Image: Flickr/ El Payo
In the last twenty years I have seen my profession lose its vocational spirit and identity: heart and soul; art, intellect and wit. I do not believe these losses are primarily rooted in pay or funding, or even the volume of work, though clearly these are most easily cited by an unhappy workforce.
Thirty years ago doctors usually worked longer hours and the remuneration was often less. What has got lost is more subtle. It is about personal identification and gratification, about the relationships we have with our patients and colleagues, about our work as human, rather than technical, experience. The problem is the nature of our work, rather than its volume.
