Search Results:

Just today in a text exchange about job hunting, a CMDA friend reminded several of us that God can lead us in a variety of ways. Many times, God calls us, or pulls us, into the roles He has for us. We feel clearly instructed, and we feel certain we are following His leading as we step into a new chapter, be it a job or school or church or a new family decision. As American Christians, we are used to thinking about decision-making this way, I think. We feel that we must not know the right thing to do if we don’t feel pulled to one of the options. We pray for clarity, and we seek advice because we want that sense of calling, of being pulled in the direction God would have us to go.

We have been privileged as American healthcare professionals to practice medicine according to our sincerely held beliefs, at least until the relatively recent past. However, as many of our members know from personal experience, those conscience freedoms are coming under increasing attacks from several quarters. In this post, we want to remind the reader of the conscience protections that exist at the federal level and explore why those protections are currently endangered.

Much is being made of the “moral injury” healthcare professionals suffer, which, rightly so, has been exposed and highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moral injury consists of an accumulation of a number of things, such as straining to care for the overwhelming number of incredibly sick patients, having to make wrenching decisions on prioritizing use of medical resources, etc. The focus on the subject is to address a practical need, like workforce supply in the face of increasing burnout among healthcare professionals, but it also addresses a personal human desire to ensure the personal well-being of another, which is the healthcare professional in this case.

When I was a child—maybe six, maybe seven—I went through a phase of suspecting the entire world existed as a massive play with one star—me. That is, I was the main actor and the rest of humanity played supporting roles. That is, the universe revolved around me. That is, I was all ego.

This week, our kids’ Christian school published The Statement. They sent it out with The Letter. And they asked for The Signature. And once again, our family began the now-familiar dance of shame, grief, anger, prayer, isolation, indignation and so many other emotions that bubble in the toxic stew Christian organizations often throw onto families like us.

The official journal of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), Obstetrics and Gynecology, (often referred to as the Green Journal because of its traditional green cover) recently featured an article entitled “The Ghost of Savita Halappanavar Comes to America.” The article refers to a pregnant woman in Ireland named Savita Halappanavar who died in 2012 from an inappropriately managed second trimester miscarriage.

I have a dear Christian friend of whom I have finally had to say, “This is as good as it gets,” and leave him in the Lord’s hands.

It will come as no surprise that the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) recently released a special issue filled with articles and opinions arguing for the absolute necessity of access to legal abortion. One opinion that caught my attention was entitled “Implications of the Dobbs Decision for Medical Education Inadequate Training and Moral Distress.” CMDA recently publicly released a new position statement on moral distress, so I was naturally intrigued. Were the authors of this opinion piece actually going to make the argument that the lack of access to elective abortion, a procedure that has been considered immoral for thousands of years, will cause moral distress among upcoming students and residents? Exactly.

Let me introduce you to Aidah. She worked in our home (our “inside worker”) during the eight months our family lived in Kenya in 2003/2004. Don and I worked at Tenwek Mission Hospital as family physicians, and our three children attended elementary and middle school at nearby Rift Valley Academy. She helped me buy food and cook it, and she kept our house clean. Aidah was our backbone. She was a rock.

Is life starting to feel normal again for you? By normal, I guess I mean pre-2020. Is life starting to feel the way it did before COVID and political intensity stretched us further as a society than we might have thought possible just two and a half years ago?

In this installment, we consider myths concerning marriage, sexual “repression” and the impact of the sexual revolution for women.

As James 4:17 says, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (NKJV).

I recently had the pleasure of hosting a medical student in my home for a (mediocre) waffle breakfast (my sub-par cooking, not hers). She was a completing a sub-internship locally, and it was a joy to hear how her faith in Christ had inspired her to practice in resource-poor settings. I listened with a grin on my face as she described her heart for the downtrodden and afflicted, the mentors whose compassion inspired her and how she saw the Lord at work daily in her chosen specialty.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2, NIV).

The first time I ever heard of a lobotomy was in the early 1980s. I was a medical student, but I didn’t learn about it in class. Instead, I was in a darkened room with a bunch of other family members, watching a family home movie filmed 30 years earlier. The scene was some kind of a garden party, and in the midst of the lively antics of my parents, their siblings and my great-aunts and great-uncles, there was a late middle-aged woman who just…stood there. Eventually someone took her arm and led her to a chair where she just…sat there. Completely still, no facial expression, no interaction with anyone else.

Coming out of the darkest days of COVID, I entered 2022 feeling bludgeoned by the experience I had just endured, both in medical practice and in society around me. I felt emotionally broke, overwhelmed and lost, to use some of Ms. Morrissette’s words. I was drowning in negative emotions and feeling psychologically depleted. My natural response was to grit my teeth and force myself to keep going. To get through each shift by ignoring my feelings and retreating into my knowledge.

The BBC broke a story July 28 headlined, “NHS to close Tavistock child gender identity clinic.” Following the Cass Interim Review determination that the current model of care “is not a safe or viable long-term option,” Britain’s National Health Service announced that their Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), the world’s largest pediatric gender clinic, is to close by spring 2023. It is to be replaced with centers in London and North West with increased emphasis on mental healthcare and relevant general practitioner services.  Also noted was that the UK’s 20-fold increase in referrals over the last decade (250 then and 5,000 in 2021) had overwhelmed the capacity of the service.

All battles over human sexuality spanning the last 50 years in the Western world can reasonably be parked under the umbrella of the sexual revolution. Its foundational principles are assumed dogma throughout the educational and entertainment establishment, serve as battle cries for politicians and activists and have infiltrated much of the professing Christian community. However, the sexual revolution has been an unmitigated disaster for individuals and society, and it is built upon a foundation of lies.

In the midst of often baffling and perplexing policies and mandates coming out of our nation’s capital, this post outlines good news for current and future members of CMDA. With conscience freedoms increasingly at risk from government infringement, we want to emphasize a recent victory in court. This victory affords you crucial protections of your conscience freedoms as a healthcare professional allowing you to practice from your sincerely held beliefs.

As a young man, I struggled some, wondering what my true calling in life was. At age 18, after months of prayer, I felt the Lord was calling me to life as a physician. Later, in medical school, the multiple options for work within medicine fascinated and, at times, bewildered me. They say the average undergrad student changes their major five or six times. I don’t know what the number is for medical students, but I know I seriously considered multiple options before I finally settled on neurology as a career choice, and later God also led me into working in palliative medicine, healthcare leadership and medical ethics.

While it is never possible to accurately paint a picture of the future, especially the future of the complex culture of healthcare, what is happening in Canada should alarm every healthcare professional in the United States who desires to practice medicine according to a Judeo-Christian ethic.

On August 4, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to the Federal Registry to modify Section 1557, the “Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities Clause” of the Affordable Care Act.