by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: October 26, 2009

From the perspective of a patient who has to deal with a very rare and complex disorder, as well as with many specialists, It is easy to think of doctors as human beings. When we think of our personal physician and how we receive the individual attention and care that we need, it is clear that they are concerned, even if they are overworked, cranky, or unlikeable.

It is not as easy to think of the entire and vast community of doctors as human beings, especially when thinking of the pay, status, and deference that they get for their work. But they are human beings. There are complex human motivations that are unique to each person who undergoes the rigorous, difficult, and heartbreaking process that doctors go through. But the vast majority of practicing physicians have healing as a primary motivation in their lives.

With understanding that there are doctors who do not have healing as any kind of function, such as coroners, forensic practitioners, researchers and others who do not interact directly with patients, the very definition of healing changes from specialty to specialty. Doctors who deal with the worst of terminal illnesses know that healing is not a viable goal, but they dream of the day when there will be a cure or at least a treatment that will prolong life with quality.

Doctors who deal with the most difficult of patients, such as patients who cannot communicate, who cannot act in their own best interests, who live in hopeless poverty, the homeless, and those who stubbornly resist taking responsibility for prevention have the patience of saints when it comes to their desire to successfully treat and lead their patients to good, or at least better, health.

Doctors who practice plastic surgery are often shown or viewed as shallow individuals who are only in it for the money. The most flashy self promoters represent their goals as strictly to enhance beauty, to get rich, and to enjoy a flashy lifestyle.

But no plastic surgeon went directly into a high paying practice with nothing but vain, wealthy patients who only want to improve their appearance. Those plastic surgeons had to get to where they are through grueling, very personal and often continuing experience in treating all forms of human disfigurement in order to improve a person's life or ability to function. Their overall conceptual framework for healing, experience, and motivation to heal is as valid as any other doctor's.

The majority of doctors who had to borrow to get through college and medical school enter the field with enormous debt. That debt is hanging over their heads when they enter their first day of medical practice, and they know that their jobs and careers can be fragile entities; jeopardized or lost before the debt can be repaid. Of course, they are concerned about their pay, and strive to get the highest pay that they can.

The majority of doctors who are in private practice have to be concerned about overhead versus what they are taking in. They are being squeezed by the insurance companies, the uninsured patient's ability to pay, Medicare, and Medicaid. They are not only financially affected, in terms of their personal income, they are limited in the procedures and practices that they can provide for a patient.

So, while doctors are concerned about their own pay, they are far more concerned about healing as their ultimate goal and desire, or they would have taken far easier and far less emotionally and personally challenging paths toward making a living.

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