Editing Physician (section)

===Biomedicine===
Within [[Western culture]] and over recent centuries, medicine has become increasingly based on scientific [[reductionism]] and [[materialism]]. This style of medicine is now dominant throughout the industrialized world, and is often termed ''[[biomedicine]]'' by [[Medical anthropology|medical anthropologists]].<ref name="hahn1">{{cite book |editor1-first= R.A. Hahn|editor1-last= A. Gaines|title= Physicians of western medicine  |year= 1985|publisher=  D. Reidel|location=   Dordrecht (Netherlands)|isbn= 90-277-1790-7|pages= 3–22| chapter= Chapter 1: Introduction (by editors)}}</ref> Biomedicine "formulates the human body and disease in a culturally distinctive pattern",<ref name="Good94">{{cite book |author=Good, Byron J |title=Medicine, rationality, and experience: an anthropological perspective (based on the Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures, at the University of Rochester, NY, in March 1990)|publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |year=1994 |pages= 65, 65–87 |chapter=Chapter (pbk)3 |isbn=0-521-42576-X}}</ref> and is a [[world view]] learnt by medical students. Within this tradition, the [[medical model]] is a term for the complete "set of procedures in which all doctors are trained",<ref name="Laing71">{{cite book |author=Laing, R.D. |title=The politics of the family and other essays |publisher=Tavistock Publications |location=London |year=1971 }}</ref> including mental attitudes. A particularly clear expression of this world view, currently dominant among conventional physicians, is [[evidence-based medicine]]. Within conventional medicine, most physicians still pay heed to their ancient traditions:

{{blockquote|The critical sense and sceptical attitude of the citation of medicine from the shackles of priestcraft and of caste; ''secondly'', the conception of medicine as an art based on accurate observation, and as a science, an integral part of the science of man and of nature; ''thirdly'', the high moral ideals, expressed in that most "memorable of human documents" (Gomperz), the [[Hippocratic oath]]; and ''fourthly'', the conception and realization of medicine as the profession of a cultivated gentleman.

:— [[William Osler|Sir William Osler]], ''Chauvanism in Medicine'' (1902)<ref name="osler1">{{cite journal |author=Osler, Sir William|title=Chauvanism in medicine: address to the Canadian Medical Association, Montreal (17 September 1902)|journal=The Montreal Medical Journal |volume=XXXI |year=1902}}</ref>}}

In this Western tradition, physicians are considered to be members of a learned [[profession]], and enjoy high [[social status]], often combined with expectations of a high and stable income and [[job security]]. However, medical practitioners often work long and inflexible hours, with shifts at unsociable times. Their high status is partly from their extensive training requirements, and also because of their occupation's special [[Medical ethics|ethical]] and [[Medical jurisprudence|legal]] duties. The term traditionally used by physicians to describe a person seeking their help is the word ''patient'' (although one who [[Doctor's visit|visits]] a physician for a routine [[check-up]] may also be so described). This word [[wikt:patient|patient]] is an ancient reminder of medical duty, as it originally meant 'one who suffers'. The English noun comes from the [[Latin]] word ''patiens'', the [[present participle]] of the [[deponent verb]], [[wikt:patior|patior]], meaning 'I am suffering', and akin to the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] verb {{Langx|grc|πάσχειν|label=none}} (<small>[[Romanization of Ancient Greek|romanized]]:</small> ''paschein'', <small>[[Literal translation|lit.]]</small> to suffer) and its cognate noun [[wikt:πάθος|πάθος]] ([[wikt:pathos|''pathos'']], suffering).<ref name="newSOED"/><ref name="Partridge">{{cite book |author=Partridge, Eric |title=Origins: a short etymological dictionary of modern English |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |year=1966 |isbn=0-02-594840-7 }}</ref>

Physicians in the original, narrow sense (specialist physicians or internists, see above) are commonly members or fellows of professional organizations, such as the [[American College of Physicians]] or the [[Royal College of Physicians]] in the United Kingdom, and such hard-won membership is itself a mark of status. {{Citation needed|date=July 2015}}