Dr. Edwin Leap has practiced emergency medicine for over 25-years. He is a Diplomate with the American Board of Emergency Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. He is also an award-winning columnist and blogger who has written for the Huffington Post, Politico, and Focus on the Family Magazine. He also publishes monthly columns in the Emergency Medicine News, Medpage Today, Greenville News, and the South Carolina Baptist Courier.
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Dr. Leap is a native West Virginian, who is a graduate of Marshall University and the West Virginia University School of Medicine. He completed his emergency medicine residency at Methodist Hospital of Indiana. Dr. Leap also served as a USAF officer and flight surgeon with Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard units in West Virginia, Indiana, and South Carolina.
Dr. Leap’s Prescription for Success:
Number 1: Have a theology or philosophy beyond scientism. You will see a lot of suffering and have struggles and will need a way to understand it, to get through those things. Money and position are poor comforts in hard times, so it’s important to have something that speaks to you.
Number 2: Focus on your marriage and children because without that your career will be misery. With that in proper focus, the job matters far less. Listen to your spouse and make their dreams as important as your own and make them more important than your job. Furthermore, your children want you more than things or status. The idea that your children need you to work non-stop so they can go to Yale, that’s really not the most important thing in their world–they want your presence.
Number 3: Find the best possible mixture of wellness and money. If the job isn’t what you want or need or what your family wants or needs, then you should leave. Time is a currency and if you can be rewarded with more time and still get by financially, you’ll be a happier person.
Connect with Dr. Leap:
Blog: http://edwinleap.com
Twitter: @edwinleap
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/edwinleap/
Amazon Author Page: Edwin Leap
Rural Rx at MedPage Today: https://www.medpagetoday.com/blogs/rural
Notable quotes from Dr. Leap’s interview:
I was not at all naturally gifted toward science or math. I just worked really hard. Medical school is not full of difficult material, it’s full of a lot of material. So if you can assimilate a lot of information, you can do it.
I like to be a Jack of all Trades and Master of None; emergency medicine was perfect for that.
My wife and I took the kids on a three week vacation to the beach. And we realized that in 20-years, we had never slept in the same bed for three weeks in a row. I mean, what an interesting revelation that working nights, weekends, and holidays does that sort of thing to your lifestyle.
Hospitals have initiatives to stop violence and it still happens. And we find that there are people that come here that really just need to be comforted. And there are people there that really just need to be in jail.
Sick people can be crazy and crazy people can be sick and it’s very hard sometimes to tease that out. So what you have to do is you have to take everyone very seriously the first time.
The ticket is to not let our whole identity as human beings be tied up in being a physician. That’s the problem. That’s why physicians who have lawsuits have a higher rate of suicide. Because the lawsuit is going to make you sound like a monster. But it doesn’t change the fact that you’ve done far more good in your career than any harm you ever caused over the course of your career.