The word “vocation” is derived from the Latin word “vocare,” which means “to call.” It was originally used to refer to a spiritual call from God to devote one’s life to a particular purpose. In modern usage, it is most often used to refer to a profession or career.  It can also refer to the strong feeling of being called to a particular profession, such as a religious calling. In other words, it may represent the purpose or mission in life that someone feels compelled to pursue or fulfill.

Yet we give up a decade or more to train, to learn, with a laundry list of occupational hazards that are not found in other professions.  Lawsuits, long hours, poor health, unrealistic expectations, working within a broken system, losing colleagues without the governing bodies blinking an eye are just some of the hazards. 

Yet I do believe in physicians and medicine.

Self care, or self focus, is not selfish.
What do you need to thrive?
We are fully human when we focus on what we need to thrive, not by what society tells us we need to have materialistically to meet a standard of ‘success’. 

Originally Published on https://www.theworthyphysician.com/blog

Sapna Shah-Haque Internal Medicine Physician

Dr. Sapna Shah-Haque, MD is a board certified Internal Medicine physician. She was born and raised in Kansas, and attended medical school at the University of Kansas [KU] School of Medicine. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at KU-Wichita as well. After experiencing burnout herself, and watching other physician colleagues burn out, it became a passion of hers to look into different aspects of burnout. While the system does need to change, as it is broken, this podcast is a way to reach physicians and possibly shed light on what is not an isolated situation.