Lessons From the War Zone

This is a great article, which deserves to be read in its entirety. It speaks generally to the wisdom acquired by expanding one's experiences outside of one's immediate environment, and specifically to the impact on physicians of time spent caring for patients in the "War Zone." Although I have not spent time in such a situation, I am certain that my prior years overseas and now frequent short-term mission trips have tangibly and intangibly helped me become a better physician. Tangibly, I have had the opportunity to manage medically and surgically much more complex disease (and in much higher volume) than seen in the States. Intangibly, the benefit has been along the lines of ingraining the incredible privilege of being a physician--having a "job" in which I can help others quite directly. These experiences have also given me a different perspective on health care than many of my colleagues. Helping others at the edges of survival in marginal governments with minimal infrastructure and government has also led to a jaundiced view of the entities who have insinuated themselves into health care here for selfish interests--the usual suspects--greedy insurance executives, ambulance chasers and other entities who act to erode basic physician-patient trust and care in our society.
Uvealblues

Not long ago I saw my former chairman again for the first time in nearly 20 years. He was older and slightly grayer, and still possessed of the stunning carriage that made him stand out in a room. But as I stood before him, what I remembered was not his having served in Vietnam nor even his remarkable skill, but his profound respect for the humanity of those he cared for, whoever they might have been.

For what he had taught me, first as a doctor-in-training and later as a fully trained surgeon and teacher, and what I recalled were the moments he urged us not to be tardy with our patients, to change out of our surgical scrubs into neat street clothes when leaving the operating rooms to see patients, and to be mindful, always, of even the smallest details of our patients’ experiences.

War, we are now learning, can have wide-ranging, complex and not always positive effects on doctors who serve. But one thing is certain: seeing the casualties of combat does more than produce war doctors capable of caring for any injury. It has the paradoxical power to create doctors with an extraordinary appreciation for all humanity.

Here is another link to discussions on the above article.