Your good health is our number one priority! Let’s celebrate National Doctors’ Day (NDD) to honor doctors all over the world. Take today to recognize our favorite docs who do their very best to treat us with courtesy and respect, explain things in a way we understand, listen carefully to us, and provide us with compassionate and excellent health care.
What is National Doctors’ Day?
National Doctors’ Day is celebrated every year on March 30th. It’s a time where doctors can be recognized by their patients, hospitals and communities for the excellent care they provide to patients and families. So, please give a “shout out,” to your favorite family practice doc, internist or specialist on this special day.
National Doctors’ Day started unofficially on March 30, 1933, in the Unites States by Eudora Brown Almond, the wife of family practice physician, Dr. Charles B. Almond in Winder, Georgia to honor his work and service to the practice of medicine and a day to appreciate all doctors nationwide. Best way she felt of doing this was sending thank you notes, and to place special red carnations on graves of doctors who has passed away as a symbol of love and recognition.
The reason she chose March 30th is this was the day the first painless surgery was performed using ether (sleeping gas) as an anesthetic by Dr. Crawford W. Long back in 1842. On that day a tumor was removed from a patient’s neck and when he woke up felt absolutely nothing.
March 30th did not become nationally recognized as Doctors’ Day until Congress passed it officially in 1991 following George Bush’s announcement in 1990 of “National Doctors’ Day.”
What about National Doctors’ Week?
National Doctors’ Week is officially called National Physicians Week, an extension of National Doctors’ Day started in 2016 and is celebrated the week of March 25 th to March 31 st. It was founded in the same spirit as National Doctors’ Day applauding doctors nationwide for their commitment to patient care and to also celebrate their achievements beyond their medical practice.
It arose from a movement in 2015 called Physicians Working Together (PWT) aimed at revitalizing the patient-doctor bond while bringing doctors of all medical fields together through unity and mutual respect by leveraging social meeting platforms to reduce stress and foster better communication. It’s also a platform that created awareness of the looming physician shortage.
National Doctors’ Day and the Medical Profession?
The Medical Profession is one of the oldest professions in the world dating back to 25,000 B.C. There was evidence of “healers,” completing their jobs as seen on cave walls in France. 20,000 years later it seems true surgery started in Egypt where the first public health system was created. In fact, the Egyptians performed oral surgery or root canal much like what we do today.
In Greece, the field of medical ethics emerged with Hippocrates and the Hippocratic oath in 500 B.C. that doctors “shall do no harm,” however the term “physician,” was not added to the dictionary until around 1400.
There was big growth of medicine starting in the 1700s and in 1755, the first medical organization was created and by 1847 the American Medical Association (AMA) arose bringing doctors together as a group and to increase public awareness. In 1849, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman doctor to graduate medical school. And since then, so many achievements and advances in the Medicine including the first human to human heart transplant in 1967.
Any final thoughts on National Doctors’ Day?
National Doctors’ Day (NDD) and National Physicians Week are days to recognize and give thanks or a “shout out,” to our favorite doctors be it with a special wave, handshake, thank you note, small gift or the traditional red carnation. Red carnations placed on a doctor’s lab coat is a symbol of love, affection, and a special reflection of the heart.
The celebration has changed over the years including lunches in the doctor’s lounge at hospitals, to honorable mention on social media, and with COVID pandemic revitalizing a special sense of dedication, and personal sacrifice. It’s also a time to reflect that doctors are people behind masks who deserve rest, recognition, and real support especially as healthcare becomes more technically advanced, and harder to navigate.
We as a society, have fallen in love with TV medical dramas that capture the excitement of being a doctor as popularized in TV shows including Grey’s Anatomy, MASH filmed on the backdrop of the Korean War, and St. Elsewhere just to name a few. Through these shows we get a glimpse of what it is like to practice medicine on the front lines including the challenges, successes, and failures doctors face day to day.
So, remember your favorite doctor and celebrate him or her on Doctors’ Day with a kind word or better yet a red carnation as a symbol of love and endless dedication.
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