Opinion: This flu season, physicians need to scrap the ‘martyr culture’ of working while sick
Doctors are known for advising sick patients to "stay home, get some rest, and drink fluids." They need to follow that advice themselves.
As the worst flu epidemic in nearly a decade sweeps the U.S., here’s a message that more Americans need to heed: stay home if you are sick. Sadly, that’s a hard sell, especially in medicine.
Doctors routinely show up for work when they are sick. I’ve done it myself, seeing patients while I had pneumonia, or suffering with severe hip pain. And I’ve been complicit many other times, watching physician colleagues work through similar and sometimes worse illnesses without demanding that they go home.
Of course, none of us want to spread illness
