Founder's Blog
Entries in the Competence category
Read the Directions
Wrestling with a bar of hotel soap inside an unusually sturdy plastic wrapper ended in me losing! For three consecutive days, I tore at the wrapper unable to open it. Each time the result was the…
Confident Following Jesus
Massive, unspeakable tragedy entered the doors of the emergency department daily. Instead of fear, uncertainty or trepidation I could, as the emergency physician on duty, confidently approach…
Test Day
During my 23 years of education, taking tests was a regular activity. These tests evaluated my aptitude and knowledge. As I moved into medical school and emergency medicine, testing increasingly…
Taxi Cab Wisdom
I hopped in a taxi last week to discover that my cab driver was from Kosovo. Knowing the turmoil of that region I said, “Isn’t it sad that there is so much difficulty and suffering in the…
Not Learning our Lessons
The importance of learning lessons well was impressed upon me in my freshman year of medical school. A junior medical student told me, "Everything you need to learn you will hear ten times. Just…
Wrong Thinking
I read with interest the New York Times best selling book, How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman. Dr. Groopman suggests “most errors (by physicians) are mistakes of thinking. And part of what…
Don’t lose heart
Discouragement comes so quickly to me. Looking at the sad state of world affairs makes me wonder, “Is there any hope?” Staring daily at the pile on my desk representing important tasks…
Oh to Be Like Him...
Recent golf lessons have not caused anyone to mistake me for Tiger Woods. Watching golf tournaments on television and reading golf magazines have not helped much either. But that has not dissuaded me…
Growing Up is Hard to Do
Six inches shorter than my twin sister! As typical boy-girl development would have it, my twin sister grew taller first. I was terribly embarrassed. She was developing into a young woman and I was…
Trained to hear
Do you remember the story of the Cherokee Indian walking down 5th Avenue in Manhattan with a New York businessman? Suddenly the Indian stopped and said, "Did you hear that?" The business…