Great Things About Being a Physician

Years ago my physician dad told me that it was important to select a specialty whose bread-and-butter you could still enjoy. For orthopedists, it's back pain. Interestingly, it's probably back pain for us emergency physicians as well!

Along those lines, I devote a reasonable fraction of my blog entries to the downsides of being a physician because I want to ensure that those who are considering a career in medicine understand and can tolerate the more mundane – even negative – aspects of their planned profession before they can't turn back.

I'm very happy, then, in contrast, to use today's blog entry to showcase Medscape's Best Things About Being a Doctor piece. It's interesting how many of the physicians interviewed mention having a "tangible" effect on their patients' lives.