physician work | Dr. Valerie Brooke

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 157 min read

Wind Chill

I finally got on a plane yesterday to return from Wisconsin back to my current home in Reno, NV. I spent the last 3 weeks doing a locum...

117 views2 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

Dec 26, 20235 min read

The Whistling Santa

Yesterday, on Christmas Day, I flew from my home in Reno, NV, to Minneapolis, MN, to start a new traveling physician job at a...

107 views0 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

Nov 27, 20234 min read

The Science of Gratitude

Many years before I studied to become a physician, giving thanks for the blessings in my life was the first part of my morning prayers. ...

85 views3 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

Oct 30, 20233 min read

The Last Frontier

I grew up in the Green Mountain State (Vermont), lived for a short time as an adolescent in the Granite State (New Hampshire), and for my...

89 views2 comments

Valerie Brooke, MD

Oct 18, 20234 min read

Change

As the plane descended from the ash-colored clouds over Burlington, Vermont, I looked over the blunted orange and dark green leafed trees...

81 views5 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

Jul 23, 20234 min read

The Big Leap

“When we get quiet enough, for long enough, we can hear the whispers, of what is right, of what is true, and most importantly, which way...

160 views3 comments

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

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