Posted on 09/01/2014 7:15:17 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
All too often these days, I find myself fidgeting by the doorway to my exam room, trying to conclude an office visit with one of my patients. When I look at my career at midlife, I realize that in many ways I have become the kind of doctor I never thought I'd be: impatient, occasionally indifferent, at times dismissive or paternalistic. Many of my colleagues are similarly struggling with the loss of their professional ideals.
It could be just a midlife crisis, but it occurs to me that my profession is in a sort of midlife crisis of its own. In the past four decades, American doctors have lost the status they used to enjoy. In the mid-20th century, physicians were the pillars of any community. If you were smart and sincere and ambitious, at the top of your class, there was nothing nobler or more rewarding that you could aspire to become.
Today medicine is just another profession, and doctors have become like everybody else: insecure, discontented and anxious about the future. In surveys, a majority of doctors express diminished enthusiasm for medicine and say they would discourage a friend or family member from entering the profession. In a 2008 survey of 12,000 physicians, only 6% described their morale as positive. Eighty-four percent said that their incomes were constant or decreasing. Most said they didn't have enough time to spend with patients because of paperwork, and nearly half said they planned to reduce the number of patients they would see in the next three years or stop practicing altogether.
American doctors are suffering from a collective malaise. We strove, made sacrifices—and for what? For many of us, the job has become only that—a job.
That attitude isn't just a problem for doctors. It hurts patients too.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
They have done the same job on teachers. They harass us by forcing us to jump through needless hoops and fill out mounds of unnecessary paperwork and administer hours of unnecessary tests. They threaten us if we do not fulfill the superhuman task of teaching kids who do not want to learn, who just want the educational version of "gibsmedat", e.g. free passing grades for no work. We are subjected to unbelievable verbal abuse from students, physical assault, and the ever-constant threats from supervisors.
The young newbie teachers are now not being given tenure and they're trying to make up any and all reasons to push veteran ($$$) teachers out of the system.
Maybe when doctors succumb to the same horrific abuse that teachers are now going through, and people encounter a shortage of doctors, they will wake up.
Sorry Docs, lawyers are now the top of the food chain.
For now.
Over the last ten to fifteen years I’ve noticed that animal health care has become a woman’s profession. Amazing how many women are now vets.
But not for long, if the eviroweenies, PETA, and the newly anointed IRS all need a new source of revenue!
Why don’t you go to med school and do it smart guy?
“I saw it back then, and made DAMN SURE that my kids did not get anywhere near that profession, and now they’re making more money, with less hassle, than doctors are making - not to mention virtually no debt.”
So BobL, what are your “monied children” gonna do for healthcare when they get old and sick? Inquiring minds want to know! If they are able to “buy” their own doctor, they will be very unique, and completely un-American!
Preach it , sister
I’ve got options. So I went to work overseas where I make fabulous money, don’t deal with the Feds or idiot states , don’t see anywhere near the self destructive, entitled loafers and my work is occasionally appreciated. And I don’t get threatened with a lawsuit because I didn’t write for a bucket of OxyContin . So I’m quite happy.
I saw why What HWs and had a very hard choice to make. I could either sink in private practice and still be a quasi-.gov employee so I decided they had won and the fight was over. i quit my private practice and joined them.Only way to survive. i now work as a hospitalist for the hospital. I love medicine. I have to follow all the rules. Lean a new vocabulary and click the computer but at least they pay me to do this instead of me bearing the increased overhead that I could not do in semi-private practice. I actually get time off. I worked for 22 years and only took 2 weeks off. Now I work 7 days on 7 off yea they are 12 hour days but i am making over 2 times what I did in private practice. yes, i have a boss and yes I toe the line. and yes they could fire me but, it was the only way to survive. so they won.
This article is a big whine about how he doesn’t get the big bucks or respect that he thinks he deserves. Well, no one does - except maybe a handful of very lucky souls. Personally, I get fed up with the arrogance and, often, I’m afraid, incompetence of doctors.
Corrupt and foolish politicians have almost destroyed the practice of medicine in the US.
It’s very sad, it’s such an honorable profession. Many could aspire to the profession but few have the stamina and heart to do well in it.
I salute all the hard working physicians that give so very much to care for us all... what would we do without them!?
Most docs have taken in big cut in income...
They were used to the bigger bucks...Now their screwed like everyone else in the non-government private sector...
It’s just started.... Big pharma is on the chopping block too as soon as most of those in their late 70s and 80s are all gone...
Most of them had old America secure jobs, big pensions, investments and those great medical benefits and insurance from the past...
That all starts changing for big pharma in the next few years or so.
My point is simple: life is not full of unicorns & roses. Most jobs lack personal fulfillment....you just get on & get it done. And if some idiots almost KILL a family member of mine I’m going to speak about it.
Wise words Diana :-)
leaders lead...wimps are followers. You are a doctor, you are a professional, act like one, never mind the humdrum of society, you rose above that be going to medical school. I can’t stand those in power (you) who start feeling sorry for themselves....you can do things that few people on Earth can do.....do them and stop feeling sorry for yourself.....Pathetic!!
And again why don’t you to to med school and try learning the job those idiots do?
Doctors have lost their status because most of them are now just employees and they act like it. Secondly, way too many lack respectability. Doctors didn’t show up with half buttoned shirts and gold chains back when they were considered to be pillars of the community.
The only way medical care will get better is if patients pay a greater percentage of the bill. The patient is the only person that can hold the physician accountable; you can’t really count on the insurance company or the government to be a patient advocate.
We are going in the wrong direction, and more government interference will only make things worse for doctors and patients. The author recommends more insurance/government payment schemes and worthless awards. When will people learn that governments cannot determine value? Value can only be decided by the consumer. How about giving the free market a try? We haven’t had free market medicine since the creation of 3rd party payor system after WW2.
I’ve done fine in life, doc. You seem pretty defensive. I “get” you are throwing out the “I’m more intelligent than you are card”. Won’t work with me. I graduated an Ivy & would match my SAT scores with you anytime. So take your childish conceit and do you know what with it.
Most of the of docs and others in big med from Ustinkistan and elsewhere who flooded in the past several decades, could care less about helping people or being all that.
It’s all about $$$ for most them.
Now they’re watching their incomes shrink and are not happy...
They’ll probably take it out on their patients.
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