By Jay Ellis, MD
Why an article about the upside of being a doctor? If you spend 15 minutes in the doctor’s lounge listening to gripe sessions, the answer is obvious. More troubling, it is not uncommon to hear physicians say that they would not recommend medicine as a career to prospective medical students, nor would they encourage their own children to enter the profession. It seems to be a grim time.
Is it still good to be a doctor? Many of the things that first brought us to the profession still shine brightly. According to pollsters, doctors are still one of the most trusted and respected professions. While income is down, few physicians face financial ruin and there are alternative practice choices if things get really rough. Having a medical license gives a level of financial security few professions can match.
Such reassurances sound like cheerleading, superficial and inadequate facts to balance the sacrifices required of a career in medicine. What then is the deeper reason to be a physician? I can only answer that question with my personal experience.
After 25 years of practicing anesthesiology and pain management, I still smile each time a patient awakens after surgery and asks incredulously, “Is it over?” It never gets old hearing a pain patient say, “It’s like a miracle!” if we find relief for their pain problem, even though I realize their recovery was the application of medical principles taught to me by others.
I am still humbled when patients confide their deepest fears about their health in the hope that I will be able to help them. I still enjoy the common every day miracles of childbirth and the victories, however temporary, as we struggle with death and disease.
I know that medicine is not without its tragedy. The images of dead and injured children remain many years after I stopped taking trauma call. No less troubling are the sufferings of the adult patients who are beyond my powers to alleviate. I still have days where I question my care and let my thoughts replay scenarios over and over in my mind in an attempt to make sense of a bad outcome.
As I get older (experienced?), I now recognize these sad events for what they are, a reminder that life is too short, too fragile and too precious to be lived casually. The dead and ill children prompt us to love our own families with renewed passion. The days we seem to fail give us the motivation to continue to study, learn and grow in our profession for as many years as we are granted.
I do not believe that an individual can practice medicine and not be changed by the experience. The change may be personal growth, or at the other extreme, personal burnout. It is this opportunity to change and be changed that still excites me after 25 years. I know that another 20 years of being a physician will make me a different man than I am today. It is my hope that it will make all of us better men and women.
It is the prospect of being a witness to the human struggle and the opportunity to participate in the contest that makes this a good time to be a doctor.
Jay Ellis, MD is an anesthesiologist and pain management specialist in San Antonio. He’s also a frequent contributor to “San Antonio Medicine” and a valued member of the BCMS Publications Committee.
back to top
