Introduction to My Graduate Education:
Why is “helping people” in quotes?

“Helping people” is a cliché. People entering caring professions to “help people” are sadly too often not helpful or do not deal well with people. This is especially true when one is trying to help people who do not want to be helped. I have interviewed doctoral students, medical students, undergraduates and MD/Ph.D. students for many years and the concept of “helping people” always comes up in these interviews. But the sincerity behind it sometimes seems questionable. “Helping people” can be done in many ways, like being courteous on the highway, or checking on a sick neighbor. I’ve seen a roomful of people watch motionlessly as a colleague who dropped a bundle of papers scurried around to pick them up – unaided. No one (sadly, myself included) helped that person. This occurred in a hospital seminar room full of alleged “caring professionals.”
That incident, along with comments from emergency room and intensive care unit personnel such as, “that person is too stupid to live,” or “I look forward to reading the obituary of that low life,” made me realize that a lot of us have forgotten why we entered a caring profession. Obviously, such comments are water cooler conversations, and only come when a patient has shown a blatant disregard for his or her own life or the lives of others, but it is a symptom of the sad cynicism that takes hold sometimes. This is the reason for the quotation marks around most references to “helping people” in my books. It is still what I and other paramedical professionals try to do, but it is in quotes to remind us that it should not be an abstract concept. “Helping people” is not just a job; it is a lifestyle.

Stay tuned for chapter 1 of My Graduate Education; My Career as an Athletic Trainer.