Don’t let yourself be. Find something new to try, something to change. Count how often it succeeds and how often it doesn’t. Write about it. Ask a patient or a colleague what they think about it. See if you can keep the conversation going.

I learned about a lot of things in medical school, but mortality wasn't one of them.

What is the alternative to understanding the complexity of the world?

This is the reality of intensive care: at any point, we are as apt to harm as we are to heal.

In every industrialized nation, the movement to reform health care has begun with stories about cruelty.

At times, in medicine, you feel you are inside a colossal and impossibly complex machine whose gears will turn for you only according to their own arbitrary rhythm. The notion that human caring, the effort to do better for people, might make a difference can seem hopelessly naive. But it isn't.

Writing lets you step back and think through a problem. Even the angriest rant forces the writer to achieve a degree of thoughtfulness.