Robert Raschke

Professionalism: capactity, empathy, humility and overall attitude

Recall we have previously defined professionalism and agreed on our primary goal as physicians, and reviewed competing goals that sometimes threaten to distract us. Recall that the Oath of Maimonides brought to mind a few attributes of the good physician that we discuss next. This list is not complete, but a good start. (If you think of others, please comment – I am trying to learn this topic myself in more depth, and would appreciate your thoughts).

Professionalism: secondary goals

In part two, we reviewed the Oath of Maimonides. We considered our profession as a sacred vocation. We defined professionalism: A good doctor can be trusted to always place his/her individual patient’s best interest first, with ability, good judgment, and a caring attitude. We determined that we should be willing to make sacrifices in our commitment to our primary goal (as critical care physicians) – getting our patients and their families through their illness with as little disability and suffering as possible.

December 2013 critical care case of the month: I don't have a drinking problem

History of Present Illness A 69-year-old male retired diabetic police officer was admitted to the ICU with intractable vomiting, severe abdominal pain and acute blindness. About a week prior, he suffered urinary frequency and was prescribed ciprofloxacin at urgent care with a presumptive diagnosis of urinary tract infection. Over the course of the week his urinary frequency resolved and he became anuric, he developed progressively worsening nausea and eventually vomiting to the point that he was unable to keep anything down, and severe bilateral lower abdominal and pelvic pain. His wife and son actually forced him into the ER when he became blind the day of admission. He denied fever, dysuria, cough and headache. In our emergency room he was noted to be in moderate distress with tachycardia, tachypnea, hyperpnoea and completely blind in both eyes unable to discern even simple shadows.