The Penn State College of Medicine Oath vs. “Doomscrolling.”

By MIKE MAGEE

Two years ago, prior to the 2022 election, mental health experts alerted the medical world to their version of an assessment scale for yet another new condition – “doomscrolling.”

As defined in the article, “Constant exposure to negative news on social media and news feeds could take the form of ‘doomscrolling’ which is commonly defined as a habit of scrolling through social media and news feeds where users obsessively seek for depressing and negative information.”

As the distressing recent MSG Rally well broadcast, there apparently are no guard rails remaining in Trump-led “doom making.” But that does not mean that the majorities that oppose him have to fall victim as well.

Optimism is a choice and an effective political message. No one can deny a range of legitimate concerns. Faced with continued background noise from residual effects of the pandemic, we’ve been forced to absorb global warming induced weather disasters, renegade AI, sectional warfare around the globe, and the fact that (inexplicably) most elected Republican leaders have chosen to compromise all values and decency to preserve their jobs.

With real challenges like these, our troubled world needs to stay focused on values and resilience. This means aligning our humanity with our approach to self-governance. John J. Patrick PhD, in his book Understanding Democracy, lists the ideals of democracy to include “civility, honesty, charity, compassion, courage, loyalty, patriotism, and self restraint.”

We live under a constitutional and representative democracy, as do two-thirds of our fellow citizens in over 100 nations around the world. The health of these democracies varies widely. The case for democracy emphasizes its capacity to enhance dignity and self-worth, promote well-being, advance equal opportunity, protect equal rights, advance economic productivity, promote peace and order, resolve conflicts peacefully, hold rulers accountable, and achieve legitimacy through community based action.

One of the challenges of democracy is to find the right balance in pursuing “the common good” which has dual (and often competing) arms. One  arm is communitarian well-being and the other, individual well-being.  Blending personal and public interests is complex.

Both nursing and medicine have worked to bridge this gap through “professionalism,” and launched new graduates by voicing “oaths” or promises to themselves, their colleagues, and our society as a whole.

 Louis Lasagna, MD‘s 1964 Oath included a communitarian connector: “I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.”

Nursing has also relied on professional Oaths. The first was the Nightingale Pledge, created in 1893 by the Farrand Training School for Nurses and named after Florence Nightingale. It is believed to be based on the Hippocratic Oath, and was modernized in 1935. In the 1950’s, the American Nurses Association (ANA), created a formal Code of Ethics, including Nursing’s 9 Provisions (or Pledges) committing to: compassion and respect, patient-focus, advocacy, active decision making, self-health, ethical environment, scholarly pursuit, collaborative teamwork, professional integrity and social justice.

The Penn State College of Medicine’s Oath in 2022 recognized that “We’re all in this together.” They gave top billing to the patient, with the oath to the patients, not to Greek gods: “By all that I hold highest, I promise my patients competence, integrity, candor, personal commitment to their best interest, compassion, and absolute discretion, and confidentiality within the law.”

As citizens and caregivers of our Democracy, in these final moments before the 2024 election, we can ill afford to go weak-kneed, and collapse into a pile of doomsayers. The vote is your’s.

As for me, I will cast my Presidential vote with the pledgers of Penn State College of Medicine for “competence, integrity, candor, personal commitment to their best interest, compassion, and absolute discretion, and confidentiality within the law.” I will vote for Kamala Harris.

Mike Magee MD is a Medical Historian and regular contributor to THCB. He is the author of CODE BLUE: Inside America’s Medical Industrial Complex. (Grove/2020)