Hi! Chronically ill doctor here to provide context to both sides! For background, I have multiple chronic illnesses. I have experienced years of misdiagnosis and (now that I know medicine and standard of care) straight up malpractice and medical neglect. I am also a physician, and formerly an MA. I know the medical system well.
Elumish is spot on. Medical professionals face a lot of draining stuff. Some of it is administrative. Some of it is social - like debunking TikTok, Facebook shit, ect. However part of our job as physicians is to educate and do that debunking. That's PART of counseling which is a good 80% of our job. It's also our job to BELIEVE our patients, act with good faith and the patients best interest, and do our due diligence with their work up.
It's part of our duty as well to consider our bias. Why do we as physicians mistrust some populations of patients? Why is it mostly people of color, poor people, women, and disabled people? We have to ask WHY people turn to bogus online social media claims instead of medical professionals. Is it because their groups have been historically been neglected or directly harmed by the medical community, and don't know who to turn to? We as doctors have a lot of bad history that created this distrust. It's our duty to regain trust and prove that we have peoples best interests at heart.
As providers we need to ask - Why DONT people trust us? What have WE done historically to create that distrust? What CAN we do to rectify it?
As chaoticevilspacewitch pointed out, doctors do get burnt out. Burn out is very real. It's causing a physician shortage. But burnout is multifactorial and studies have shown that the majority of burnout can be attributed to
1) increased administrative time
2) lack of time off work.
Burnout needs to be addressed at a societal level with more providers, better systems of care, (preferably one where we don't stress the fuck out trying to get every little thing covered and approved by insurance for our patients instead of focusing on OUR PATIENTS), and more humane training environments.
Things that are protective against burnout?
just like Elumish said, if a doctor is so burnt out that they cannot fulfill their oath, they need protected time off to reset, reflect, get therapy, get their head on right and decide if medicine is still their job. Burnout is reversible. Plenty of burnt out physicians can go back to fulfilling their oath if their given time to heal. Fixing burn out is good for physicians and good for patients.
To return to Elumish's original point, the medical field needs more doctors who were once patients. Medicine is still mostly rich, able bodied, white people. We have multiple studies showing that diverse physicians (women, black physicians, latine physicians) provide better care to and have better rapport with marginalized communities - the SAME communities who are more likely to get scammed into social media faux medicine bullshit. It is not at all a far stretch to say that medicine as a whole would benefit from more doctors who have experienced chronic illness.
My chronic illness makes me a better doctor. It shifts my perspective. I spend more time counseling and I find joy and meaning in empowering my patients. I can empathize with them. It builds trust and rapport.
My chronic illness made it hard to be a doctor. Any chronic illness, especially visible disabilities places a huge target on your back and multiple barriers to getting into medical school, residency, fellowship, keeping your license, having hospital privileges, getting referrals. I STILL need to "prove myself" to old guard assholes in medicine.
Medicine is flawed and ableist. The way to fix it is more doctors who are also patients. In medicine the new generation is fighting to make this a reality.
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