“Excuse me?” I saw a teenage boy come out of the warehouse at Target back to the aisle, smock in hand, sweatshirt on – he was ready to go home. “Sorry, I’m off the clock,” he said, before I could even trail into the next sentence. Darn, I really just wanted to ask him where the restroom was…

I will never forget over a decade ago when I was a naive medical student trying to trudge my way through higher education and balance the frivolities that came with being young, single and living in the thriving high-energy, city of New Orleans, Louisiana. My classmate, her fiancee and I were talking about airplanes and travel. He mentioned something about how it would be nice for us to go on vacation and briefly said something about how we would be ‘off the clock,’ and have some time off. She and I stopped, glanced at each other, and looked back at him, “Huh? What do you mean? A Doctor is never off the clock.”

I have been fortunate enough to be needed for medical purposes outside of the hospital very few times in my life. Being a professional locum tenens and traveling throughout the country has heightened my odds being in large transit and small cabins without resources nearby or in locations with few health care providers like myself nearby (eg: the desert). I have been lucky enough to not need to consider too heavily the nuances of being a Good Samaritan. As of today, I have responded twice on an airplane, and only been useful once, and only to open a medical kit for a bandaid for a child. As of today, I have witnessed two elderly people ‘gently’ fall to the ground, likely due to some syncopal episodes for which they didn’t lose consciousness – one was in France, and the Irish Emergency Medicine doctor on our food tour and I looked over realizing locals had already called an ambulance and she was breathing so we could add little more, one was 15 years ago coming out of a K-Mart (do those still exist?). As of today, the reality is, I haven’t been asked to do too much, but when a friend is in need, especially with questions on their child, or if someone is sick, I have responded every time, morning or night, as fast as i could.

Like most people, I enjoy a life outside of medicine these days, although it is seemingly minimal. I have drowned myself in work, maybe because it’s the main thing I know how to do. But, I do go out. Just like anyone else, in any other job, I need the mental clarity that only comes from distancing oneself from thinking about work; but, my enjoyment of such space has been limited with solitude i’ve both intentionally and unintentionally fallen into, particularly during the 11 years I have dedicated specifically to learning how to be a Doctor in the first place. My stress level is often elevated in times it shouldn’t be, and whether it is a simple personal feeling or a shared plight of others, is an enigma we don’t often discuss out loud.

But, there is something beautiful, dedicated and passionate about Helping Others. There is something at the core of Medicine that I feel remains in sincerity for a majority of us – we didn’t choose the path of health care to not care about the health of those around us, if we have any ability to influence it. People see me as I am a specter wandering the world on my “time off” and I blend in just like any other human to the flock; yet, occasionally there may be a question in times of need as to, “Is there a doctor?”

The truth is, we are all around, waiting in plain sight, even after we have clocked out, because in reality.. A doctor is never off the clock.

Image Credit: ChatGPT