Do As I Say, Not As I Do

I’ve heard patients say, “How could she smoke and she’s a doctor?” Alarmed and bewildered by the fact that an agent of health could partake in one of the most harmful acts of bodily destruction. In medical school, a sizable number of my classmates smoked and I always found it so counter-intuitive, mind-boggling that they would be learning about smoker’s lung in pathology and on class breaks would huddled outside the lecture hall sucking on their cancer sticks. These same colleagues would then be encouraged to exhort smoking cessation in our clinical skills session while we all sit, simulated patient included, in a room rife with the heaviness of second hand smoke. One would assume that there should be a direct correlation between knowledge on a topic and healthy decision-making but we know all too well that that is not the case. As Thomas Goetz states, fear of illness is not sustainable motivator for positive change in health behavior and that is true even if you’re a physician. It has certainly been true of me.