Getting Along

For those not familiar with The Screwtape Letters (as I was not until I read it recently), CS Lewis wrote The Screwtape Letters from the perspective of the a demon writing to his nephew.

“When two humans have lived together for many years it usually happens that each has tones of voice and expressions...that are almost unendurably irritating to the other. Work on that. Bring fully into the consciousness of your patient (the human that is targeted) that particular lift of his mother’s eyebrows that he learned to dislike in the nursery. Let him assume that she knows how annoying It is and does it to annoy - if you know your job he will not notice the immense improbability of this assumption. And never let him suspect that he has tones and looks which similarly annoy her.”

-C.S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters

Many medical blogs that I have read seem to be filled with primarily angry criticism leveled at the health care system or patients.

And it's easy to do. Although I tried to write my last post as rationally, and un-emotionally as possible, I'm sure there was a bit of frustration throughout it.

So why are there so many angry people in healthcare? I would argue that it is undeniable that were working in an imperfect system. For everything that is wrong with the US health care system, the poorest person in the states receives health care 100 times better than many of the poor throughout the world. So how do we try to we form a productive critique of something, be it health care or otherwise.

I think that part of it is fighting the constant battle against complaint for complaint's sake. I think that it's important to think through whether what you are doing serves any positive purpose or whether it's merely blowing off steam (which isn't to say that there may not be a place for venting--but one should consider if complaints are always best aired amongst other doctors or medical students).

CS Lewis, the British writer who penned the Chronicles of Narnia series, seems to masterfully capture a nuance of our daily living. When we are faced with the same thing day after day, it is human nature to find things to dislike about it. This holds true in relationships ("She always clogs the toilet and leaves me to fix it...") and I think it also is true of medicine.

Just by the by working in close proximity with the same individuals, I think we can find (and perhaps sometimes invent) things to dislike. Medical school has taught me more than medicine, it's taught me to complain. "This is crazy that we are paying X number of dollars when Ph.D student are getting paid 1200 a month."

"I can't believe the questions they asked on that test."

"Professor X has no idea what he is doing."

And the funny thing is, who really cares? The truth is, I'm as guilty as the next person, and that type of complaining does nothing.

When I began medical school I had some idea that life in medicine wasn't going to be a breeze. Although I was a bit wet-behind-the-ears I knew that relying on being a doctor to bring me 100% of my happiness was not realistic. But is this overwhelming flood of complaint part of the problem behind why so many medical students finish their 4th year with little or no hope of enjoying the rest of their professional lives.

Pragmatic, thought-out criticism is vital to continually trying to refine the health care system that many of us will be working in, but I think it's important that we all try to cut out a healthy chunk of the pointless whining we take part in, especially myself.