Value of Doctors

Now, more than ever, Ontario doctors are with you when you need them. From making you comfortable in those early check-ups to keeping you comfortable in the final goodbyes.

We check your health when babies are growing. And take action when we find things that shouldn't be growing.

We take our time when you need to talk. And work fast when every second counts.  

We put a lot of heart into everything we do. Because we want to keep yours healthy.  

And when your heart is breaking, we help you find ways to connect with those that seem lost.  

We'll be with you in any situation. And help see you through it.

We are Ontario's doctors. And you have always been at the centre of our care. And we will always be leading you to better health.

It was important for me to participate in this, just because I wanted to put palliative medicine out there and have people understand what it is we do. It's not just the medicine behind it, but the emotional aspect of what we do on a regular basis. Some people think we just come in, we see your patients, we go home, and that's not the case. Often, we take that home with us.

In palliative medicine, we help patients at a time of diagnosis all the way to end of life, so you can imagine there's all kinds of spectrums within there. You're helping with all their symptoms to try to give them better quality of life. But also, you're dealing with the emotional component of not only the patient, but the family—everybody's going through it. We kind of go along on that roller coaster with them, because you know you're maybe giving them some bad news or helping them through that transition when we're no longer talking about cure, we're now talking about kind of end of life and focusing on what can we do to make that period of your life the best that we can.

I think being a young mom, probably the patient encounters I remember the most are my young patients with young children—their young parents. Those are the ones that really tug at the heartstrings, and sometimes it's hard to kind of shut yourself off from that.

I would like the public to know, when it comes to being a doctor, there's much more than the basic science of medicine. There's the human aspect to medicine, and it's the interacting with our patients, interacting with the families, and really getting to know them and getting to know kind of what can we do, and try to really address everything that we can, to give them the best quality of life that we can.

I really want to share what we do to our patients or families so they can understand where we're coming from and that way we can work better together.  

I think this will help public view doctors as a human, as a person, and not just a scientist or a medical profession. It really shows that they're just like them—we just have special training and we're here to help them.  

Well, what's memorable as an obstetrician is something that we do every day: seeing a baby born, seeing the family really happy with a new baby and their family.

Participating in this was important for me because, as doctors, we play a critical role in our patients' lives from the beginning, sometimes through to the end. I think that this might change the public view of doctors because it shows us as caring, compassionate individuals who are trying to better the lives of our patients, trying to help them live longer.

So, there are many memorable moments that we have. I think we feel very privileged to be in this role as doctors. I think, sometimes, it's really the connection that you make with patients, and sometimes being there many years later, or their family members many years later, outside of the hospital setting, and they remember you and you remember them and you have a great conversation. So, I think it just speaks to a long-lasting impact of what we do together.

I think I would want the public to know that we, as doctors, care. We care in that clinic when we see you, but we also care outside of clinic. We bring this home with us. We think about what we can do to make it better for them, what treatments we have, what trials we can do. I think we're always trying. We're trying to make it better.

I hope that through this work the public will get an appreciation of the individual doctors work in their individual office space, what it is like, our daily interactions with patients. Our primary reason of of being in the world is to is to heal. That's certainly my reason for becoming a doctor.  

So I am a young doctor in training in the emergency, and it's around 2:00 in the morning and I'm called out to the hospital where I'm given a small room to interview this patient who has been giving some problems to the attending staff. And I sit about 6 feet away from him in this small little room, which it wasn't more spacious than it sort of a cubicle, and we start talking and I start taking his history.  

About ten minutes into our chat he reaches into his inner pocket and pulls out a knife, which was a blade really about eight inches long, and he holds it like that in his hand. At that moment I really had to maintain a very professional and sense of overall confidence and comfort. I couldn't allow the fear that thought went through my head that he could easily lunge forward and and caused me significant harm.

I had to keep in mind that this was a person who needed help, that's why they were in the hospital emergency room, even though he had a weapon in his hand. So I contained my feelings and talked to him, and within five minutes that man was crying right in my heart in that little office. And that will never leave me, that scene and the power that we can do to help people who are in crisis.

