Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine - Synapsis Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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The New P.C.O.M. Journal Of Medicine Copvright 1972, by Synapsis Staff Volume 1 June 4, 1972 Number 1 CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS AND CURRENT STATUS OF RESEARCH INTO THE CAUSES AND PROGNOSIS OF INSIDIOUS LOSS OF IDEALISM D. Bruce Foster DO. Abstract: Four ears of medical school are guaranteed to change a person ' s way of seeing things. Four years ago one hundred and twenty-five students entered the freshman class at P.C.O.M. with many different conceptions of what a physician was and what the process of becoming one en- tailed. Having completed the process of becoming physi- cians, we realize that in doing so we have lost many of the values that we had ascribed originally to the title we now hold. Hopefully, it is not too late for us to re-evaluate our roles in life and to return to the idealism that led us to the profession we have chosen. Medical students are a diverse lot, with varying profes- sional motivations, and no special attributes of altruism can be conferred upon them as a group. Nevertheless, it is prob- ably safe to say that, in our naivete, many of us came to medical school with grand ideas of selfless service to hu- manitv. In the course of events that characterize medical education, we gradually increased in sophistication and, without a great deal of handwringing, discarded those ado- lescent, pre-professional illusions of dedicated service in the ivory tower. Among other things, we came to realize that: 1 ) patients are often a wretchedly ungrateful and belligerent bunch, occassionally approaching the point of being a pain in the ass 2) the public is out to get us, not to mention the administration 3) it costs a great deal of money to eat, pay for malpractice insurance, buy yachts, build swimming pools, etc. 4) attendings are seldom pleasant telephone con- versationalists at four o ' clock in the morning, even if our sparkling diagnostic acumen has detected as stole in one of their patients 5) alcoholics at 48th Street are there to keep up the census — not to be treated 6) junkies — hepatitis or not — are not eligible to keep up the census. Any of these unfortunately encountered realities have the subtle and persuasive ability to make short work of idealism, and cause us to defensively and angrily do some hasty re- structuring of the values we carried with us to medical school. Understandable as this reaction may be, we have done ourselves a disservice in allowing it to take place. Old-fashioned as the theme may be, avarice and self-in- terest, resentment and suspicion have crept into our hearts and are doing their work. They are crowding out the little acts of unrewarded service that gave us so much satisfaction in more idealistic days, and made us so much more human — the simple things, often unnoticed, that were in reality acts of love. Taking an extra moment to answer a puzzled look on a patient ' s face, relinquishing sleep to make sure an old wino at 48th Street makes it through the night, listening, after the blood tests and the urinalyses, to the personal tor- tures of a pregnant 16 year old — all small acts that bring big dividends in personal satisfaction; acts that give mean- ing to our lives and bring peace to our spirits. These demonstrations of acted out idealism have made a gradual and discreet exit from our life style as physicians, or perhaps, for some of us they never existed. At an rate, a swing of the pendulum toward our old adolescent idealism would certainly help the public to distinguish doctors from business men, and would undoubtedly make all our lives a little bit richer.