8 Social Roles Doctors Play

I once thought that being a doctor was all about prescribing drugs for sick people- how wrong I was.

Different Roles Doctors Play

When I started practicing, I had to learn the other roles doctors play not taught in medical school, these include:-

1. Marriage Counsellor.

I’ve been asked one too many times to play a mediatory role between a husband and a wife: e.g. this story where the husband was not faithful; and this story where the wife doubted the husband’s fertility.

2. Telephone Operator.

We learn the art of making and receiving phone calls at the oddest of hours, and how to politely turn that patient down who calls you for a drug to treat that swelling he has that you can’t see.

3. Career Guidance.

Everyone wants to know what it is like to be a doctor, and should they continue on that path or take another route?

4. Public Speaker.

The inevitable world of presentations: From presenting patient cases to your superiors to presenting mortality figures to the whole hospital, to talking about Diabetes to the old men at church, you really can’t escape this.

5. Dispute Resolution.

Somehow, you’re expected to have the solution to any dispute that the courts can’t provide, e.g. this post about a lady who had two boyfriends and didn’t know which was the father.

6. Philanthropy.

Your name is kept at the top of any event, and the reason is so you can donate your hard-earned cash. I was once asked to donate a public utility in my locality; you can guess my reply.

7. Fortune Teller.

“Doctor, will I survive?” “Doctor, will I walk again?” “Doctor, will this tablet work?”

8. Detective.

So many mysteries will present themselves, and you’re a better doctor if you can solve them, an example I once had a case where the Lady was found dead in a room, with the door locked on the outside.