While there are meetings to have and decisions to finalize, I know one thing: this project will be forever changed.

Perhaps I could submit well-scrubbed accounts of patient encounters for approval. Perhaps I could limit my reflections to my home life and only refer to my hours in the hospital through vague abstraction without detail or flourish. But, then this project would no longer be “On the Education of a Physician”.

It would be something else.

So, instead of changing my writing to suit this new future, I will change my publishing.

Things on my end will be largely the same. I will sit down every week to reflect upon my experiences. I will write something every Sunday.

The only difference will be what you, my readers, will see. I will publish only posts that regard my personal life: baby, Mackenzi, and life outside the hospital. For any reflections which detail patient encounters or other going-ons in the hospital, I will keep these posts private for my personal collection.

This allows me to maintain this practice, which is now hard-wired into my weekly rhythm. This allows me to build something which I can use to remember the struggles of the past. And this also respects patient privacy and the relationships with my colleagues.

Maybe one day, in a far future, I will return to these private posts. Perhaps I could edit them, scrub them down, change bits and pieces, so that I can publish a medical memoir.

Who knows.

For now, I will continue to write. If you do not hear from me every week, you will know why.

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On the Education of a Physician

• On patient privacy and oversight
• On the first year (or baby chronicles: Part Ten)
• On doctoring as a neurologist

Four Prompts On Death Podcast

• With Caitlin Gray – 20191205
• With Becky Orton – 20181206
• With Michael Vasconez – 20191107