Nobody can speak for a complete group of people, but I can answer for my own experiences as well as from the encounters with my peers. A normal day as in routine almost never exists: you frequently don't know when your day starts nor when it ends. And what is in between consists of planned appointments crossed with events that you weren't aware of when stepping out of bed in the morning. I assume you only are interested in the happiness regarding the profession. You see a lot of different people every day, with very different personalities and illnesses. The most rewarding things can be less spectacular than saving someone's life, all though when that happens of course you feel good. But altering the day to day problems that people have to endure can also be rewarding : the knowledge that you take part in the whole scheme of treatments and thus have a beneficial effect on the patient and his family can give a “happy” feeling. On the contrary you have the people that are never satisfied, whatever you try. Some people don’t want solutions or answers to their problems, but just want a person to complain to. In the beginning that was difficult for me, but once you understand that this can also be a need, you stop giving solutions, but listen to them. What I remember most about my meetings with my peers is that late in the evening, near the end of the meeting they all complained about similar problems with patients, and that was mostly about the lack of gratitude, mostly when you payed that extra attention or layed more of your inner selves in these patients. An old colleague of mine said there will always be a worse patient than the one you don't want to see anymore. I think the problem is that when you see lots of patients, the most people are pleasant to work with/for, but you always remember the one that made problems. And in most instances it’s about aggression.. I think that is only human; Not to mention all the paperwork and regulations made by the government, and I can go on..; The most of them then said they would have chosen another profession. But why do they want their kids to be doctors as well ? But, and here comes the undeniable truth : in 2009 I was diagnosed with an incurable neurological disease, which made it for me impossible to continue working. The 25 years before, I was busy as a family physician, medical expert, was responsible for two houses for the elderly (250 beds), and did expertises for the federal police. And now, we are eight years further, and I still miss my work. It wasn't a job, it completely was the basis of my “being”. My former patients let me know they still miss me, and I still miss the contacts. My wife has to wake me up up to 4 times a night because of nightmares in which I want to do my work, but am unable to because my body won’t cope. I think the latter says it all. The compulsiveness to aid people is still daily present. The missing of the rewarding feeling is a big problem. Source
