Skip to main content

#1. I get to look at and hold babies as part of my job.

I love family medicine.  There's nothing quite like going into one of my clinic rooms to a mother, father, or parent (or all) with their new baby.  I get to look at them, looking at me and the world.  I get to see discovery on their faces.  I see them reaching out their little arms.

 I get to pick them up and check them over and make sure they are well.  When I'm doing it, I get to hold onto the most precious thing in the world:  a baby.  I feel their tone, and feel their stretch.  And I simply get to be someone who has the privilege of helping this new little member of our species grow and develop and be healthy.

 I love family medicine.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 29, 2018 at 10:21 AM

    #1. I get watch the children I deliver grow up and become interesting people. And then deliver their babies.
    I get to say: I was the first person who ever met you.
    I've known many of my patients longer than their spouses.

    ReplyDelete
  2. David KeeganDecember 29, 2018 at 10:33 AM

    So, so great. :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#13 - Two words: Jane Philpott

Wow.  I just read the Honourable Jane Philpott's interview in Maclean's found here .  Not only has she cut through all the noise and distraction about the SNC-Lavalin and made the essential issues clear, not only has she has put the primacy of truth and the independence of our Canadian justice system back in its proper place, and not only has she unflinchingly done all of this to be true to Canadians, but, wow, she's also a family doc. None of the things I will ever do will touch as many lives as her work as a highly effective Federal Cabinet Minister, and particularly now with her clarion call for the defense of our Canadian democracy.  But the way she's done it is what family medicine is all about. Looking beyond the distractions, listening closely, analyzing the situation, figuring out the essential pieces of a story, linking it to the big picture, and, hearing the needs of the patient, proposing a path forward that meets their needs and delivers on helping the...
Post a Comment
Read more

#11 - I get to help with the biggest issues facing our world today.

As a family doc, I get to be side-by-side with families and individuals in their life and health journeys.  Part of these journeys are the big things facing our world: the growth of anti-vaccination ideology, the future higher-tech and low-employment world, continuing sexual and other discrimination and harassment, and more.  The list is long. As their family doc, my job is to help people with whatever they need help with.  Sometimes, it's helping them identify options, and sometimes it's helping illuminate how these big issues affect them. The anti-vaccine movement is a good example.  I get it:  I'm a dad with three kids and I don't want anything bad to happen to them, just like every single parent or guardian I have ever met.  So when they decide to do their homework and find some plainly worded evidence of the value of vaccines challenged by massive amounts of social media and other digital tirades against their value, of course many will pause. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

#12 - I am always learning

I love that family medicine is so broad, so diverse, and so deep, that I am always having to learn.  Not just to "keep up" but to raise the level of my care, to be truly "there" for my patients, with the knowledge and skills needed to help them reach their health goals. PubMed is my friend.  About once or twice per half-day clinic, I am checking something out on pubmed - looking for the latest, trying to put several different symptoms together, etc. - basically going to the literature on a regular basis to make sure that I haven't missed anything. What's really cool is when a patient is with me and does this kind of "on it" leaning forwards.  I now recognize it pretty well.  It's when they are keen and eager to be next to me as we jump into PubMed and figure things out, and that's just what we do.  I help them over with their chair (if needed) and we check out things together.  It's cool because here we are as a health dyad, learnin...
Post a Comment
Read more