It’s all the rage in medicine today, especially in residency training. On the other end of the spectrum, doctors who are frustrated with the system can give up and use the desire for balance as an excuse:

Since the income rewards are getting less, the prestige of physician work is diminishing, the autonomy getting harder to even find, and when the pride of being physician gets to some personally determined tipping point, maybe it is more politically correct to say you need more time on the “life” side of work-life balance than to say screw it.

The current, and next, generation of doctors are accustomed to caps on their work hours, getting paid for emergency call, hospitalists taking over inpatient responsibilities, and punching out on the clock.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I don’t sense a desire to return to the days of the 24/7 iron doctor.

But I believe that the emphasis on lifestyle can’t help but to take a toll on the dedication physicians have for their patients.