The article The Personal Toll of Practicing Medicine by physician Elaine Schattner written on March 16, 2017, is aimed at decreasing the expected pace and limiting hours of practicing medicine to support the physician’s well being. Elaine Schattner is a physician certified in hematology and oncology and a mother of two in New York. The article discusses Schattner’s experience beginning as a patient at age 6, continuing through her school and residency years, to finally ending her practice due to depression. Schattner uses her personal experience to support the purpose of her article, to protect the well being of physicians. The beginning of the article explains how Schattner became interested in practicing medicine. At the age of six she was …show more content…
Her argument is backed up with the statistics of the American Journal of Medicine reports on the hours of practicing physicians. The report states that some physicians regularly work more than eighty hours per week and more than thirty consecutive hours without rest. This report does show that physicians work several hours, however her argument is based solely off of her personal health tragedies that lead to her struggles. The article uses pathos, which means it appeals to the audience’s emotions. Schattner uses her health tragedies to bring about the emotions in the reader to agree with her argument. The problem with this approach is not every physician is going to experience the same health concerns that made it difficult for Schattner to keep up with the demands of medicine. The author also uses an image at the beginning of the article of a physician quite literally falling apart. What the author does have going for her argument is her credibility. She has experienced first hand the demands of the job along with the increased amount of hours. However, a person has the right to choose which career path to take. With that being said, Schattner knew what she was getting in to when she decided to practice