GamecockDoc

I second that

A cry for help from the Anonymous Clerk.

Here's what I'm looking for. I looking for success stories - inspirational stories. Any attending physicians or residents who happen to be reading, this is a message for you. Tell me how residency really wasn't that bad. Tell me how much you dreaded going from a relatively responsibility-free medstudent to a responsibility-laden physician. Tell me how rewarding your work is and how you could never picture yourself doing anything else.
I'm doing an away rotation at Stanford hospital. I'm pretty sure I saw Graham there today. I just spent 3 successive 14 hour days in the hospital. The shuttle here begins running after I've gone to work and stops running before I can leave. There's some pretty cool stuff that I've gotten to be involved in but in many significant ways IT SUCKS! Is this really what I want to be doing? I'm going to give up 4 of the potentially best years of my life for THIS? I'm a 4th year now, so it's getting to be about that time. My days are numbered. Doctors? Is it worth it?

I hear ya, clerk! So far he's only had one response, but I'm waiting for more. I need to read some more. Just this past week I had two residents tell me that if they didn't owe so much money in student loans they would find other careers. Not what I need to hear. It seems the only people who talk about medicine are complaining -- about the hours, the stress, the lawsuits and decreased compensation. It's so discouraging. I really enjoy seeing patients now, and I don't want to become jaded and cynical. Please say there's hope!

UPDATE: An uplifting post from Dr. Charles.

It’s there when I allow myself to listen, especially when the game clock is turned off with the last patient of each day. It’s there when I see the inimitable charisma of family, born of its individual members’ unique dysfunctions, talents, and stories. It’s there in the crate of homegrown eggplants brought into our office. It’s there in the wedding invitation of a woman I helped through incapacitating asthma and thyrotoxicosis. It’s there in the tears and laughter of the patients in whose life stories I’ve already sewed a few threads.

posted by GamecockDoc @ 2:18 PM