How did your doctor become a doctor? | Cameron Hanson | TEDxRockhill

Doctors have the highest suicide rate of any profession in the United States. Cameron believes that the care of physicians and the stewardship of life and health should extend to all sentient beings. As an aspiring physician, Cameron shares how we, as a community, can heal our healers in the midst of this striking trend in medicine.

[cameronchappell]

I’m currently in this exact process (2nd year medical student), and the points being made here really hit home. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been at the library at 11:30 PM on a Wednesday night wondering what my life would look like if I had just become a plumber. I’m sure I wouldn’t be studying biochemistry until midnight in a nearly empty library. Would I already own a home? What about a car that doesn’t make me worry that I won’t get me to where I’m going? Would my wife and I already have a kid?

I think where it starts to feel extra hard is when I look at my friends from high school that didn’t go this route. They didn’t bother with good grades, or even very much college, and they have their cute little homes, and their families are growing.

I know this sounds like I’m complaining, and maybe I am a little. But at the same time, medical school has been very rewarding. My time in undergrad checking those extra-curricular boxes by volunteering in various places and working in the ER were incredible fulfilling, and I’m literally counting the days until I can get back into a clinical setting, to get back to those feelings. I love the idea of knowing that all this studying is going to help me help so many people live healthier and happier lives.

In our ethics course, we have discussed the importance of physician autonomy and how it pertains to burnout. Although our main goals are always going to be to help our patients, I feel like the coming generation of physicians is also being told much about the importance of setting reasonable boundaries. A burnt-out physician is not going to do their best possible work, and in that situation, everyone loses. I hope we continue down this path of self-improvement for each individual physician (and other healthcare worker), so that we can all reap the benefits of all the hard work we have had to put in to become physicians.

[paulis]

I’m 51 and just restarted college. Now I’m going for Physical Therapy. The hardest part is Oral Communication. Most people know me as a flippant personality. My flippant behavior is indicative of a doctor who truly cares, and that’s why I will become a therapist who cares about people and makes a positive impact on everyone’s life.

[HeavyProfessor]

The US medical school acceptance rate is not 3%. The overall acceptance rate is around 40-45% That is misleading in this context.

[haneen-rhvu]

هاذه هي الحقيقة, يمكن ان نراها بشكل ايجابي وايضا سلبي هذا يختلف من شخص لآخر

[jfar]

I'm not sure why a 2nd year medical student has this kind of platform to comment what it is to be a physician, or even a resident... And no, med students nowadays don't have more to learn than 20 years ago.

[onceuponanexploration]

This guy is so dramatic. Get over yourself.