I got this comment on one of my blog posts and decided to turn it into a "Dear Dawn" post: "Thank you for your wonderful weblog and wise words! Sorry if I'm commenting where I shouldn't be, but I wasn't sure where to ask this question. I'm just a med student but I noticed you're an …
Happy Birthday: Advice I would give my 21 year old self
I turned 41 recently, which prompted me to think about how much has changed in 20 years. What would I say to that 21 year old woman, the one working away at her chemical engineering degree, falling in love with her boyfriend, trying new things like rock climbing after growing up a music nerd? Here's …
Happy Birthday: Advice I would give my 21 year old selfRead More
One Way to Gain Self-Knowledge
I have talked extensively on this blog about the importance of self-knowledge as a key to stress management and work-life balance. Knowing what makes you tick - priorities, principles, learning style, communication style, etc. - is tantamount to effectively caring for yourself when things get …
What Anesthesiology Residents Defined As Effective Teaching Applies to Everyone
The journal Anesthesiology recently published an interesting article in their annual January 2014 Education Edition. It's called Resident Assessment of Better-Than and Worse-Than-Average Clinical Teaching, by Bishr et al. The authors reviewed a year's' worth of resident reviews of all faculty …
What Anesthesiology Residents Defined As Effective Teaching Applies to EveryoneRead More
The Kaizen Principle: Are You Living It?
Kaizen, literally translated from Japanese as good change, has been defined in English as "continuous improvement" or "philosophy of improvement". My husband, who runs a patent law practice, uses this symbol as the core principle of his business, encircled by the terms, "inspire, innovate, …
New Year: Different, Yet Same
It's the new year, and I often start it off by doing a little decluttering. In efforts to clean out my study, I came across my medical school yearbook. Each student in my class was given a page in the book that was headed with our (new and strange) "MD" signature and a picture of us in our white …