Leadership in Medicine

Leadership is useless. 

In our world, we consider leadership to be a gifted trait, to be the key. In my humble opinion, leadership brings us down rather than up. Although there are many definitions to the word, a leader is best described as someone who leads and guides others, and I don’t think we need them. Speaking up first does not equate to being a leader. Voicing yourself does not equate to being a leader. These are your basic human rights, so technically everyone is a leader if you believed the characteristics did indeed equate to being a leader. 

In history, many believe that the great leaders have accelerated civilization, but in reality, it was the people who had brought themselves higher. We have seen multiple times that leaderships have failed society: Roman Empire, Nazi Germany, American Revolution, and more. Most of the time, leadership ends in greed or weariness. Even in my JROTC experience, I’ve never seen a more toxic arena for a position. Even in my school, I’ve never seen such competitiveness for “class leader”. There’s only one answer to this obsession, and it’s the power and voice you get with leadership. Your voice over everyone else’s. Your decision over everyone else’s. No matter the majority, everything works in your favor. 

In the medical world, we credit everything to doctors, some consider them to be gods. Why? Because doctors have leadership and they make all the decisions. Why don’t we treat the paramedics as gods? Why don’t we treat the nurses as gods (I mean consistently, not just for COVID)? What about the surgeons? This is because we as a whole would rather appreciate the one with the ability to diagnose, than the people who did most of the work; in other words, we choose the leader, not the teamwork put into the process. Although many say that leaders are essential to guide us, allow me to tell you how leadership will end.

In New Orleans, 2005, there was an awful hurricane leading up to a flood. There was a hospital called Memorial and above it was a separate hospital called LifeCare. They managed to evacuate most of Memorial thanks to the teamwork of the hospital staff (they had a singular leader, but she ended up not helping much), but LifeCare was still dependent on their separate leader, who ended up not helping them. A memorial doctor decided to take action and committed human euthanasia, but no one questioned it at the moment. Leaders can make such horrible decisions, and cause so much harm. Some may say that it’s highly unlikely for that, but in reality, it’s a lot more likely. Who will stop the leader? Who has the power to stop the leader? The people, but of course if they are also against the leader.