Posted on 04/19/2013 9:08:49 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Last weekend, after I gave a speech at a public forum about healthcare, a woman came up to the podium and privately asked me a question. "My daughter was just accepted to medical school. Do you think she should be a doctor?"
This should have been the easiest question ever, but it was the opposite.
I come from a family of physicians going back more than three generations. It is what we did, what we were. At a family gathering several years ago, I counted 14 men or women who were practicing physicians. Three of the fourteen doctors had married medical school classmates, raising the "family" number to seventeen.
Our family believed that the highest calling for a human being was to heal other human beings. So it should have been easy and immediate for me to say to the mother at the podium, "Of course your daughter should be a physician. There is nothing better in the entire world!" It pained me not to say that.
A recent Wall Street Journal article written by another physician -- more precisely, ex-physician Dr. Ed Marsh -- expresses several emotions all too common in the community of health care providers: doctors, nurses, and allied health personnel. We are angry, frustrated, and confused.
Prematurely retired Dr. Marsh summarized: "The glow of the personal relationship one might have with patients [the reason we get up in the middle of the night for you] is being [actively] extinguished." He speaks for virtually all doctors, nurses, and care providers everywhere, not just in the U.S.
Dr. Marsh is anything but an isolated case. I too gave up clinical medicine last October, most reluctantly. I love caring for babies and still miss doing it. Forty to fifty percent of practicing doctors are now thinking about early retirement.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Everyone will have health care insurance, no one will have a doctor.
It's the 0bamugabe way!
I think medical professionals in general do better the more specialized....or surgery oriented
My cousin... a girl....27....finished UAB as orthopedic surgical nurse....practice paid her debt and started her at 120k
Anything over 3 twelve hour shifts is overtime
Yet with babies now she is working less...much less
Is that best use of UAB resources or student loan fund?
Unintended consequences of the new social order
Yes, but she can’t make a difference and will lose her self esteem if she is a driver.
Be not troubled about the number of lawyers. The Obama “economy” is fixing that as well. We are currently in the worst market for new lawyers in my experience (which goes back to 1973). Significant numbers of recent graduates from top law schools cannot find jobs as lawyers. Applications to law schools have dropped more than 40% over the last two years.
Yes, but also a valuable registered skill to be used and exploited by evil people. Even though skills cannot be stolen from you like money, your body can be stolen then used under threat of force to you or your family. Just like a pretty girl can be stolen then forced to perform as a prostitute.
I have nuclear experience but because of such dangers I no longer practice in the industry and am paranoid about my security or traveling to certain nations.
Hours are lengthening, reimbursement falling. Its not worth the time taken away from your family and children any longer. We work weekends, holidays, overnights often on little sleep. We get no respect from patients and families but are treated like the servant or concierge. On top of it I am looking to retire as soon as I can, as I will not spend the last few years of my career as a government employee. Obama care is the straw that broke the camel’s back
I truly cannot recommend any young talented person spend 8+ years of their life after college with no pay training for a profession where they will make less per hour than other professionals for longer hours, harder work and huge risk of lawsuits and regulatory actions.
I love my patients and my work with them. The rest of the stuff makes being a physician no longer worth it.
“If I was a young, ambitious doctor now, I’d be looking to set up a medical tourism facility outside the US, probably Chile.”
What needs to be done is to build “a Carnival Hospital Cruise ship”. Replace the casinos and bars with hospital equipment, anchor it just outside of the reach of attorneys and govt. regulators and ferry people to and from the ship.
Just not in some Islamic country.
Wow, 40% is a huge drop. I guess spending 6-7 years to not get hired is getting through.
Oh my, you’re right! I didn’t think that far. Americans are so naive about how wonderful our freedom is. Doesn’t if break your heart to see our ignorance?
My daughter graduates this year from high school and is deciding between pre-med and dental hygiene. Is it worth it, to give away your life and future because once you accumulate that kind of debt you have to work whether you want to or not. You won’t even practice until you are in your early 30’s.
So true
By the time you pay off the debt you could have been working for yourself for 10 years.
That’s a very good idea!
thailand sounds like a decent place right now.
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