Few moments in the professional life of a physician are as rewarding, memorable …and terrifying as Match Day, when you symbolically take your first step out of medical school and into a much larger and more complex world of medicine.
For me, the transition from medical school to my head and neck surgery residency was comparatively a simple one; I didn’t even have to pack a suitcase. I was one of the fortunate few whose medical school and residency training programs were at the same school—the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, but still about 1,000 miles from my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, where I returned after residency to join a small independent otolaryngology practice that I am still a part of.
Residency training is like a fingerprint: No two people will have the exact same experience. But there are attributes that I believe nearly all people who pursue medicine share—first among these is a desire to help people and to change lives for the better.
During the long hours and mounting responsibilities of residency, it's easy to become jaded about the important work we do. That’s especially true at this moment with so much hostile rhetoric about health care, so many challenges facing practicing physicians, and so many aspects of our health system that seem outside our control. This is why burnout continues to plague our profession and why so many physicians of my generation are leaving medicine behind.
But here’s the secret about our profession: Nobody walks alone.
Each of us has allies across medicine who confront the same challenges we face, and who fight the same battles we fight. These may be physicians in your department, in your hospital or practice, or in your specialty on the other side of the country. Ours is a special profession – we are bound together as colleagues by our calling and our commitment to patients. Remember this as the obstacles in front of us grow and the headwinds against us stiffen.
Your stake in medicine’s future
When physicians around the country ask me about why I’ve invested so much of my professional life—more than 30 years—into organized medicine, I tell them simply: “What I do each day has the incredible power to change lives for the better. But I can only impact one person at a time. The AMA does for physicians and our patients what we as individual physicians cannot do alone.”
This is not (entirely) a shameless plug for AMA membership. It’s a reminder that regardless of geography, specialty or lived experiences, our physician community is united by a common set of values that compels us to use our voice for good. It compels us to not only call attention to misguided regulations affecting our patients and our colleagues, but to work to fix them when they are contrary to the best interests of our patients. This is stated plainly in the principles of our very own AMA Code of Medical Ethics.
This is what health care advocacy is all about. It’s why physicians, medical students and residents engage with us, shape our policy, and lend their expertise to help us decide what challenges to take on—excessive administrative hassles, gun violence, health inequities, expanding graduate medical education residency slots, lowering the cost of a medical school education, just to name a few.
As medical students, and soon-to-be residents, you have an enormous stake in the future of health care in the U.S. Is it a health system that supports physician and patient autonomy? Is it a model where independent practices have the resources to thrive? Does it allow physicians to prioritize their own mental health and well-being?
Sadly, the health system we have today is falling short in these and so many other areas. So, what are we going to do about it?
I believe that the AMA and physicians throughout our country are built for a moment such as this. And standing together, speaking with a unified voice, I know we can be effective advocates for our colleagues, for our fellow students and residents, for our patients, and for creating a sustainable model for health care that allows physicians to thrive.
A model that protects the future of this profession for you, and the generation that will follow.
Because when physicians thrive, our health system thrives. Patient outcomes improve. The future for health care is brighter.
Match Day is sure to stir many emotions as you move from one chapter to another. Take a moment to reflect on how far you’ve come, and what you want the future of our profession to look like.
My hope is that you recognize the power of your own voice to make a difference and the power of the voice of a united profession to secure the future of health care. The AMA is fighting for physicians, and future physicians, by addressing the important issues so that you can focus on what matters most: taking care of patients. And that when you’re ready to fight for our collective future, come join us. We will meet this challenge—together.
Want the latest viewpoints from AMA leadership?
