On Professionalism

We had a lecture on professionalism today. It was interesting to find out that no matter how small the community you're practising in, you can't date any of your patients (assuming everybody in the community is your patient) no matter what. A representative of high standing from the College of Physicians and Surgeons verified this zero patient-dating tolerance policy. It's absolutely crazy that this is the code. What if you're spending all your years working in a small rural community and all your patients are basically your social circle? Bottom line. You're screwed or you have an opportunity to find a potential partner the next time you head into the bigger city. All this, to maintain the standard trust of the patient-doctor relationship. Another interesting thing was that professionalism is met if one can manage a balanced lifestyle between personal life and work life. Sometimes doctors who suffer in maintaining healthy personal lives, start to fill that void in their lives through their patients. And when this happens, there's the chance of breaching that proper patient-doctor relationship that constitutes professionalism.