I cannot be the good doctor you want me to be

To be a conscientious doctor, I would strive to be

Available and responsive to my patients readily

When I met patients I would try to provide

Reassurance to them that I was by their side

I encouraged them to send in their questions or concerns

I had an intent to answer them promptly, phone calls return

Within a day or two, I wanted to address

Anything that was causing them distress

I thought it would help keep hospitalizations at bay

Allow my sick patients at home to stay

I also saw patients when they requested appointments urgent

To turn no one away was my intent

Of course, I wanted to build my reputation too

Being available to patients seemed the right thing to do

*

My practice expanded, my workload did as well

I tried to keep up but soon I could tell

That there was no way I could reply to my patients’ queries

Engaging with their questions was a practice I needed to cease

I had to limit seeing patients added on to my schedule

At the last minute, they would be seen by appointment only as a rule

*

The patients did not like this change as I had feared

My image was tarnished, now I appeared

To be callous, or lazy, and everything in between

Truthfully, this was additional workload that went largely unseen

By the powers to be, I was staying late every day

To keep my patients satisfied in every way..

*

I asked for help, an assistant to convey

Whatever it was that I wanted to say

To patients, some still resented me for the lack

Of direct communication, but I knew I could not go back

My assistant would now help me decide

Whether I needed to see someone urgently so that I could adequate care provide

*

I am a less than perfect doctor now

But imperfect communication has allowed

Me to focus on actual patient care

There aren’t enough hours in the day to spare

In responding to patients’ questions, I have to delegate

This responsibility to someone else in order to accommodate

An ever increasing number and complexity

Of the patients that I am trained to see