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PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE

Focusing on the youth to

avoid “physician burnout”

By Sheldon Gross, MD, 2018 BCMS President

I have now been in private practice for 34 years. I am happy to benefit immensely from a
say that I still enjoy coming to work and feel great satisfaction from personal standpoint. It is
working with patients. I have observed many colleagues in the hard to become burned out
process. Some have maintained their enthusiasm, energy, and love if you are surrounded by
of their career. Others have developed “physician burnout.” There people who are enthusiastic
has been a great deal of attention devoted to this recently. Numer- and eager to learn. Clearly,
ous articles and lecture series have been dedicated to this. From a we are looking at a symbiotic relationship. Medical students and res-
societal standpoint, the reason is obvious. Our country needs more idents are hungry to learn from the experience of more seasoned
physicians. In particular, we need physicians with many years of ex- practitioners. Seasoned practitioners benefit immensely from shar-
perience. From an individual standpoint, the reason is even more ing in the enthusiasm and love of medicine displayed by our
compelling. All of us have devoted a huge amount of time and en- younger colleagues.
ergy to becoming physicians. As is the case in so many different ca- San Antonio now has two medical schools. The University of
reers, physicians typically get better with age. With our experience Texas Health Science Center is welcoming a new Dean, Dr. Hro-
and knowledge over the years, we can reach a diagnosis more quickly mas. The University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic
and oftentimes can avoid mistakes that we have witnessed in the Medicine is now accepting students for its second class. I encour-
past. The main challenge is to keep up with new developments in age practitioners to contact one of these two institutions and let
our fields. This is the obvious advantage of being recently trained. them know if you are interested in working with medical students.
During one of my more pensive moods, I reflected on what dif- I have never regretted time spent teaching and sharing experiences
ferentiates those who remain enthused about medicine and those with my younger colleagues.
who don’t. One particular experience in my own practice stood out. At the same time that we focus on teaching students and resi-
A fourth-year medical student was visiting my office and shadowing dents, we have to maintain our focus on being in control of our
me for the day. I have always enjoyed this and found this refreshing own practice. We have to maintain focus on ensuring that the bu-
and stimulating. reaucratic non-clinical burden on physicians does not overwhelm
We went into the exam room to see a new patient. This was a 7- us. This is why I am constantly encouraging people to become active
year-old boy who had new onset Bell’s palsy. Over 34 years, I have in organized medicine. One of the many goals of the TMA and
lost count of how many patients I have seen with Bell’s palsy. How- AMA is to maintain as much physician control as possible.
ever, for this medical student it was the first patient he had ever seen For those of you that have had other experiences that renewed
with this condition. I observed his enthusiasm about finally seeing your enthusiasm about medicine, I welcome letters to the editor.
something he had only studied previously. I witnessed his eagerness
to learn more about it and discuss my past experience with Bell’s Sincerely,
palsy. At the end of the day, he thanked me profusely for a stimu- SHELDON GROSS, MD
lating afternoon. As I witnessed this student’s response to seeing Bexar County Medical Society
his first case of Bell’s palsy, it reminded me of the enthusiasm I had
during medical school and postgraduate training. It reminded me
of why I became a physician in the first place. It reminded me of
how fortunate I am to have a career that stays challenging and fas- Editor’s note:
cinating throughout one’s lifetime. I know that in every field of Letters to the Editor are welcome and should be addressed to
medicine there are practicing physicians who not only have a great BCMS Editorial Dept., 4334 N. Loop 1604 W., San Antonio, Texas
deal to teach medical students, residents, and fellows, but would also 78249 or send email to mike.thomas@bcms.org.

8 San Antonio Medicine • March 2018