Why You Get Into Medicine
Most of the patients we see at the Boyle McCauley Health Centre are either homeless or transiently housed, and a lot of them have addictions and mental health issues. As doctors, we see people who basically can’t go anywhere else. We don’t end up seeing as many people as your average medical doctor during the day. Instead of seeing 6 patients with 1 problem, you see 1 patient with 6 problems.
It’s interesting work because you get to deal with so much stuff: so many balls in the air with these patients. It’s not for everybody, but I did a rotation there when I was a resident and I really wound up liking it.
I also work a day a week out at the Gunn Centre in Onoway. At the Gunn Centre we rehabilitate the homeless; we try and get them back into society, away from drinking and being on drugs.
I feel like I have a responsibility to take care of the people who are the least well off in society. That’s really why everybody gets into medicine, or at least that’s why everybody says they get into medicine. It’s not all for the money and the chicks—it’s for the power. Just kidding.
You have to be willing to put up with a lot of crap from your patients, but it’s very rewarding because you can say you saved a guy’s life at some point. You rarely get to fix someone immediately in most family medicine jobs.
Where Next?
Cam Barr
Dr. Cam Barr completed his undergraduate education at Queen’s University and medical school at the University of Alberta. Besides medicine, he is also fond of zombies, videogames and of not being on fire; to the latter end he joined a Facebook group of anti-conflagration enthusiasts.
