Chapter 5: Disillusioned Doctors

Disillusionment among doctors is common. It is not uncommon for even highly successful doctors to say they wish they had gone into another field or that they would not encourage their children to go into medicine. In this chapter, I explore why this might be so. For many, medicine has become just another job dominated by technical skill and technology. I suggest that educating for professionalism as the remedy for this disillusionment is almost certain to fail as the issues are as much sociological as personal and professional. Perhaps disillusionment is a clue to a much more complex reality for modern medicine.