Editing Physician (section)

==Social role and world view==
{{Main|Medical anthropology|History of medicine}}

===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}}

===Alternative medicine===
While contemporary biomedicine has distanced itself from its ancient roots in religion and magic, many forms of [[traditional medicine]]<ref name="galdston63tradmed">{{cite book |editor1-first= Iago|editor1-last= Galdston|title= Man's image in medicine and anthropology: Monograph&nbsp;IV, Institute of social and historical medicine, New York Academy of Medicine|url= https://archive.org/details/mansimageinmedic00arde|url-access= registration|year= 1963 |publisher=International Universities Press |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/mansimageinmedic00arde/page/43 43–334] |chapter=Part 1: Medicine and primitive man (five chapters); Part 2: Medical man and medicine man in three North American Indian societies (three chapters) }}</ref> and [[alternative medicine]] continue to espouse [[vitalism]] in various guises: "As long as life had its own secret properties, it was possible to have sciences and medicines based on those properties".<ref>{{cite book |author=Grossinger, Richard |title=Planet medicine: from stone age shamanism to post-industrial healing |pages=116–131 |orig-year=1980 |year=1982 |edition=Revised |publisher= North Atlantic Books|location=Berkeley, California, US |isbn= 978-1-55643-369-6}}</ref> The US [[National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health|National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine]] (NCCAM) classifies [[complementary and alternative medicine]] therapies into five categories or domains, including:<ref name="Complementary and Alt Med">{{cite web |url=https://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/acquisitions/cdm/subjects24.html |title=Complementary and Alternative Medicine&nbsp;– U.S. National Library of Medicine Collection Development Manual |access-date=31 March 2008 |archive-date=23 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223124705/https://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/acquisitions/cdm/subjects24.html |url-status=live }}</ref> alternative medical systems, or complete systems of therapy and practice; [[bodymind|mind-body]] interventions, or techniques designed to facilitate the mind's effect on bodily functions and symptoms; biologically based systems including [[herbalism]]; and manipulative and body-based methods such as [[chiropractic]] and massage therapy.

In considering these alternate traditions that differ from biomedicine (see above), [[medical anthropology|medical anthropologists]] emphasize that all ways of thinking about health and disease have a significant cultural content, including conventional western medicine.<ref name="hahn1" /><ref name="Good94" /><ref name="galdston63biomed">{{cite book |editor1-first= Iago|editor1-last= Galdston|title= Man's image in medicine and anthropology: Monograph&nbsp;IV, Institute of social and historical medicine, New York Academy of Medicine|url= https://archive.org/details/mansimageinmedic00arde|url-access= registration|year= 1963 |publisher=International Universities Press |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/mansimageinmedic00arde/page/477 477–520] |chapter=Part V: Culture and the practice of modern medicine (two chapters)}}</ref><ref name="Joralemon99">{{cite book |author=Joralemon, DonaldJ |title=Exploring medical anthropology|publisher=Allyn and Bacon |location=Needham Heights, MA, US |year=1999 |pages= 1–15 |chapter= chapter 1: What's so cultural about disease? (pbk) |isbn=0-205-27006-9}}</ref>

[[Ayurveda]], [[Unani medicine]], and [[homeopathy]] are popular types of alternative medicine.

===Physicians' own health===
Some commentators have argued that physicians have duties to serve as role models for the general public in matters of health, for example by not smoking cigarettes.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Appel JM |title=Smoke and mirrors: one case for ethical obligations of the physician as public role model |journal=Camb Q Healthc Ethics |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=95–100 |year=2009 |pmid=19149049 |doi=10.1017/S0963180108090142|s2cid=42678745 }}</ref> Indeed, in most western nations relatively few physicians smoke, and their professional knowledge does appear to have a beneficial effect on their health and lifestyle. According to a study of male physicians in the United States,<ref name=frank>{{cite journal |author=Frank E|author2=Biola H|author3=Burnett CA |title=Mortality rates and causes among U.S. physicians |journal=Am J Prev Med |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=155–9 |date=October 2000 |pmid=11020591 |doi=10.1016/S0749-3797(00)00201-4|doi-access=free }}</ref> [[life expectancy]] is slightly higher for physicians (73 years for white and 69 years for black) than lawyers or many other highly educated professionals. Causes of death which are less likely to occur in physicians than the general population include respiratory disease (including [[pneumonia]], [[pneumoconioses]], [[Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease|COPD]], but excluding [[emphysema]] and other [[chronic airway obstruction]]), alcohol-related deaths, [[Rectosigmoid neoplasm|rectosigmoid]] and [[anal cancer]]s, and bacterial diseases.<ref name=frank/>

Physicians do experience exposure to [[occupational hazard]]s, and there is a well-known aphorism that "doctors make the worst patients".<ref name=schneck>{{cite journal |author=Schneck SA |title='Doctoring' doctors and their families |journal=JAMA |volume=280 |issue=23 |pages=2039–42 |date=December 1998 |pmid=9863860 |doi=10.1001/jama.280.23.2039|doi-access=free }}</ref> Causes of death that are shown to be higher in the physician population include [[suicide among doctors]] and [[Self inflicted injury|self-inflicted injury]], drug-related causes, traffic accidents, and cerebrovascular and ischaemic heart disease.<ref name=frank/> Physicians are also prone to [[occupational burnout]]. This manifests as a long-term stress reaction characterized by poorer quality of care towards patients, emotional exhaustion, a feeling of decreased personal achievement, and others. A study by the [[Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality]] reported that time pressure was the greatest cause of burnout; a survey from the [[American Medical Association]] reported that more than half of all respondents chose "too many bureaucratic tasks" as the leading cause of burnout.<ref>{{cite web |title=Physician Burnout |url=https://www.ahrq.gov/prevention/clinician/ahrq-works/burnout/index.html |website=[[Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality]] |access-date=31 July 2020 |date=July 2017 |archive-date=20 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020082029/https://www.ahrq.gov/prevention/clinician/ahrq-works/burnout/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Berg |first1=Sara |title=Physician burnout: It's not you, it's your medical specialty |url=https://www.ama-assn.org/residents-students/specialty-profiles/physician-burnout-it-s-not-you-it-s-your-medical-specialty |website=[[American Medical Association]] |access-date=31 July 2020 |date=3 August 2018 |archive-date=20 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020021709/https://www.ama-assn.org/residents-students/specialty-profiles/physician-burnout-it-s-not-you-it-s-your-medical-specialty |url-status=live }}</ref>