Physician Work

Valerie Brooke, MD

Nov 43 min read

Burnout once again...

Four weeks ago, as I sat in the Anchorage airport waiting to board the first of three planes that would hurtle me through the sky towards...

116 views6 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

Jul 63 min read

The 4 F's - Flight, Fight, Freeze, Fawn

When I first heard someone mention the “4 F’s,” I immediately thought of the swear word...

117 views1 comment

Valerie Brooke, MD

Mar 278 min read

Scam 101

The phone call couldn’t have come at a worse time. It was the day before we left for our move to Alaska and the movers were shuffling...

350 views2 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

Mar 123 min read

Too Many Stairs

I’m wondering if the only physicians that think about how many stairs are in a patient's home are rehabilitation physicians. While other...

79 views1 comment

Valerie Brooke, MD

Feb 283 min read

Did I fail?

I’ve been going through my home, room by room, organizing for my upcoming move to Anchorage, Alaska for a new inpatient rehabilitation...

282 views8 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

Feb 205 min read

Last Call

By last call I don’t mean the last call for alcohol before a bar closes; those nights are long behind me fortunately, way back to my...

100 views1 comment

Valerie Brooke, MD

Feb 124 min read

The Human Impact of Hospital Closures

We all gathered around the nursing station in preparation for the last celebration of a patient discharging from the inpatient...

619 views0 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

Feb 15 min read

Things I Cannot Control

The universe or God or fate or just random unluckiness is teaching me about acceptance and control this week. I was sitting at a gate in...

207 views3 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

Jan 256 min read

Anyone medical on board?

I was fully immersed in a fantastic memoir, Angela’s Ashes, sitting in an aisle seat on my flight back from Wisconsin to Reno last...

190 views7 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

Jan 34 min read

Locum What?

When I tell people I’m working as a locum tenens, most look at me with confusion, like I am speaking a foreign language. Which I am, as...

117 views2 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

Sep 18, 20233 min read

Curiosity and the Practice of Medicine

“Curiosity is the genesis of empathy,” were the astute words in my weekly email from writer Jeannine Ouellette. I'm taking a course from...

50 views1 comment

Valerie Brooke, MD

Aug 7, 20234 min read

Listening to a Patient’s Story

I am part of a writer’s group and together we are doing a 12-week course on how to write a lyrical essay. The first week’s assignment is...

78 views1 comment

Valerie Brooke, MD

May 4, 20233 min read

Responding to Suffering

Last year I started attending monthly lectures put on by the Nevada Physician Wellness Coalition (NPWC), an organization in line with my...

98 views0 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

Jan 21, 20235 min read

Getting COVID

DETECTED. SARS-CoV-2. There were the words on the lab results page I had seen so many times at the hospital where I worked. I never...

122 views0 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

Dec 6, 20226 min read

Things that Get in the Way

I recently picked up a dusty book from the overflowing self-help shelf on my bookcase: The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown. I’d had...

88 views1 comment

Valerie Brooke, MD

Oct 20, 20224 min read

Words Matter

Quite frequently I will come across the word “non-compliant” in the medical record of a patient, one that I am going to admit to the...

101 views0 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

Aug 15, 20225 min read

Poor Insight

One of my favorite words in stroke recovery is anosognosia (a-no-sag-no-zhea). This is the bizarre symptom a patient often has after an...

55 views0 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

May 9, 20225 min read

Love and Money

It took me many drives to work to realize what bothered me about this billboard. At first, I thought it was because I could not for the...

78 views0 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

Mar 1, 20223 min read

I Wish I'd Known

Yesterday I was invited to give a talk to a group of about fifty freshmen undergraduates at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). These...

104 views0 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

Feb 20, 20224 min read

Death and Dying

I was not aware during my medical training how fearful patients and medical professionals are about the one thing that we all will...

83 views0 comments