chills, aches, and congestion.  I looked at it as Nature’s way of telling me Read more »