#40 How I Published in the Post
At the end of June, I took another vacation that I will be writing about soon. While I was gone, however, a perspective piece that I wrote appeared in the Health section of the Washington Post. I live in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. and our family has been subscribers and readers for years. As the chronicle of the Capitol city, it performs an important watchdog role in government and local culture. How did I get my article published?
Here is the link:
Some doctors don’t like some patients - The Washington Post
I had tried to write some emails to the Health section editors which were never answered. Then I stumbled onto a little connection. One of my tennis friends went to school with a person who was an editor of another section of the Post. She offered to make an online introduction for me. This person offered a lot of encouragement by suggesting the format, reading a first draft, and introducing me (online) with one of the Health Section editors.
The Health Section editor was receptive and had certain requirements she expected to have the article include authoritative references and quotes. The article ends with suggestions for the professionals and the patients to follow to reduce those “difficult” interactions. the suggestions for the physicians and nurses encourage questions to ask that alter our perceptions towards a more positive view of the patients who challenge us. Since we can only make changes in ourselves, changing how we think about difficult people is the best strategy.
The editor told me that the article would appear sometime in mid-July depending on the pace of our edits. Of course, I wanted to get them done quickly because I was planning to travel out of the country again. The article went online on June 30th and appeared in the print version of the Health section on July 5, 2022. It was given a rather provocative title: Some Doctors don’t Like Some Patients. Nearly 500 comments were posted within the first two days that the Post leaves the comment section open. Not unexpectedly, people use the comments to air some of their grievances with the health care system and their physicians.
The perspective piece addresses a problem that many health care professionals have on a daily basis. Interactions with difficult patients contribute to cynicism and job dissatisfaction. There are many other factors such as understaffing, overscheduling, and inefficient charting systems. Corporate takeovers of hospitals and practices have made revenue production more important than patient care. The insurance companies deny, deny and deny. My article and the message of my book address just one aspect of the healthcare jumble.
Print version from the Washington Post 7/5/22
But oh, what a difference we can make for individual physicians, paramedics and nurses. What if they could accept their patients just the way they are and not judge them quite so harshly? What challenging day goes without some level of opposition, discomfort, and disappointment. The medical office, the emergency department or the hospital wards are places where humans get sick and other humans try to treat them. The human condition gets messy and painful. Some people die in the ICU while in another unit, parents joyously welcome a healthy newborn. Nothing has gone wrong here. This is the medical workplace in 2022.
