Doctors by Vocation vs. Doctors of Title

Many times I have heard that the profession of doctor is vocational, "that you have to be firm for this", "I could not" and although I have always agreed, the truth is that over the years I reaffirm this idea.

The vocation, according to the dictionary defines it as the natural inclination of a person for an art, a profession or a certain kind of life; Being a doctor encompasses these three aspects of the definition.

This is one of the famous phrases of medicine:

"A doctor has the mission not only to prevent death but also to improve the quality of life, if they treat an illness, win or lose, if they treat a person, I guarantee they will always win regardless of the consequences." - Patch Adams

Pacth Adams is a renowned doctor for being the doctor of laughter therapy, where his life story has been captured on the big screen starring the well-known actor Robin Williams; where we can put it as a great example of being a doctor whose vocation is dedicated to giving you the best quality of life and the healing of your illnesses through laughter therapy.

Currently in Venezuela there are very few doctors by vocation, which its priority is the patient's welfare and not the economic cost; At the international level it is not a secret that the economic situation and the shortage of medicines and food is very, very unfavorable.

Doctors by title are those who, instead of worrying about the well-being of the patient, are worried about what the patient will cover the costs of the treatment that they will be doing, I have had a close experience with a family member.

My relative is a senior citizen that is to say an older adult, and among the economic instability that grows more and more each day, they had to perform a surgery since their life ran a high level of danger, the treating doctor is one of the doctors of vocation along with his team of doctors working, the clinic where he was admitted, is one of the best doctors, the surgery had a super high cost and out of reach of our hands which was not included the fees Doctors, the clinic asked us to cancel first the cost of the surgery and the medications that had been placed to the patient to be able to perform the emergency surgery that required.

We were referred to a public hospital of renown that contained medical supplies and medical specialists who could perform the surgery without any cost, the care was totally worse than in the private clinic where we were previously, there in the hospital they did not accept the preliminary examinations that they were done in the private clinic that only had hours of being done, they did the exams again, and in the wait of the results we realized that they had lost the blood sample and for that detail the treating doctor that is the doctor by title he told us that it was best that we take the patient who was not going to perform the surgery as it was getting out of hand and she was not going to do the exams again and she gave us a bill for her medical fees.

This is just one of the many experiences lived in Venezuela in the medical part. I am a dentist and after this experience I realized that my colleagues in the field of health, most are medical doctors and not doctors by vocation.

I am a Dentist by VOCATION and not by title.