Everyone wants to get established. And we run, we run day and night to achieve a name, a reputation, and a steady job. What happens next?

Most of the docs I know are very hard working. Many are compulsive workers. It is very difficult to keep them away from their work. I used to be the same, constantly on the run, clinical work a priority; everything else being secondary.

In the initial years, everyone wants to get established. And we run, we run day and night to achieve a name, a reputation, and a steady practice. Contrary to popular perception, it is mostly not about the earnings. Yes, the earnings do matter, but primarily one is not running to earn, but to create an identity.

Physicians run from hospital to hospital seeing admitted and out-patients. Surgeons run around operating. Corporate full-timers wind up at their jobs and run private clinics till late in the night after their job commitments are over. Many government-employed doctors do private consultations, sometimes legally, sometimes not. Everyone seems to have one major goal: how to squeeze in the maximum amount of clinical work into 24 hours.

Everything else is secondary: spouse, kids, parents, friends, health, hobbies, everything.

The motivations to keep running change with time. Initially, it may be to get established and then to stay established. A few decades down the line, with wave after wave of new, ambitious doctors entering the ‘market’ every year, it may then become an attempt just to stay relevant!

There is always the surgeon’s ego which says that you are the best for your patients, or that others are less capable. There are always younger guys coming in who are equally or more skilled and equally or more competent. But a surgeon’s ego keeps him in a state of constant denial. Most surgeons steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that the next generation can be as good as or better than them.

Then there is this false belief that your patients are your diehard followers. Sorry to break your fragile hearts: they aren’t! We have occasionally read reports of people dropping dead or even committing suicide when their favourite movie star or political leader died, especially in the South Indian states. However, no patient ever stopped getting treated because his or her favourite doctor died or moved to another city. They will go and get treated by someone else, whoever is the current ‘number one’ or ‘top doctor’ at that time: a simple fact that very few of us seem to acknowledge. Even when taking a vacation, I hear this constant refrain: “What will happen to my patients?”. I, too, make alternative arrangements for my patients when I am away. While being concerned about one’s patients is a desirable attribute, getting obsessed is definitely not. Mind you, the obsession here is with oneself and one’s ego, not with the patients.

The last factor is the fear of losing your patients to others, the fear of becoming less relevant. For some, this factor is strong from the beginning, and for others, it may set in after many years of practice. There are very few contented characters who aren’t much affected by such thoughts. But it is a fact, that in one’s clinical practice, everyone has faced days and weeks with less patient loads, low footfalls in OPDs and few surgeries. These are the times when one’s faith in oneself and one’s skill may get shaken. Everyone has faced this real fear of becoming irrelevant, or less relevant, or less popular at some time in their practice. And, in this phase, many start running around again, seeing patients or operating at many places or maybe just soliciting referrals; mainly to satisfy one’s ego rather than for one’s patients.

As I had stated initially, everything comes at a cost. The cost may be tangible like loss of health or wealth; or intangible, like strained relationships, missing out on the kids growing up or even forgetting your own hobbies and interests.

Who bears this cost?

The biggest victims are our spouses, who keep worrying over our lifestyles, worrying about our health, and who are never given the credit they deserve for all that we are able to achieve professionally. And if or rather when our health fails, they have to bear the brunt of that too!

The next are our children, who are provided the best of comforts, the latest gadgets, who go to the most posh schools, but who miss out on our physical presence during their formative years. Your reputation, all the money you have earned and will ever earn, will never bring back their childhood.

Also our parents, who worry about our stress levels, and in turn increase their own, often just by worrying if we had our lunch on time or not.

And lastly, we ourselves, by following punishing schedules, by not eating on time or sleeping adequately, by missing out on family time, by losing touch with our friends, by giving up hobbies and activities which used to interest us. We spend a healthy youth slogging for what may well turn out to be a sick old age.

Before we lecture our patients on improving their lifestyles, let us put our houses in order first.

Physicians (and Surgeons); Heal Thyself first!

NB: A few months ago, a very young, dynamic and active Cardiologist died in Gujarat. Within a week of his passing, the hospital which employed him had put out an ad to fill the post he had worked on. We are all replaceable professionally, but never as a father or mother or as a spouse or a child.

Note: This is not only for doctors, it applies to all the professionals who see to balance life between the professional, the personal, family and the community life.

Source: received through WhatsApp message

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