My duty and my patient

I will not permit consideration of race, gender, religion, nationality, ideology,

or social standing to intervene between my duty and my patient.

Now this is one that clearly resonates deeply with me.

This was written in a very different time, well before there were insurance companies, health maintenance organizations, or RVUs.

However, it specifically addresses not allowing social standing to intervene between the physician and the patient. As a physician who has spent nearly her whole career providing care to those who are marginalized by society and unable to access health care through any of the traditional safety net, I regularly hear stories from real patients whose social standing prevents them from receiving care.

I am incredibly proud and humbled to have found a setting in which I do not have to allow social standing or funding status to intervene between my duty and my patient.