What doctors and patients can learn from the girl scouts

Posted on March 12, 2012

100 years of girl scouts!! This is the 100th anniversary year of girl scouting.  “To build girls of courage, confidence, and character.”  So a blog in honor of this great group (SF Chronicle just published an article which cited 69% of female US senators, 80% of female business owners, 67% of the US House of Respresentatives, and all female astronauts were girl scouts).

Yes yes.  I was a girl scout.  And now I am a leader of a girl scout troop.  Every meeting opens with us reciting the girl scout law.  The Daisy petals are based on these ideas.  And it got me thinking…

When we discuss these values with our young girls, I am struck by what good values and ideals they are.  I heard someone on the radio the other day discussing how our world has changed and not for the better.  They discussed how people are self absorbed, eager to speak and focus on the negative, stand on the backs of others to get ahead, and cheat on exams or college essays.  When did we stop being nice? Respecting each other?  Where have honesty and inter personal relationships gone?

So I thought of these tenets of the girl scout law.  I think we have a lot to learn from the little girls.

As crazy as this seems to be in a medical blog, I think doctors and patients should adopt these ideals.  So I am going to write a few blogs.  In honor of the girl scouts.