As doctors, we give our patients our full attention to get the signs and symptoms, diagnose their disease, and prescribe the best treatment for them. On the other hand, when being sick, many of us ignore our symptoms, neglect the signs,continue our life as if nothing is wrong. We refuse seeking treatment by a specialist. Some of us aren’t convinced with medications, too! Weird.. huh?! When we think about it, we find that this attitude towards our health and well-being starts when we are still medical students and residents. The concept of taking a day sick leave is very uncommon and annoying to our seniors. But, how can we look after our patients and treat them appropriately while we are unhealthy or sick ?! We simply can’t. May be the feeling of responsibility towards our patients make us in a denial phase that we are sick and need some rest. Most of us attend the clinic/hospital even if we are sick. This can put our patients at risk if our illness is contagious. Or may be our financial needs that we can’t lose the income of one day off is what make us neglect our illness. Do we depend on our immunity and think that our medical life will protect us from illnesses? This would be a very strange concept. The concept of taking a sick-leave must be accepted by us -the doctors-, and our patients. We should treat ourselves as humanbeings, then expect that from our patients; As collegues we have to cover each other’s shifts when someone is sick. As seniors we have to be merciful with our juniors and let them have their right of being sick and have some rest. Then, we can expect our patients to accept the excuse of “Sorry, the doctor you are asking to meet is in sick-leave”. Doctors must look after themselves and believe that it’s part of their responsibility towards their patient. The healthier the doctor is, the more he can give his patients.
