The Job and the Calling

Throughout our history, the hallmark of American culture has been competition, individual ambition, and the desire for achievement as measured in terms of economic success. These forces have reached unprecedented intensity in recent years, which leaves practitioners and teachers of medicine caught as never before in the vortex of a society driven by market values. In the final analysis, these values--while they account for many of the great achievements of American medicine--are finally in conflict with the service commitment of the profession. The great challenge for medical educators is to keep American medicine economically strong while finding ways to preserve and encourage the spirit of sacrifice and charity that led so many young people into the field in the first place.