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Laura Vater

@doclauravater

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• Oncologist striving to keep healthcare human
• The ups and downs of being a healthcare worker
• Cancer prevention & healthy living

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The path toward becoming a clinician can sometimes feel like venturing down a narrow alley. Please know that many of us want to hold a light for you.

If you’re new here, welcome. I’m Laura Vater (Vah-der) and I’m a writer & gastrointestinal oncologist at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Here are the things I share about:

1 — keeping healthcare human for patients & clinicians
2 — being a mom & wife in medicine
3 — GI cancers & cancer prevention, along with ways to keep our bodies and minds healthy (sleep, exercise, nutrition, avoiding toxic substances)
4 — emotions in medicine (joy, grief, connection, moral injury, burnout, exhaustion, disillusionment, meaning)
5 — ways to improve medical training and education

I’m so glad you’re here. by @doclauravater

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a year ago

It may have been a simple thing: listening a moment longer. Addressing their pain. Pulling up the blanket. Asking about their family. Not ignoring their concern. Coming to the bedside.

Thank you for all the ways you care for others. Know that none of these moments are wasted.

What’s one way someone has cared for you that you’ll never forget? I’ll never forget the nurse who helped wash my mom’s hair in the hospital, the doctor who cared for my grandpa with such concern. by @doclauravater

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a year ago

I had the privilege of speaking on the TEDx stage today about a topic near and dear to my heart: the fact that sleep loss is impairment, including for us as clinicians. As long as we move the needle regarding the tolerance of sleep loss in medicine, this is all worth it.

Full video is available on YouTube.

#sleep #tedx #womeninmedicine by @doclauravater

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9 months ago

When I was studying for boards after training, it was so much more emotionally complex than the exams earlier in my education, and this surprised me.

Those practice questions often brought me back to the patients I grieved and the hard seasons and situations I faced in training.

Has this happened to you? If you’re in this right now, be kind to yourself through it all.

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#boardexams #medlife #physicianlife by @doclauravater

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3 days ago

Value, respect, and compensate nurses. Adequately staff hospital units, clinics, infusion centers, and operating rooms. Give nurses bonuses for retention. Listen to their concerns.

What did I miss?

#thankanursetoday #medlife #healthcareworkers

Text: @nurseashleyor by @doclauravater

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4 days ago

Knowing our patients as people and caring for them as human beings is the root of all good medicine.

As an exhausted heme/onc fellow during the pandemic, one particular patient (*Lucy, not her real name) reinforced this lesson while I was working on the BMT unit. I wrote an essay about this called Hostas (swipe).

Lucy, hoping you are well and enjoying your garden right now. 🤍

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Full article:
Vater, L.B. Hostas. J GEN INTERN MED (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-026-10230-y by @doclauravater

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6 days ago

Then —> Now ☺️ Went to Notre Dame yesterday with Maria and Kevin and thinking about being there 9 years ago. Back then, I was a resident with a toddler and not sure quite how I’d handle it all.

Now I’m 4 years post fellowship and my kiddo is ten (!!).

To anyone out there in residency with a toddler, I hope this can be a reminder that the tantrum phase does end, the long hours get better, and even when you have to miss holidays and work long shifts and nights, it’s going to be okay. Your kiddo loves you and will always love you. What feels like an impossible time will soon feel like a distant speed bump. 🤍

Anyone else have kiddos in training? What would you tell your younger self?

#physicianmom #mamasinmedicine #medschoolmom by @doclauravater

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9 days ago

When I was a resident, I’d often drive home in silence & wonder if I’d made the right decisions for my patients and if I could’ve done anything differently.

All these years later, I still have those thoughts. Did I make the right decisions? Did I say the right words? Was there anything I could’ve done differently?

Caring for patients is a profound privilege. It’s also hard, complex, emotionally challenging, and often physically demanding.

Thanks to everyone doing this work, and for caring. 🤍

Do you ever worry about your patients like this?

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Text credit: Dr. Jennifer Hartwell by @doclauravater

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11 days ago

Today a doctor asked me, “How do you cope with illness anxiety?” This is a hard and vulnerable thing to share, but I think worth sharing and talking about... This is my experience of facing health anxiety as an oncologist this past year.

Would love to hear your stories.

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#physicianlife #oncologist #medlife by @doclauravater

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13 days ago

The hidden curriculum of medicine’s tentacles extend into the residency interview. The good news is that there are many ways for med students to set themselves up for success as interview season approaches, and we’ll talk all about those: aka how to be a green flag. While every interviewer may be looking for something slightly different, there’s an art to avoiding being remembered on the interview trail for the *wrong reasons.* We’ll warn you about them! Join us for this free webinar on October 5 (link in bio). There are no stupid questions, bring them all!

#medstudents #medschool #residencyinterviews by @doclauravater

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19 days ago

One of the most important ways we can help another person: Believe them. Listen to them. Don’t dismiss their concerns. Build trust.

What took you 10, 15, or 25 years of practicing medicine to learn?

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Text: @dochutch by @doclauravater

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a month ago

Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, APPs, and every other healthcare worker absorb so many of the problems and heartbreaks within the system and still try to show up with compassion.

If they are breaking, it is *not* from a lack of resilience.

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Well said @46_hb_mdmph 🤍

#healthcare #medlife #nurses #doctors by @doclauravater

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a month ago