The Hidden Lives of Doctors, Part IV: The Thrill is Gone
As part of our continuing series on the mysteries of the medical profession we bring you the following tale of a sad situation when a doctor’s heart is no longer in his work. For those interested, parts I, II, and III of the “Hidden Lives” series can be found stuffed somewhere in a drawer in the archives of this website, which is just another way to state that the blogmeister is too lazy to link to them.
[Editor’s note: the following observations were made by a patient living in an average city somewhere in America.]
“I went to my doctor today and after leaving his office had the most amazing revelation.”
“What - you discovered that you had left your trousers hanging on the back of the exam door?”
“Har, har. No, not that, silly. It’s just that I realized that he doesn’t enjoy his work anymore. I think he’s on his way to becoming a victim of doctor burn-out.”
“I suppose you had to wait forever to be seen.”
“No, he came in right after the nurse closed the door. He was as punctual as always.”
“So did he pay any attention to you or just shuffle his papers?”
“No, he asked me about my pain meds and such. He even noticed that I have lost weight and wanted to know how my appetite was - and my swallowing.”
“What about the scans you had last week. Did he know the results?”
“He did. He reviewed the reports with me and told me what things I should be on the lookout for over the next few weeks. He always is thinking ahead of what might go wrong. He says I need to ‘Be Prepared’ just like the Boy Scouts.”
“What’s wrong with that? He sounds like a good guy to me. Why do you think he’s burned out?”
“I was in and out of that room within five minutes, I swear. It seemed like he was in a hurry to move on to the next patient or whatever was next. That’s not like him.”
“Maybe he was just behind schedule, or had a bad night. Doctors are only human, you know.”
“Maybe, but I got the impression that he just didn’t care about my case. It seemed like he was just going through the motions. I felt bad all the way driving home.”
“Why don’t you ask him about this the next time you see him?”
“Well, this isn’t the first time I’ve noticed this change, and frankly I’ve decided to switch doctors. My sister wants me to go to the Medical Center to see an expert there, and I’ve already made an appointment for next week.”
With the reader’s kind permission The Cheerful Oncologist would like to weigh in on the above vignette. Without further ado then, here is his astonishingly insightful and sagacious commentary:
I sympathize with both the patient and the doctor in this story. The doctor mentioned above does seem caring, but the fact is he lost a patient today because of his detatched mien and hurried pace. The practice of modern medicine is more intense now than ever, and the pressure placed on physicians is enormous what with obeying Kafka-like rules and regulations, trying to please the high and higher expectations from patients, and second-guessing treatment decisions under the threat of malpractice lawsuits. The potential for physicians to burn-out and lose their desire to pursue excellence, let alone mediocrity, in their daily work is as great as ever. Since no one wants to have a lost soul for a doctor, it behooves us here at T.C.O. to provide a little helpful advice to patients who just might be wondering whether or not their local practitioner still has enough fuel inside to keep the fire burning bright, to ward off the deadly chill of apathy or anger.
Rather than list the signs of doctor burn-out (after all, this is supposed to be a cheery rest stop for voyagers of the blogosphere), let us instead identify the clues that one’s physician is definitely not embittered, worn-out or fed up. These characteristics are as follows:
1. The doctor uses your actual name when addressing you, not some idiotic condescending title like “Sweetie,” or “Buddy.” What, has he mistaken you for his pet dachshund? An even worse scenario is when the doctor never calls you by name, as if you’re completing a transaction in front of a fast food counter.
2. The doctor makes eye contact with his audience, whether it be one person or a dozen, and maintains it throughout the visit.
3. Whenever feasible, especially when the news is not good, the doctor sits down before beginning a discussion.
4. The doctor asks questions about his patients’ lives - their children, their vacations, any good books they might have read lately. He is genuinely interested in his patients, no two of which are alike. For World War II buffs like myself, this is a great way to learn a little bit of history from one who was actually there, if not personally court-martialed by General Patton for not wearing a proper uniform.
5. Lastly, the most important clue of all in my opinion is that the doctor smiles, chuckles, makes you laugh, uses humor to break the ice, to form a bond, to provide encouragement or diffuse anger, to charm the crowd. When they say that laughter is the best medicine they aren’t just referring to patients. The doctor who truly loves his job cannot help but see how he has the unique opportunity to bring a grin to someone who just might be in desperate need of one today.
As we now return you to your normal lives, please remember these words of wisdom - “Fight burn-out now - tell your doctor a joke today!”
