[The third post in a series on becoming a Christian physician. Earlier posts are Do You Want to Be a Doctor? and Helping People Is Not Enough]. After working 24 hours on call in the pediatric ICU, I was exhausted. I wanted to sleep, but friends had recently been reminding me of the health benefits of breakfast, so I dragged myself to a local diner for breakfast and sat at the counter next to a father and his little daughter. "We graduated from the booth to the counter," he was explaining to the waitress, … [Read more...] about In Its Time
becoming a Christian physician
Helping People Is Not Enough
[This is the second post in a series on becoming a Christian physician. The series began with Do You Want to Be a Doctor?] "Why do you want to work in healthcare?" "I want to help people." This dialogue is the most common conversation people will have about a career in medicine. The way we think about healthcare professionals tends towards the poignant and provocative: heroic paramedics and EMTs in ambulances, austere physicians and pharmacists and lab researchers in crisp white coats, dutiful and deeply … [Read more...] about Helping People Is Not Enough
Do You Want to Be a Doctor?
"I want to be a doctor. How do I do it?" As a teenager, I was very shy and very awkward. Talking to strangers was a painful and anxiety-laden task, and I didn't like to talk to strangers any longer than necessary. So when a pediatrician asked me, at a routine office visit, if I had any questions, I surprised myself by blurting out, "I want to be a doctor. How do I do it?" I had never seen the same pediatrician twice, mainly because most of them were residents-in-training. This one was caught off-guard by the … [Read more...] about Do You Want to Be a Doctor?