🧵 1. This is going to be a response to @leo.tasks' prompt for #aprilinleo. The question I'll address is "what makes you feel empowered?" I found this one rather interesting.
This can actually be a tricky one. Power that's placed in the right hands or wrong hands can create impacts on opposite ends of a spectrum going from beneficial to devastating.
🧵 6. It's important to note that this sense of power must be counterbalanced by humility. A physician who lets this power get to their head will become complacent and not respect their role nor their patients the way they should. For this reason, it is essential that the power a physician is granted is strictly used with the utmost responsibility and faithfulness to the Hippocratic Oath.
Indeed!
🧵 3. In my personal position, as a resident physician (I have my credentials but am technically in training), I find that patients place their trust in me and my decisions. While I am often supervised by attending physicians, I still have an increasing level of authority to make my own decisions.
🧵 2. There's a quote I always recall from the movie Schindler's List: "Power - is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't." - Oskar Schindler
Naturally, I'm not talking about killing a person, but rather the underlying meaning: how we choose to use our capabilities to impact other people.
🧵 4. Having the vulnerability of patients' health in my hands comes with a great deal of responsibility - arguably one of the most responsibility-weighted positions in existence. The weight of responsibility comes to mind first and foremost, as per our Hippocratic Oath. After this, the power to make decisions comes into play.
🧵 5. It is when I make decisions to the benefit of my patients, often in spite of preventative conditions within the hospital system (which exist due to bureaucracy) that make me feel the most power. Indeed, helping others is what makes me feel powerful. The choices I make to improve lives gives me a sense of power.
🧵 7. I've seen those physicians who let their powers get to their head, albeit not often. They make errors that harm patients. This is abuse of their license, and it's these types of physicians who tend to get sued - and lose the lawsuits.
I definitely hope to be among those who retain humility throughout their lifetimes and continue learning. It'll be for the best both for myself and for my patients.
The power to have a choice and freedom of speech. We in democratic countries underestimate this since this is normal for us.
Having heard the experiences of my family, who came from an oppressive country, I absolutely appreciate the importance of real freedom of speech and choice. Of course, at extreme ends of the spectrum, we start encountering problems, but the institution of censorship very frequently starts a terrible snowball effect. It takes some real gall to not fall into that exceptionally common trap.