A Meditation on Passion

Today I was talking to Kristina Bruns, an AZCOM student and president of the Glendale Campus' Pediatrics Club, about passion.

Kristina, a striking young lady from Minnesota, lights up every time she mentions pediatric oncology. She has spent by her estimate 300 hours working with children with cancer. And every time she mentions the subject, she uses the word passion.

That's a different matter than saying, "I like doing X," or "I enjoy working with Y." Passion is a far more active noun than the verbs to like or to enjoy. Passion implies dedication, absorption, commitment, and a single-minded focus on something that springs from a foundation of deep love.

Working in as many industries and environments as I have, I know one thing - in virtually every corporate job out there, passion is not a necessary job requirement. Competence? Absolutely. And if you learn to love your job, so much the better. But it is a rare case indeed when a person works in a cubicle or office and can admit to having a genuine passion for what they're doing.

In medicine, however, I think the reverse needs to be true. A medical career in general should be undertaken only by people who have a clear and vested interest in the meaning and implications of the Hippocratic and Osteopathic Oaths. Love of and desire for doing the kind of work that medicine requires should be a prerequisite for the career.

Why? Because in medicine your first and most important duty is to help others. That is the motivation that gets you through the decades of study and sacrifice that are required to become a medical professional. If you're in it for the bucks and the Benz, you are clearly in the wrong profession and would be better served - as would the world - by seeking a different career path.

Kristina Bruns acknowledges that her future in medicine could be affected by a myriad of factors, including her post-doctoral match results and residencies. Her love for medicine lets her accept that she may end up in a specialty she hadn't considered or which might be second or third on her wish list.

But her passion is writ large on her face and woven tightly into her speech when she speaks of children struggling with cancer. For their sake as much as hers, I hope she ends up doing that work in her career. That kind of passion and dedication is as critical to medical practice and the beneficiaries thereof as any drug or surgical technique.

If that passion is matched by Kristina's peers and by those tasked with training her for her career, then the future of healthcare is indeed a bright one.