The Medical Profession resigned?

This week I was the guest speaker for a colleague's Nutrition course at the College. I was sharing the Life Puzzle model--and discussing how the nutrition piece of one's Life Puzzle impacts all the other pieces (see following blog--Every piece impacts the whole.).

Most of the people in the room were either already working in the medical profession--or were in the process of entering the field with the completion of their degrees. As I talked about the Choosing Continuum--one woman, dressed in 'medical scrubs', raised her hand and said, "Well, how do we tell a client that they have to take responsibility and change their lifestyle, when all they really want is for us to give them a pill and send them on their way? If the doctor I work for doesn't do this, they'll trot down the street to someone who will!!!!!

As she said this, many other students were shaking their heads in agreement. They described clients as by and large desiring to relinquish their health care to the system instead of taking responsibility for their own lives. And I know they're right as I've heard this very same lament for the last 25 years...."but patients won't do it'.

It reinforces the reality that most people...and our medical profession as well, operate from the 0-5, reactive, unconscious, victim model. People create the system, system reinforces the people and we stay locked in a vicious, victim cycle.

I know you and I can't change that system. All you can do is change your SELF. But also remember this...when you enter the medical profession to seek help, don't expect to get 6-10 proactive, conscious help! For the medical profession has resigned! With the rare exception, they have abandoned standing up to the 0-5, reactive client and resigned themselves to the quick fix--even though they know this isn't good health care and leaves us all in a downward spiral.

I concurred with these students that changing the system is not going to be easy but that after this evening's class--from here on out they are going to have to ask themselves--am I truly a helping professional who takes responsibility for how I work in my field--proactive and conscious, or am I just a cog in the wheel of a system to which I'm a victim.

Our medical system is on the verge of collapse. Only the people in it and the people who access it can determine whether it totally fails (both groups!) or it begins to shift 6-10, proactive. The folks in the medical professions are going to need to get a backbone and take back their profession!