Category: How To Drop Out Of Medicine

“Talk to my Manager.”

That’s a line used by Actors, Singers, Magicians, Acrobats, Dancers…anyone who has decided to act like a Professional in sharing their gifts with the world.

What about Medics?

Why don’t Medics have Managers?

Not Hospital Managers, but Personal Managers…men and women empowered to look out for the best interests of each Medic.

Personal Managers who monitor and handle:

• Working conditions
• Following up with complaints
• Professional qualifications
• Training opportunities
• Locum openings
• Hours of sleep each day/week
• Renegotiating contracts
• Fast-tracking your career advancement
• Tracking your progress towards personal, professional and social goals

Why don’t Medics have those kinds of Managers?

What would happen if they did?

For one thing, Medics would start to be treated with the respect accorded to Free Agents, rather than being disregarded as replaceable cogs in the industrial healthcare factory.

But beyond that, it would free you to focus your energy on the thing that drove you to pursue a career in Medicine in the first place:

Making a difference in the lives of others, whilst your Manager helped you profitably make a difference in your own life as well.

Medicine is a team sport. And a key member of your team needs to be your Personal Manager.

Image: Gapingvoid

Anatomy 1.0 = Surface anatomy.

Anatomy 2.0 = Surgical anatomy. What lies beneath

Anatomy 3.0 = Cellular anatomy. Microscopic analysis of the anatomy of a cell.

Anatomy 4.0 = Psychosocial anatomy. The interplay of the mind, will, emotions and social context with physical anatomy.

Anatomy 5.0 = Radiographical anatomy. Mapping the inner workings of the human body using imaging tools e.g Xrays, CT scan, Ultrasound etc

Anatomy 6.0 = Molecular anatomy. Human genomics and gene editing. Epigenetics. Microbiome. Role of normal flora in managing and modifying human anatomy.

Anatomy 7.0 = Sub-molecular/sub-atomic anatomy. Identifying the unique electromagnetic beacons and landmarks of human anatomy. Invisible tramlines used by nanorobots to navigate, monitor and affect the human body.

Anatomy 8.0 = All of the above, mapped on a global scale. Identifying the location of every xq22.1 mutation or URA3 cell marker in realtime, geographically and historically.

The groupings may be up for debate.

But what’s clear is that we’re already living in a world, where simply knowing Snell’s or Grey’s Anatomy isn’t nearly enough.

Image: Gapingvoid

One size does not fit all.

There are different types of patients, as well as different types of Medics.

The drug-overdose case isn’t the chronic hypertension case, which isn’t the g3p2 who’s suddenly gone into labour at 26weeks case.

In fact, they’re not cases at all.

They’re different types of people with different ways of viewing the world.

A failure to acknowledge and match for their uniqueness would be as negligent as randomly grabbing the nearest blood pack for the next transfusion…simply because it’s red.

The same is true of Medics.

Each one has a unique set of motivations, aspirations, financial obligations, lifetime value and compatibility with different work settings.

Similar to Hollywood actors and actresses, this uniqueness should be reflected in the way each Medic is handled, the contracts they sign, the shifts they are allowed to work, the way they get paid and the level of emotional support they receive.

No, this approach isn’t compatible with the status quo, even though it is easier to implement with the technology and awareness we have access to.

But if the current healthcare shortages are the result of insisting on treating people the same, maybe it’s time we try treating different people differently.

Image: Gapingvoid

Patient #1.

That’s you.

The person you see in the mirror as soon as you get up in the morning and right before you go to bed at night.

You know this person, inside and out.

You know her history, her presenting complaints, her aspirations, financial situations and social complications.

Imagine if you weren’t allowed to treat patients 2 through 20 today, until you had completely taken care of the needs of patient #1.

What would that look like?

Maybe treating Patient #1 would require you to stop treating all the others.

Maybe taking care of Patient #1 would cause you to change your daily, weekly and monthly schedule.

Maybe taking care of Patient #1 would require lifestyle and career changes to give you the leverage you need to focus solely on helping Patient #1.

Maybe taking care of Patient #1 would mean changing your business model, where you don’t need to treat Patients 2 through 20 in order to get paid enough to kind of take care of Patient #1.

Maybe taking care of Patient #1 would mean that schools would have to focus on empowering their students with the skills, mindset and financial literacy to be able to take care of Patient #1 long before they leave school.

If you had to properly take care of Patient #1 before you were allowed to help Patients 2 through 20, how would you do it?

Take care of Patient #1.

Because when you do, you’ll find you’ve inadvertently helped take care of the rest of us who see the transformation in Patient #1’s life.

Image: Gapingvoid

What would happen if McDonalds or The Hilton or Emirates or Ikea decided to show “hospital hospitality” to their customers?

You know, the universal user experience (UX) found in hospitals, doctor’s surgeries and health centres around the world.

Optimised for processing the sick rather than championing health.

Reactive or passive rather than intentionally designed to strategically facilitate specific impressions and actions.

And this is for everyone who is engaging with the healthcare system: patients, Medics, vendors etc.

Of course there are reasons that we can use to justify why things have to be the way they are.

But the strategic design of the “healthcare UX” is a powerful underutilised tool that should be treated like sterile technique in surgery:

Not optional.

Image: Gapingvoid

How far are you willing to go in turning your dreams into reality?

How far are you willing to go in turning “nothing” into the “something” that you keep day dreaming about?

How far are you willing to go in changing your situation for the better?

How far are you willing to go in helping others change their situations for the better?

How far are you willing to go in having the greatest impact possible?

How far are you willing to go in reducing the stress in your life?

How far are you willing to go in feeling happy and fulfilled?

How far are you willing to go in becoming the best version of yourself today?

How far?

1%…4%…36%…53%…87%…92%…all the way?

There’s no right or wrong answer to this question, just the honest answer.