There are so many things wrong with medicine that this article would be too long for anyone to read.
Physician professional reimbursement continues to plummet as student debt balloons.
The opportunities for entrepreneurial private practice declines as herds rush toward the perceived stability of employment in corporate medicine.
Let me ask you...
When NBA players complain about their $5 million salary or NFL players complain about what NBA players make, do you care?
No. No one cares.
The lowest paid professional athlete still makes more than the average person on Earth.
When an actor complains about how much they are paid compared to other actors, do you stay up at night struggling with the injustices of society?
No. No one cares.
When a doctor complains that they only make $150,000 or $300,000 or $500,000 when doctors used to make 2x-5x or 10x more in the past, who do you think cares?
You do. I do. Your mother does.
But no one else.
No one cares if we sacrificed 10 or 15 years of our lives and dug ourselves into $300-500 or $750k in debt or even if we saved your life. We made that choice.
All of these jobs were a choice, a sacrifice and a risk. All these salaries are richer than most of the population on this planet. No one feels sorry for doctors, except for (maybe) some other doctors.
Don’t get me wrong. I have had plenty of my own pity parties.
When I couldn’t find a job where I wanted to live.
When I realized I lived where I didn’t want to live.
When I was fired from my job with no plan or prospects.
When we had a miscarriage, and another, and another.
I’ve had my pity parties.
Why do you have pity parties?
But then my patients slap me with some reality.
People born with illness, disease, or abuse.
Those born in poverty.
Someone with ALS or cancer.
We all know the options.
There is always someone who has it much worse.
Our challenges are unfortunate as medicine is rocketing on a trajectory far away from the value of relationships and the respect of Marcus Welby (if you even know who that was).
But rather than whine in a pity party of cynicism and sarcasm often heard in the doctor’s dining room (pre-covid when we could sit together). Lost in a mindset that locks us in the same miserable jail cell focusing on the negativity of victimhood.
John Rossman says: If complaining is your strategy… good luck.
Instead, I chose to change.
I believe that no one can save me except for me.
We aren’t going to get anywhere complaining.
Go ahead.
Throw yourself one pity party.
But then, choose to move on.
Make a change.
Educate yourself.
Take action.
And do something different!
We aren’t going to get anywhere doing more of the same.
BOOMM! is not a platform to complain or fuel negativity.
It is the polar opposite.
Here is where change happens.
This is where something better begins.
