- Joined
- Oct 30, 2013
- Messages
- 3,115
- Reaction score
- 2,822
Yes I agree. But I think Id rather be one former. It's not like you can't be genuine and not get ahead. I worked in an IM clinic in the Navy and our department head was a harvard grad and BC IM. The interventional cards guy was USUHS.
I remember that all the MAs and Nurses would be swooning over our department head, because he had that tennis club, I'm not a common folk kind of attitude. The patients seemed to like him (I couldn't exactly be sure).
Well our cardiologist was the most personable humble guy I've ever met, and no one seemed to give a **** about him. My colleague at the time was talking about how much he admired our DH and I couldn't understand why. Until I had a conversation with him about me going to BUD/S. He told me he would only ever be a seal if he could be an officer and have a officer pin as well as a trident.
My DH didn't even know my name. Anytime I showed interest in the heart the cards guy would always be willing to explain things to me in simple terms. When he heard I was heading off to an infantry unit he gave me some books and notes on trauma management, as well as didactic stuff every Friday.
Looking back I should've been more grateful, because I thought all docs and members of the military "team" should be this way. But this guy was moonlighting 20 hrs a week in Cath lab at the local level 1 because we were so small he didn't get to do his interventional stuff there.
I was much more confident going for my "field med" and live tissue training than I would've been if I hadn't studied and had those didactics. Well I ended up using quite a bit of trauma management in several places, whether it was teaching it to Marines, treating Marines, or local villagers when deployed.
Fast forward a year and a half I was in a hospital, my MO personally visited me several times and took part in my care/advocated for what I wanted. Those two experiences made me want to be that kind of physician and for no other reason made my time put into ****** situations in the military worth it. I know that's very hallmark sounding, but showing that you care goes a long way and it's easy to tell when someone is being fake.
TL;DR
I think the caring physicians are more likely to have better compliance and make more of an impact than those out for themselves. This may be naive but I'd rather keep up this optimism for as long as I can.
You know this kind of reminds me of a talk I had with my father in law. So my wife and I were looking for a new church. We found a place with a good pastor, he preached very well. We saw him a few times and he just hit home some really amazing points.
After talking with my father in law he said "being a good pastor is more than just preaching hellfire and brimstones, a good pastor is a servant to his people." And its weird but at that point I started to better understand what it was to be a good physician. I started looking back to many of my physician mentors and saw that sure they werent Harvard grads and werent world famous specialists. Heck they werent even the best at what they did in the city. But the ones who I admired most were amazing teachers, both to students and their patients. They were the kind to pay for a patient's medication if they couldnt afford it. They were the kind that would go out of their way to serve even if they were already piled up with work.
I dont think its necessarily a black and white thing and DEFINITELY not an MD/DO thing. But I think its something important to think about. I dont think there is necessarily anything wrong with being either type of physician, because I think the world needs both. It is important to figure out what type of person you are though.
Are you the DH above? Or the Cardiologist?
