The Dream vs. The Reality of Being a Doctor: Paperwork Rules

TV shows us this all the time, don't they? The brave doctor runs through hospital corridors, gives orders to save lives, or finds a shocking diagnosis just in time. From childhood, many of us want to become that doctor—the one who always wears a stethoscope looking smart and caring without trying. In real life though, this dream often comes with so much paperwork it could smash those hopes quicker than you can say "SOAP note."

The Dream: The Hero in a White Coat

During my time in medical school, I pictured a doctor's typical day like this:

Welcome patients with a comforting smile.

Share life-altering news with deep understanding.

Find cures for the impossible cases.

Feel the warmth of job fulfillment.

The only paperwork I thought about was signing off on life-saving miracles or maybe writing an unreadable prescription with a fancy pen stroke. I never expected to spend half my career in a never-ending fight against a giant beast called documentation. Nobody told me I'd need a special degree in keyboard tricks and fixing autocorrect mistakes somewhere between taking the Hippocratic Oath and learning the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system.

The Reality: The EHR Runs Your Life

Here's what happens in medicine these days:

1.You talk to a patient for 8 minutes.

2.You type up notes about that 8-minute chat for 20 minutes.

3.Devote another 10 minutes trying to convince the EHR that no, autocorrect, I didn't mean "exasperated bowel" but "exasperated patient."

4.Do it all over again.

Let's be clear—taking care of patients brings satisfaction, but the excitement of medicine often gets interrupted by boring hours of clicking boxes and writing detailed notes that sound medical enough to satisfy the coding experts. , every doctor learns the hard truth: we're just humble writers at the mercy of our EHR bosses.

A Real Love Story: Me, Medicine, and Paperwork

I've learned to accept that the real love triangle in my life involves me, medicine, and endless paperwork. It's not the romanticized kind though—it's more like a dysfunctional family situation. On one side, there's medicine packed with passion and meaning. On the other side, there's the EHR, which demands constant attention and approval through boxes that need checking patient notes that require templating, and histories that must be recorded word for word.

Things have gotten so bad that even when I'm eating with my friends (who are other doctors, thank goodness), our chats sound like: "Can you believe how much paperwork a simple check-up needs?" "Oh, I know, I'm struggling with my discharge summaries!" We used to talk about exciting new research. Now, we just gripe about paperwork with the same excitement some people have for their fantasy football teams.

Face It: We're Writing Half the Time

During my time in medical school, no one told me that a big chunk of my job would involve writing stories that could make even the best authors jealous. You won't see this on TV medical shows: doctors staring at their computers late at night trying to describe a patient's skin problem in a way that's both short and fits the billing codes. Or wondering if they should call that dizzy feeling "mild vertigo" or "brief light-headedness."

The irony hits me hard: I trained for years to heal people, and now, I write about health more than I practice it. My patient visits now serve as inspiration for the lengthy stories I craft in their medical records.

The Real Question: Do I Love It?

Would I swap this paperwork-heavy life for something else? No way. It's an honor to be part of people's lives and health journeys. But would I give up a body part to spend less time looking at screens and more time with patients? You can count on it.

This explains why I helped start Zirr AI Medical Scribe—to bring some common sense back into our lives, to allow doctors to practice what they studied for, and to hand over the creative task of documentation to something much more capable of handling it. Zirr AI doesn't just aim to save time (though let's face it, freeing up 20 hours a week is a nice bonus); it seeks to bring back the pleasure in caring for patients.

One Last Thought: Pursuing the Ideal While Facing Reality The truth about medicine is a mix of chaos, beauty, and yes sometimes frustration. This job asks for more than it tells you upfront. But even with all the headaches from paperwork, nothing beats making a real impact on someone's life—whether you're listening figuring out what's wrong, or standing up for them. That's why we all got into this field, isn't it?

Now, if you'll pardon me, I need to finish writing up my day's work before the electronic health records system starts to haunt my sleep.