An Earned Respect

I don't feel that physicians are automatically respected just because of the two simple letters following their names. The letters MD are no greater than PA or RN; and MD even has less letters than MBA or MPH. It's not the title that helps doctors earn the respect that I, along with many others, feel they deserve. Rather, it can be attributed to their actions, their willingness to help others, and their commitment to upholding and maintaining a certain level of unspoken trust. Moreover, they are doing all of this with what is considered to be of utmost value at stake. One's life and health.

Sure, nurses and others in the health field are also dealing with lives on a day-to-day basis, but none do so in as intimate a manner as doctors. In the end, it is the physician who calls the shots, who assesses the situation and determines the problem as well as the most appropriate solution. It is the physician who is turned to when there is an urgent situation in which the two outcomes are life and death.

I'm not saying that the jobs and roles of nurses and physician assistants are not worthy of respect themselves, but rather that there is a definite hierarchy in terms of where they fall with respect to physicians. A lot has already been said about the years upon years of education and training, but I feel that is almost irrelevant. Let's be honest, lawyers go to school for several years as well, but they are perceived under a completely different light. I feel that it is, instead, the motive and the basic premise for which they spend these years training, studying, and preparing that sets them apart from most, if not all, professionals: helping others overcome injuries, battle cancers, and prevail against diseases. It is perhaps one of the most selfless professions that exists. However, it is one in which expectations are set very high.

Patients approach physicians expecting to recover. Anything else would be considered a failure. Essentially, physicians aren't allowed to fail. In what other industry, profession, or career can a minor mistake be the difference between life and death. Not one's own life and death, mind you, but another person's. Thus, there is an unspoken trust that is developed for one's particular physician. A trust that is often upheld; if it wasn't, a physician wouldn't have patients, as they would turn elsewhere for help. And when this trust is upheld, a patient begins to respect the physician, and the respect continues to grow as the physician continues to do what is expected of him or her.

The respect is warranted.