The Dread Art

The career of a surgeon is among the most challenging of medical specialties. Demands for exactitude, endurance, and equanimity pile an even higher burden on an already terribly complex scope of knowledge, judgement, and technical expertise. It is no wonder that, despite the marvels of modern medicine, pitfalls abound in the life of the surgical practitioner. Nature does not always abide by the scientific algorithms of evidence-based skills. Patients suffer, patients die, blame abounds, disappointment ripens, and personal merit wavers. In its wake looms anger, volatility, depression, and withdrawal. Burnout: the triad of exhaustion, depersonalization, and discouragement sneaks in. The solution? Understanding of the pressures of surgical practice, compassion for fellow surgeons, an effort to teach better life-work balance, and, most of all, forgiveness for understandable acts of omission or commission; due diligence, of course, but also a recognition of the fallibility of not only human enterprises but the fallibility of medical science in general.