A physician advocate who has taken public advocacy stances against the federal government while employed by the government talks about the conflicts that arise between medicine and politics.
Although members of the medical profession are divided on the issue of physician-assisted suicide, they should continue to responsibly advance the discourse on end-of-life care through use of the media and the policies of physician membership organizations.
A physician member of Congress gives a first-hand account of how she has balanced medicine and politics and how she views her responsibility to the patients of America.
A physician argues that every clinician should expand themselves beyond individual patient care and on some level adopt a public role within their community.
Physicians who are interested providing care to uninsured patients can consider a number of options to balance his altruistic desires with his personal needs.
Physicians need to help surrogate decision makers to make treatment and end-of-life decisions for those with severe neurological damage by proving a realistic prognosis and maintain strong lines of communication.
Physicians should find a way to balance their responsibility to care for individual patients with their desire to serve as public policy advocates so that they do not become overwhelmed in handling both roles.