I think that like it's important for the public to see what we do as a day-to-day basis and what's urgent, what's not urgent.

As an emergency physician, there's very few things that are truly emergencies, but at the same time, it's the worst day of someone else's life. So it's always nice to be a friendly face when you can be and to be there to receive people when they need us.

I'm pretty sure that people might not have picked me out as the doctor in the scene, so I think it's important as a woman to stand up and say, as a woman of my background, that I am a doctor, too.

There's always memorable patients that really pass by. A guy who came in was in the weight room for a number of hours and then got really, really sick, and that day we were able to save his life because his aorta had burst open. And actually, you know, like we diagnosed it within a couple of minutes of him having a drop of his blood pressure, not looking great. But we actually had to do some chest compressions on him to get to the O.R., and it was a fairly dramatic save. So thanks to all the docs and nurses that were involved, and the surgeon who took him to the O.R. and saved his life. But two days later, he was extubated from the ICU, and he was transferred to the ward before I go visit him, and so it was pretty amazing story.

What I hope people can imagine is this scene that we just shot, but that when they're waiting for six hours in the waiting room and or the rapid assessment zone waiting to see a doc, that this is playing in the background: that someone else might be having a worse day than them.

And I know that's hard when your issue is like your most important issue and you were there yourself, but I think it's about creating that shared consciousness that we see the sickest patients first, and the people that have just been in a big accident or something like that, we're going to take care of them as best we can first, and then we're going to move towards patients that I need more time.

I'm happy to be part of this because it's an important opportunity for us to showcase doctors what we do on a day-to-day basis to help our patients and also make them recover.  

A gentleman who is in his 80s, about 15 years ago I find that he had significant blockages in the heart, but he refused to do any particular operations. In the last month or so, he suddenly passed out, and together with his family, we have to convince him to come to the hospital and undergo further investigation. And finally, he agreed to our treatment, and he now has a stents for his in arteries. So hopefully we can help him to live longer and feel better.  

Yeah, I hope once people see in the campaign, and they'll realize what the doctors in Ontario do on a day-to-day basis to help our patients, make them feel better, and also treat their illnesses. And hopefully they will support the doctors as a group, so we can do our important work to save more lives.

I think it's really important for the public to understand what we do as doctors. I think there's a big disconnect between what you see in your doctor's office and what is really going on.

I hope this helps the public understand that this is who we are, that we don't become physicians to just have a nine-to-five job. We carry the job with us. It's a part of us. We don't just take off a stethoscope and leave it at work and go home, and that's—this is who we are.

The most memorable patient I have is a grade school friend of mine. Her son died, diagnosed with cancer, and one of the hardest things to have ever done as a physician and a friend, but also one of the most rewarding experiences in how he approached his cancer. And something that I learned from enormously in my early years of practice, as well as his family and friends and all of my patients going forward.

I hope the public can appreciate how much of your troubles have become our troubles, and we try our best to try to find a way to help you through them together.

I want to be here today because I think it's important to put a face to physicians and what we do every day with our patients. I think a lot of patients don't know what we do until they need us. I think it's important for them to know that when they need us we're there for them. We're there to help them. I think this will help change the public's view of doctors by showing the public that we are real people taking care of real people that patients are need and we're here to help them and to serve them.

There are quite a few memorable patients, but one in particular early my practice was a patient who was blind in both eyes because she was afraid to see a doctor and had terrible cataracts. Couldn't see it all. And I remember after her surgery she got up off the operating table she looked around and she says, "Oh my god I can see! Are you my doctor?" And I said, "Yes." "I'm Chios, you're my doctor and you're wearing a plaid shirt and you have very good hair." And and she started crying, and it was it was such an emotional thing to see this this person who we thought her life was over get it back. It was really quite moving, and I'll never forget that.

Patients have come to us don't know what to expect. A lot of them have anxieties, stresses, worries, and part of our job, a very big part of our job, is to understand that, to relate to that, and help them.