Quotables: Life in Medicine

"Over the previous months, I had thrown myself into my work and shunned everything I once enjoyed and nearly everyone I loved. I believed I needed to do so in order to become a surgeon.

But I had lost my self in the process, and the stress made me irritable. I was no longer the nonconfrontational person I once was.

I had, for example, raised my voice a couple of days earlier at a receptionist in the radiology department when she couldn’t schedule my patient for a CT scan. I had scolded a nurse who had had the misfortune of being the fifth person to page me as I scrambled to finish a procedure. And only a week prior, I had squabbled with my family after my mother innocently asked, "Why do you have to work so hard?"

According to a study from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, I am far from the only doctor who has behaved this way. The researchers interviewed residents, or doctors in training, from seven different specialties and found that they set themselves up for burnout by accepting, even embracing, what they believed would be a temporary imbalance between the personal and professional aspects of their lives. While the young doctors interviewed defined well-being as a balance between all those parts, many felt that their medical training was so central to their ultimate sense of fulfillment that they were willing to live with whatever personal sacrifice was required, even if it meant a temporary loss of a sense of self."

Many of you still write to me upset that I don't call or write or update you enough. AGAIN, I apologize. But, above is an excerpt from another great article from the NYTimes about some of the struggles and challenges of the process of becoming a Doctor. I hope it gives some more insight.

Click Here to read the full article.

Or copy and paste the address below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/health/18chen.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hpw