Re: Is medicine a calling? Or a career?

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 67, No. 7, September 2025, Page 235 Letters
By: Alexander E. Nataros, MD, CM, CCFP

This was an excellent editorial [BCMJ 2025;67:157]. I would offer that another key contributor to physician burnout is a disconnect from community needs due to unnecessarily bureaucratic and often redundant health authorities—a disconnect from what was once a calling to serve. In my incoming role on the board of directors for BC Family Doctors, I look forward to advocating for frontline physician leadership and sharing how, in spite of a sometimes adversarial health authority, our North Island Community Health Centre in Port Hardy has demonstrated how truly accessible, culturally safe, and trauma-informed care led by physicians can be rooted in community needs while fostering the deep meaning in practice that we strive for.
—Alexander E. Nataros, MD, CM, CCFP
Medical Director, North Island Community Health Centre
Port Hardy

This letter was submitted in response to “Is medicine a calling? Or a career?”

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Alexander E. Nataros, MD, CM, CCFP. Re: Is medicine a calling? Or a career?. BCMJ, Vol. 67, No. 7, September, 2025, Page(s) 235 - Letters.


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