My wife is a labor and delivery nurse at a large hospital. She loves her work there and got into the field after both of our daughters were born. This morning as she was preparing to go to work she told me that one of her favorite patients had delivered a healthy, but small, baby boy at 28 weeks. Apparently this mom had multiple medical issues going on and came to stay at the hospital in her 23rd week. This is pretty common when the chance of miscarrage is high.
As she prepared her tea and toasted her english muffin she commented on one of the docs that I am acquainted with saying that he would have terminated the pregnancy if he had had his way. I responded saying he had always struck me as a “prima donna” type of person and asked who gave him the authority to decide such things.
After she left for work I thought about the level of confidence we put in our doctors, almost regarding their opinions and professional counsel as gospel. We do need to remember that people get into every profession for good and often not so good reasons so not every doc is gifted to serve as “healer.” In my opinion, our medical education system is in need of healing. Yes, I want the brightest and best doctor caring for me or those that I love. However, the system, selective as it is puts too much emphasis on grades as an indicator of ability to heal. Healing in my estimation requires a commitment to love first and heal out of love. I admit just because a doctor does not have the best bedside manner does not make him or her unloving or a bad healer. However, arrogance, pride and a lack of respect for the values and moral compass of others is rampant in our “enlightened” medical profession.
Just like people are weeded out or at least retrained in other professions we need a checks and balances system in place to help each generation of docs realize that they are workers in a service industry and not in a training program for deity-of-the-month.
