I sometimes wonder if it is possible to make change without causing some level of conflict - and if, even just a ‘rub’ of conflict, how to ease the discomfort that others feel when experiencing change.
So many of us are so uncomfortable with discomfort, often seeking to avoid it with consequences that far exceed the effort of sitting with the discomfort until it passes.
Since I was a pre-teen, I have found myself in positions of advocating for change; such as running for school ‘Vice President’ in elementary school on a platform of a planting a butterfly garden and a weeping willow tree. As a teenager in high school, I got distracted as a reckless prankster releasing ‘stink bombs’ in the library and chickens in the cafeteria - aimless in my anarchism until I went to a Canadian Red Cross conference in Grade 11 which dramatically shifted my life journey.
During a four-day immersive experiential conference, I met refugees from around the world who had faced HIV/AIDS, landmines and the use of child soldiers in war. Moved by this knowledge, I was also empowered with public speaking, media and advocacy skills, which I took back into my school and community, writing monthly columns for the local paper and starting a global issues club. We added shoes to a pile every 30 minutes at the school entrance marking each time a person stepped on a landmine and advocated for fair trade coffee and hot chocolate to be served to our students and staff. We fasted for 30 hours raising over $6,000 for Oxfam’s HIV/AIDS relief work in Africa. Successfully advocating for change led me to be elected my high school class valedictorian. In university, I escalated this work advocating for an ethical purchasing policy for SFU, whereby products sold needed to be fair trade and ethically (non-sweatshop) produced, while working as an associate writer for the campus paper.
This path led me to a junction in my undergrad degree - whether to pursue advocacy work full time as a lawyer, or instead follow the well-trodden path as a medical doctor as my grandparents, dad, uncle and aunt had before me. I suspected that my own ADHD-nature would prefer the rapid-fire problem-solving of clinical medicine over the often interminable battles lawyers face.
And so, after a delightful diversion working for the Coast Guard in Telegraph Cove serving the North Island, I packed my bags and moved to Montreal, having been accepted to the McGill University Faculty of Medicine.
While initially bogged down with the deep immersion - think drinking from a firehose - of human anatomy and function, disease and pharmacology, I had not completely forgotten my thirst for advocacy and change. Through medical school, I served as the National Youth Director for Oxfam Canada, working across Canada to mobilize young people - including my medical school class - in calling for the federal government to invest 0.7 per cent of Gross Domestic Product towards foreign aid. Soon followed graduation from medical school and with my Medical Degree in hand, I shifted my advocacy from the global to more local, witnessing the challenges my patients faced getting access to health and social services, and the too-frequent dysfunction of our medical system.
As I have gotten older, the stakes seem to have risen.
We live in a world with unprecedented challenges where the status quo is not working, yet where more bureaucracy and more consultants are the common ‘solutions’ offered by politicians and managers.
We need to find effective ways to support one another, in supporting change.
I consider myself a disruptive leader. Unfortunately that also makes people uncomfortable with me at times.
But the consequences of accepting the status quo are unacceptable to me. The moral injury of accepting the present day reality without taking action far exceed the short term consequences of making others uncomfortable. And so, I have challenged the status quo in health care with not insignificant personal and professional cost, and continued risk. But I firmly believe I am on the right track: Building the North Island Community Health Centre is the proudest accomplishment of my life. It hasn’t been easy.
I am a straight white male doctor. From a family of doctors and professionals. My parents divorced when I was young and family relationships are sometimes challenged, but this is common. Privilege rarely comes so clearly as my own life. I am grateful.
But with this privilege, I believe I bear responsibility to share my skills and take risks. Change happens at the threshold of comfort. To me, that looks like recognizing the bear, and sometimes poking the bear. But ensuring I do not get mauled.
For ideas/topics you would like explored, please email suggestions to: alexnatarosMD@gmail.com or find me online Facebook/Twitter “Alex Nataros MD”