FP Urges Medical Students, Residents to Make Life Choices Wisely

Gary Morsch, M.D., M.P.H., of Bucyrus, Kan., stood before a ballroom packed with medical students and family medicine residents recently and encouraged them to dive in and begin to experience what he called "the power of service to others."

"You can start where you are; you don't have to wait," said Morsch, who delivered the Stephen J. Jackson, M.D., Memorial Lecture July 31 at the AAFP's 2008 National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students here.

In addition to his M.D. credentials, Morsch wears a variety of hats. He's perhaps best known as a cofounder and president of Heart to Heart International, a Kansas-based relief organization specializing in worldwide humanitarian assistance. But Morsch also founded Docs Who Care, a locum tenens organization that provides staffing for rural hospitals and clinics in seven states. He's written three books and currently is on active duty in the U.S. Army Reserve.

But first and foremost, Morsch defines himself as a man who chose to become a family physician.

"Choices don't just come out of anywhere. They come from a goal, a purpose, a mission, a calling, a sense of 'This is where I'm going,'" said Morsch. Life is filled with twists and turns, but it's our choices that direct our lives, he added.

Three very conscious choices changed the course of his life, said Morsch.

Choice No. 1: Morsch chose to go into family medicine. "I absolutely believe without any doubt that this is the one specialty that gives you more opportunity to serve people in any culture at any time and in any situation," he said.

Morsch said he joined the Army Reserve a few years ago because he knew his skills as a family physician would offer him unique opportunities to serve people. "After 9/11, I said to myself, 'American soldiers deserve good doctors, and these detainees deserve good care, and the civilians deserve good care. And the army allows me to serve all three.'" he said.

Choice No. 2: Morsch chose to make a difference. "I love sitting down with patients and talking with them. I also love the fact that the family physician has so many opportunities in the community to do other things," said Morsch. A failed bid in 2000 to represent Kansas in the U.S. House of Representatives left Morsch undeterred. "I can change the world and make a difference right where I am," he told his Kansas City audience.

Choice No. 3: Morsch chose to serve. "Serving is about doing the little things and doing them with the right spirit," said Morsch, relaying a story to make his point.

A few years ago, Morsch said he traveled to Calcutta, India, to offer his services at a hospice run by Mother Theresa.

"I showed up at the Mother House in Calcutta, with my stethoscope, as a family doctor from the United States who'd come to volunteer for a few days," said Morsch. But he did not tend to any patients that day. Instead, he spent several "humiliating" hours hand-carrying five-gallon buckets of rotting food scraps and human excrement from the facility to the city dump three blocks away.

It was hot, sweaty and smelly work, recalled Morsch. "I was irritated and upset thinking, 'They sure don't know how to treat volunteers. They sent the doctor out to do the garbage.'"

His task completed, Morsch prepared to leave with no intention of returning the next day. Then he spotted a sign on the wall that read: "We can do no great things -- only small things with great love."

Mother Theresa's words "were like a spear through my heart," said Morsch.

"That's what family medicine is about. It's not about being at the top of the specialty pile. It's not about getting a piece of the reimbursement pie."

Family medicine, concluded Morsch, "is about the opportunity to help one small (seemingly) insignificant human being today and to do it with love."