Roles of a Physician

One common story about the horrors of being a Clerk is the need to do what's called "scutwork", which is basically doing annoying tasks that anyone can do but which no one wants to do. Clerks get to do these tasks because they're at the bottom of the totem pole in medicine and they can't say "no".

So far though, I haven't had any real scutwork to do. My previous work in healthcare definitely involved some of this, both as a student and as a practitioner. I collected garbage, changed linens, transported patients, ran blood samples to the lab... whatever needed to be done. Not the most fun work, but it served a useful purpose and was clearly part of my job. Physicians largely don't have these kinds of responsibilities - there are ancillary staff who take on these tasks - and so Clerks don't have to do it either. There's been very minimal menial labour so far (unless you count writing notes which, while monotonous at times, is usually very necessary patient care).

In some ways though, I wish there was some scutwork. Changing linens was annoying at times, but it was easy and a very tangible way to contribute. For Clerks, who really aren't good for much productive on the medical side of things yet, there are worse things than having an easy, useful task to complete that others would rather not do.

More importantly, I think it's worth remembering that an MD says what we can do, not what we can't. Physicians are very privileged to be able to do almost any task in healthcare, including some very cool, very useful activities that most other people are legally not allowed to perform. But just because there are virtually no tasks above the scope of practice for a physician, that doesn't mean there are skills below the scope of practice for a physician. I can still bring a patient their meal. I can still bring them a blanket. I can still change the linen basket in their room.

I won't do these activities on a regular basis - there are people paid specifically to do these tasks and they know how to do them more efficiently than I do - but like most people, I got into medicine to help people. If that means performing a careful examination, doing appropriate tests, formulating an accurate diagnosis and determining appropriate treatment, great. If that means grabbing a warm blanket from the warming cabinet, also great. In all honesty, sometimes I wish I got to grab more blankets for patients - it really can go a long way to make them feel better when they otherwise might not feel all that great.