Lessons for organized medicine from the election

Yesterday, KevinMD reprinted a Medrants post – Will someone actually let actually help patients?  This post has had wide reposting on twitter and facebook. As we read and listen to “experts” dissect the Trump victory, one theme seems to emerge – the lack of respect for the working class.  While many remain mystified with Trump’s appeal, many opine that he convinced many that he heard them and understood them.  An interesting op-ed in the WSJ – How Donald Trump Filled the Dignity Deficit -contains this paragraph: Too many Americans have lost pride in themselves. We sense dignity by creating value with our lives, through families, communities, and especially work. That is why American leaders so frequently talk about dignity in the context of labor. As Martin Luther King Jr. taught, “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” Conversely, nothing destroys dignity more than idleness and a sense of superfluousness—the feeling that one is simply not needed. Perhaps I am stretching a bit, but as I talk with physicians in private practice and academe, I too often hear despair.  Today’s NEJM has another article bemoaning the current state of medicine and medical training – Meaning and the Nature of Physicians’ Work We believe that if meaning is to be restored, the changes needed are complex and will have to be made nationally, beginning with a dialogue th...
Source: DB's Medical Rants - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Tags: Medical Rants Source Type: blogs