“As women physicians, especially physician moms and women physicians of color, we have handled and achieved more than the vast majority of the population, in order to reach our current status of physician.

We do because we can.

We are Superwomen. Until we’re not.

Without thought, we take on others’ responsibilities, because we can.

In addition to our own personal responsibility to ourselves and to our loved ones, we take on the responsibilities of our patients’ well-being, the failures of dysfunctional medical and political systems, and even the disastrous effects of diseases, such as COVID-19.

Our patients hand over their poor health to us, and we accept it.

Our dysfunctional medical systems hand over their inadequacies to us, and we accept them.

We carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. Because we can.

Until we cannot.”

Rebecca Elia is an obstetrics-gynecology physician and physician coach. She can be reached at her self-titled site, Rebecca Elia, MD.

She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, “What does it mean to be responsible during the COVID-19 pandemic?”

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Hosted by Kevin Pho, MD, The Podcast by KevinMD shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from.