The striking parallels between doctors and journalists

Once during my TV news days, I was feeling pretty good about myself during a three-hour drive to the Mayo Clinic. “I am so glad I don’t practice!” I crowed to my photographer. “Practicing physicians are so sad. They’ve lost their income, their autonomy, and the public’s respect.” My photographer didn’t miss a beat. “Yeah,” he replied. “They sound just like you.” By which he meant that as a journalist, I’d lost those very same entitlements. As they say: You can’t see the paradigm when you’re in the paradigm. For better or worse, though, I’ve lived through (and been marginalized) in two paradigms. And the striking parallels between doctors and journalists have many lessons for physicians. First, there are the similar temperaments. In each case, we often chose our professions because we hated a bureaucratic world we viewed as impotent and corrupt. We wanted our lives to revolve around absolutes beyond anyone’s power to taint. Medicine offered life and death: journalism offered the “search for truth.” Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Physician Mainstream media Source Type: blogs