How often do you take a sick day? For me, maybe 1-2 times a year.
I hate doing it because it’s a nightmare for my staff (to do the frantic rescheduling) and the patients. I have to work overtime down the road to get the rescheduled people seen in a timely fashion. Not only that, but from a solo practice financial point of view, if I’m not there, the revenue stream is shut off. So I’ll pretty much go to work unless I’m incapacitated.
Most patients are understanding when this happens, but a vocal minority become quite upset. They somehow expect us to be unaffected by the health concerns of nondoctors.
The nature of our work as healers doesn’t make us superhuman. We can have the same illnesses and injuries as our patients. Our kids bring home the same germs. We have to negotiate the same traffic hazards.
By the same token, it’s amazing how often I hear other doctors saying of their illness, "How could this happen to me? I’m a doctor!" There seems to be an unspoken belief that by caring for others we should be magically protected from those same diseases.
In spite of our knowledge, we’re still human. Most of us will take the cheeseburger over the tofu patty any day. And, as I noted in a previous column, the stress and hours of this job likely put us at higher risk of vascular disease than our own patients.
For better or worse, none of us are superhuman. And never will be.
Dr. Block has a solo neurology private practice in Scottsdale, Ariz. To respond to this column, e-mail him at clinicalneurologynews@elsevier.com.