Monday, January 4, 2010
Welcome listeners from the Walt Bodine Show!
If you are visiting Pallimed for the first time after hearing about us on the Walt Bodine Show (NPR radio station KCUR out of Kansas City, Missouri), I would encourage you to look around at a few of our sections to get a better feel of what we write about here.
About Pallimed
Our Arts & Humanities blog
Lists of other hospice and palliative medicine related blogs
For the caller who called in after me asking about finding time to do the blog and if we are giving our skills/knowledge away or if we are compensated, I can answer those here since I won't be able to call back in since the show is now over.
Finding time to do the blog: For me (Can't speak for Drew, Lyle, Amber or Amy), I blog in my off time from work. I don't blog during the clinical hours of the day. Like for example today I am off work, which is why I was able to call in and post to the blog right now. You will notice that most if not all of our blog posts are published between 7:30pm and midnight because that is when we are writing. Each major blog post takes 2-3 hours to write, and each minor post may take 30-60 minutes. This doesn't count the reading, researching and other time thinking about how to write up a post.
Giving away our skills/knowledge: Part of the purpose of this blog is to openly discuss our skills and knowledge to hopefully make them better as we get feedback from others. In addition we want to share the interesting things we find about the hospice and palliative medicine worlds. I would like to think we are reducing some of the information asymmetry between medical professionals and our patients and families as well and hopefully making more informed so they can approach these difficult issues with confidence.
Compensation: Financial compensation: none. We are committed to a no-advertising policy and have been since our establishment in 2005. I am not reimbursed by employer for these activities either in time or money and I do not believe any other Pallimed bloggers are either. We won an award last year and we turned around and gave most of it back to our readers in the form of a party at the AAHPM meeting. There are minimal expenses for this blog to be run daily. Mostly we just spend blood, sweat and tears. Our true compensation comes in the exchanges from the community that has developed around Pallimed and other related blogs. Writing for a blog has offered great opportunities for collaboration which has been the greatest reward.
If you have any questions, please feel free to comment or email ctsinclair@gmail.com