HOW do doctors cope?

by hamsterbait 13 Replies latest jw friends

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  hamsterbait

  The strain of telling someone they are going to die,

  getting fond of a patient, who dies.

  I cannot see that a good doctor is callous.

  How many end up alcoholics compared to other jobs. How does one stay sane when surrounded by so much pain?

  HB
• 

  Dune

  I'm guessing that doctors have more people recover under their supervision as opposed to dying. Well.... except for Dr. Kovorkian.
• 

  JH

  They get used to it.

  Once my dad went to see a doctor for a medical problem, and the doctor said, I don't know what you have, we will find out during the autopsy.
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  Lady Lee

  I would suspect that those doctors who are in it to help people get better may have a harder time of it than most. Some may get desensitized over time. The brain does protect us when we need it to.

  Some may find the work is not for them and they may go into a field of medicine where you may not see too many deaths.

  Some may see it as their calling to help people die in a dignified manner.

  I suppose, like most of us who have learned to deal with death and not be afraid of it, they would use the same coping skills we all do.

  And sometimes they just have a good cry and carry on
• 

  thom

  My GF is an EMT. She's a very caring, loving and compassionate person, but she can go out on a call, come back and say "One dead, two critical. Let's go to a movie!"
  Somehow she's able to distance herself from it without losing the care and concern that she has for people.
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  kls

  They never get used to it but know they have to deal with it on a daily basis and if they can't ,they would have to leave the field.
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  jgnat

  My sister is a very good and compassionate GP. She says the GP's job is more often to supervise a person's passing than to cure. Even so, she can do a good job of making that passing as easy as possible. And she loves delivering babies, supervising the cycle start over again.

  If you like curing people, go in to cancer research or surgery.

  If you can't stand people at all, become an anaesthesiologist or a researcher.

  I've only seen her shook up once. A young man, only in his twenties, quickly sickened and died. She never did figure out what was wrong with him. That one haunted her, and she was not a very good sister, wife, or mother that weekend.
• 

  ChrisVance

  I no longer go to doctors. They are all pagan worshippers of the caduceus.

  Smuckers, I don't understand could you explain?
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  ChrisVance

  I just "committed" a run on sentence, that reminds of Evil Force's thread on grammar and punctuation. I shouldn't admit it, but I teach English composition.
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  ChrisVance

  And now I just "committed" a coma splice. My proofreading skills are great after I hit the "Submit" bottom.