Physician

Doctors are among the major classic professions. It is very hard to talk about anything professional without the classic refrain of “a doctor, a lawyer…” and continuing from there. With the possible exception of school teachers or the clergy, it is hard to think of a more altruistic and socially beneficial profession. On the other hand, like the clergy and teachers, a doctor works very hard has got to be an extremely self-sacrificing individual.

For one thing, every doctor has to take the Hippocratic Oath, in which the doctor to be swears to do no harm. It takes a certain kind of individual to swear they will help other people no matter what. It takes someone with even more resolve to do this after they have gone through eight years of intense college classes, followed up with an immediate stint doing a residency. This is the kind of nearly masochistic level of schooling that can drive a person to the edge of madness. Doctors are renowned for having poor health because of bad habits they picked up during medical school and their residencies.

For instance, a lot of doctors are chronically sleep deprived. In addition to this, alcoholism and smoking are common vices for doctors. Is it worth it to take the risk that you might develop these problems, just to cope with helping other people? Doctors are expected to act like super heroes, even though they are just ordinary, flesh and blood human beings. If you don’t think you have the right stuff to keep up with a schedule that can include triple digit weeks, you don’t have to.

The Peril of Being a Doctor

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Working in medicine is generally a stressful existence. Because the requirements to be a medical professional are so strict, there are never enough people to do all of the work that comes down the pike. While a sense of humor and a good emotional relief valve are good ways to combat this stress — even killing it with kindness — there is still an especially large amount of danger when you are a doctor, simply from the challenge of making the right decision as often as possible.

Some people could describe being at the top of the in-field medical establishment as being something of a Kobayashi Maru situation. On the one hand, you have to deal with decisions where people’s quality of life, and even their very lives can be in peril. Sometimes a decision made within moments can change a person’s entire remaining life. But on the other hand, you also have to deal with the fact that sometimes every decision can be wrong. In some cases, such as when a lot of information cannot be known, a doctor may end up being sued for providing the wrong treatment to a problem.

While refusing to render a response to an unsolvable problem may end up keeping a doctor from being sued for malpractice, it can still result in a suit for negligence. Worse still, if the doctor’s conscience is intact, refusing to work within the confines of a no-win situation can result in horrible guilt if the patient dies or continues to suffer. In such a scenario, medicine has truly failed in spite of itself, from the fear of reprisal.

Is Being a Doctor Worth It?

The Peril of Being a Doctor

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