I ran into a good friend the other day who also happens to be an old school general surgeon.  He comes from a family of old school surgeons with the values about what it means to by a doctor drilled deep into his core.

After catching up about our families, the talk turned to changes we are facing in the physician industry.

'Everything is moving to shift work,' he commented.  'Doctors are going to be working shifts and I don't think patients yet understand what that will mean to them.'

He then went on to elaborate on his point.  He had done a full load of cases on Friday knowing he was going to be out of town the entire next week. (Chaperoning a group of 7th graders on a mission trip, my son included, I might add.  They are in good hands.) Though his patients were turned over to the hospitalists after surgery, as they always are, he still rounded on them Saturday morning because that is the way he was taught to care for his patients.  A couple of them had pretty complex cases and he wanted to check again before he left, so he went to see them again Sunday morning.

So when I bumped into him at church Easter morning, he had already been to see his patients, to make sure they were doing OK, and to reassure them they were in good hands while he was out of town.

'That,' he said, 'will soon be gone.'