Morals/Values/Money/BAD BUSINESS!

As you can maybe tell, recently I haven't really been myself. Infact, I've been MIA in the blogging world as well as facebook etc. I have SERIOUSLY been way more stressed out recently than I have in a long time. It's a different type of stress too, nothing like the pressures of studying for board exams or completing assignments. The stress I'vce been feeling recently has been stress involving my morals and values. Let me explain ...

My new internship is a completely different environment than I've ever been in. The last two places I've been were environments that really promoted health and the doctors really seemed genuine about how they treated their patients. This new internship is not that way. The doctor is known as a "personal injury" doctor, (aka ambulence chaser), he makes a LOT of money and when a person walks in his door, he sees them as walking dollar signs instead of people. He basically does everything he can to make-a-buck. So, not only does he see the patient's as walking dollar signs but he also sees the interns as HUGE money makers. He's always wanting us to work late, work over lunch, promote his practice on the weekends by doing spinal screenings and bring in new patients for him all at the high cost of FREE. Now, I have an excuse because I have a family at home that requires my attention but he still ropes me into the long hours and free promotions for his clinic and while I appreciate the oportunity I get to learn something new, a few days ago, he was asking me to go against my morals for his own benefit.

The Doctor had us stay over our lunch hour to listen to another doctor promote a detox that she uses for her patients. The detox was sounding pretty good and I was really interested in it so I was hoping it would be something I'd want to do until I heard it was $200. At that point, I decided it wasn't for me and that I wasn't going to do it. But, the catch was that the doctor really wanted to make some money off of the interns so he brought me into his office (one-on-one) to talk about the detox. When I told him that I wouldnt be able to pay for it, he told me that he would make it work out that the other interns working with me would essentially pay my portion and my detox would be free of charge to me and that this choice would be "just between the two of us." "WARNING WARNING" (INSERT BIG FLASHING RED LIGHTS HERE). He then proceeded to tell me how much more beneficial I was to him than the other two interns and that he chose me specially because he thought I would be more of a success then them. (WHAT THE HECK!!! WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS? He was forcing me to decide if my values/morals and friendships with these other interns were worth $200 all so he could make a few bucks off of them.)

I had to think quickly on my feet and I told him how unfair I thought it was and that if I was going to get a deal that the other interns should get one as well. After I left his office, I quickly gathered the other interns and told them what had happened because I wanted them to be prepared for him to talk with them. He's a master manipulator and a VERY good business man. I knew, going into this practice that it would challenge me being put in a different environment but I never thought my morals or values would be challenged. I know I did the right thing but I also have to work with this kniving jerk for the next two months. Well, I guess I am learning from the best but what I learn from this experience will not be how I apply it in real life.

Trying to stay strong
~Mama Beal

PS, so to say the least, I've been really stressed out and having a hard time fitting in all of my work outs. I've been consistantly doing 3 times a week at least but, they're REALLY hard to find a time to fit them in. Sorry I've been MIA recently.