Edwin Leap: “I believe physicians are unhappy because they believed the great lie.
What was it? What was the lie and when did doctors learn it? The lie was this: ‘if you become a doctor, your profession of medicine will be all you need for happiness and fulfillment.’ In short, physicians learned to validate themselves by way of a profession.
The problem is, that will always fail. Medicine is a wonderful profession; and also a job. No job should have, or can have, the power to be everything to any of us.”
Related posts:
- If physician salaries were lowered, would people still want to become doctors?
- The "helpless" physician and the real world
- Doctors as deities
- How to convince doctors to accept health reform
- How doctors can stay on time when seeing patients
- Should health care be bailed out?
- Is medical technology making doctors less relevant?
KevinMD.com on Facebook
{ 6 comments }
You didn’t warn us that a few paragraphs down it was going to turn into a pile of blathering Christian polemic.
There are plenty of happy atheists. I’m one of them. And I’m sure more than a few of them are physicians.
Yes, too bad about the polemic. But recall that this is the same Dr. leap who put forth this article of faith: that specialists should come to the ER promptly and without complain and without compensation to take care of his patients- because WE should have faith that somehow, miraculously the money would follow.
-Dr. Kranky
Bear in mind that not all of us are unhappy =)
The paradigm shift came the day the first “Dear Provider” letter came in my mailbox. On that day, medicine as a profession ceased to be.
My advice to unfulfilled, unhappy physicians these days is to quote President Harry S. Truman:
“If you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog.”
Don’t expect any love from your work. If the lawyers don’t rob you of everything, there are certainly enough corrupt Washington politicians getting ready to steal everything else from your practice.
Ed Sodaro MD
There are plenty of doctors who are not Christian or atheist. Some of them manage to be happy even without the help of Jesus.
Work is part of life, not all of life. The same could be said of religion as well.
Comments on this entry are closed.