Once you were accepted into medical school, you may not have realized it, but you signed up to be a leader and role model. Thinking back to your medical school, how many of your classmates embodied leadership, and how many would you trust to be a role model for your kids?
Looking back for me, this is scary. When you have the insight into the profession and those that will be looked upon to be positive role models in their community, I realized this is an unfair ask for those individuals.
A leader is defined as a person who has commanding authority or influence. When you have that M.D. or D.O. after your name, you are inherently looked upon differently. You simply are held to a higher standard.
As a family physician, people in the community trust me with their personal information. They come to me for advice and expertise. They trust the information that I give them. That is a heavy burden that most did not expect to come with their medical journey.
Athletes are looked to as leaders and role models in their communities. However, just because someone is an elite athlete and has the attention of the society does not automatically qualify them to be leaders or role models. For athletes, societal expectations and being famous puts pressure on them to become something they did not sign up for. Most athletes just want to perform well in their sports and make money.
The same can be said for most physicians. I did not apply to medical school to become a leader in my community or become a role model. I applied to medical school because I was interested in the field and wanted to help prevent and treat diseases. Some people applied for allure and status. Some applied because of family pressure. Some wanted to continue the family tradition, and some were just curious and fell into medicine.
If you have never seen Charles Barkley’s “I am not a role model” Nike Air Commercial, watch it.
In one of the physician Facebook groups that I’m in, someone posted the below screenshot, which prompted me to write this post.
It was interesting to see the over 300 comments by physicians and other doctors. This was a very triggering post for some, and as the numbers state, there are a lot of “unhealthy” individuals in the field of medicine.
Physicians are humans, so we deal with the same struggles as society. The struggle to lose weight is real, to not indulge in vices that you know are not good for your health is real.
I drink alcohol. I eat fried food. I eat pizza like everyone else, and there are days that I just don’t want to exercise. These vices, like anything in life, become very personal.
One physician replied to the post, just because you are overweight or obese does not mean you have the comorbid conditions that accompany obesity, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol.
This is true, as I’ve seen a lot of obese patients who have perfect lab results. However, as physicians, we know that obesity increases your risk for the diseases stated above, and research has shown that obesity can reduce life expectancy by eight years or more. That is significant.
I don’t want to be dull on this point. While most people look at the post and focus on the weight aspect, I thought about the lack of respect, that physicians as a profession, have been getting more and more. Growing up, when you heard someone was a doctor, you thought of them differently and they garnered your respect. Today with Dr. Google and more patient empowerment, which I think is great, physicians are getting respected less and less. With this lack of respect, some physicians do not feel that they need to be leaders or role models.
Being a physician is just another occupation. You do sacrifice a lot for this occupation, but it’s just another occupation.
One poster wrote, “Occupation = how you serve people. Not every occupation requires the internalization of the philosophies of that field”.
This is true, and evident by the fact that there are physicians who do not believe in vaccinations and are part of the anti-vaxxers movement. You don’t have to agree with everything in your profession.
Another poster wrote “Perception by patients of our appearance will play a role in how receptive they are to listening to us about health and nutrition”.
This brings me back to my original thought of physicians as leaders. As leaders, we should lead by example. The way you speak, your actions, the way you carry yourself are some of the qualities that people look for in leaders and role models. Therefore, it can be challenging for patients and people, in general, to be receptive to your message if you do not practice what you preach.
Before applying to medical school, I remember going to my first hospital to shadow a physician to see what physicians do regularly. As I drove to the hospital, at 8 am, there was a line of employees on the sidewalk in their scrubs smoking. This was a triggering moment for me because I grew up around smokers. I remember going to school and smelling like cigarettes and getting those mean spirited comments. Yup, teenagers can be mean. Personally this is one reason why I’ve always been against smoking, I guess some childhood trauma still lingers.
This individual’s post brought me back to that time. Working in healthcare, you are scrutinized more, and personally you should be. If you have a patient who smokes and just had a heart attack, and the physician, nurses, or other hospital staff that they interact with all smell like cigarettes, what kind of message is that sending?
Yes, we are all fallible and participate in our vices. As a profession, we simply need to lead by example.
The prestige of the medical profession has eroded, and the trust is just not there anymore. We need to get that back, and that starts with changing how society perceives us. We need to stop being another cog in the wheel and lead by example.
