Leave me my idealism
I once shadowed a physician who made jokes for the better part of two hours about the numerous ways in which our medical system is broken. The punch lines didn’t make me laugh, and come to think of it, he wasn’t smiling as he delivered them. We spend more time filling out paperwork than talking to patients, he said. These people – exactly who they are was never clear to me – demand the best care possible, thinking money will drop out of the sky, he commented. I hate insurance companies, he muttered. Stay away from primary care, he advised.





