PROFESSIONAL ISSUES

Family man: Incoming AMA executive looks ahead

John C. Nelson, MD, MPH, outlines his goals for his year as AMA president with the idea that physicians must balance big issues with their own lives.

By Bonnie Booth, AMNews staff. May 24/31, 2004.

On the day that the oldest daughter of John C. Nelson, MD, MPH, was to be baptized, one of his favorite patients went into labor. As his family left the house, Dr. Nelson uttered his signature phrase at the time, "I'll be there soon," and sent his family to the church. He went to the hospital, the delivery went swimmingly and he headed over to the baptism.

That night his 8-year-old daughter made this entry in her journal: "I was baptized today. The water was warm. My dad was late. My dad's always late."

The following week, he received a note from the patient, thanking him for coming in on his day off to deliver her baby. But the note went on to say that she didn't feel she had had his full attention during the delivery, and she needed more from her doctor. It was a life-defining moment, said Dr. Nelson, the president-elect of the American Medical Association.

"I decided at that moment that family was most important," said Dr. Nelson, a Salt Lake City obstetrician-gynecologist. "That's when I started making better decisions."

Dr. Nelson also credits his wife, Linda, with teaching him that family comes first -- a philosophy that earlier generations of physicians, including Dr Nelson's ob-gyn father, might not have subscribed to.

"He was very devoted to his patients, perhaps too devoted," Dr. Nelson said of his father. "Linda taught me that family was the first concern. It has been my goal in my heart to place family first."

Linda is frank about the struggles she and Dr. Nelson had early in his solo practice as he tried to balance his professional life with his role as a husband and as a father of eight.

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