03/31/2024
As we celebrate National Physicians week, - March 25th - 31st, please read these words shared from a colleague :
An Ode to Doctors on Doctorโs Day:
On Doctorโs Day, my mind first goes to the Doctors who brought my children into the world. Those who counseled our family during times of grief and loss. The doctors who manned the Emergency Rooms in the middle of the night when our family rolled in in crisis. Those who continue to care for myself and my family members as we navigate complex health issues and rare diseases. And to every physician who provides care, from the mundane to the complex.
But then my mind wanders further โto the decade before every one of these Doctors became the person we know.
To them as undergrads, forgoing many of the usual rights of passage to stay late in the science lab, make time for the volunteering required for applications, or study for the MCAT on top of their already heavy load.
To the medical students who not only have to learn the enormity of the science of medicine, but to perfect the art of medicine as well. Who spend thousands of dollars they donโt have on applications and interviews, only to have their future decided by a computer algorithm telling them where they will move for future training, sometimes leaving family and spouses behind.
To the residents, who worked 80+ hour weeks for years, constantly under scrutiny and exhaustion, to become a physician worthy of caring for those you love.
To the new attending, with crippling worry, balancing the realities of their passion for caring and the pressures of the business of healthcare.
To the seasoned doctors, who selflessly mentor their newer colleagues, who continue to sleep in tiny call rooms and work endless hours, all while the rest of the world thinks they have it made. To those who silently cry, pull themselves together, and walk into the next exam room.
And to the physicians who step away from clinical medicine, and struggle with identity and purpose. Those who endured the years of grueling training by telling themselves they were meant for only one purpose, only to have it change in the blink of an eye.
Each of these doctors spent a decade or more of their life with the sole goal of being the best-trained, most dedicated member of the healthcare team. They refused to take an easier or shorter route. They grew their sleep debt and slept with constant self-doubt โ they waited on growing their own families and later struggled with infertility โ and they were saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt โ so that when we, the patients, come through their exam door โ they could know they did everything they could to be prepared for that moment.
Physicians are the heart of medicine. Today we celebrate them โ the parts of it we see as patients and the decade of sacrifice that came before.
Maggie Mangold, MD
