Why Healthcare Attracts the Selfless--And Burns them Alive

Healthcare careers don’t just attract “smart people.”
They attract selfless people—the kind who will stay late, skip lunch, absorb trauma, and still show up again tomorrow.

We’re the ones who say “yes” when we’re exhausted, who internalize the suffering around us, who try to do the right thing in a system that barely allows it.

It’s no coincidence.

The system is designed to attract people who care deeply—then exploits that very trait until it becomes a liability.

In med school, PA school, nursing programs—we’re taught to put the patient first. But we’re not taught to protect ourselves. We’re not taught that boundaries are also care.

The result?
A workforce full of over-functioning overachievers trying to pour from a cup that’s been cracked by the system itself.

We gaslight ourselves:

“Maybe I’m not resilient enough.”
“Maybe I just need to toughen up.”

No. You’re not broken.
You’re responding exactly as a human should in a system that rewards self-abandonment and calls it “dedication.”

Healthcare doesn’t just burn us out. It selects us because we’re the kind of people who will stay until we burn.

And that’s the part we need to start naming.