Posted on 04/15/2014 5:13:58 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Nine of 10 doctors discourage others from joining the profession, and 300 physicians commit suicide every year. When did it get this bad?
By the end of this year, it’s estimated that 300 physicians will commit suicide. While depression amongst physicians is not new—a few years back, it was named the second-most suicidal occupation—the level of sheer unhappiness amongst physicians is on the rise.
Simply put, being a doctor has become a miserable and humiliating undertaking. Indeed, many doctors feel that America has declared war on physicians—and both physicians and patients are the losers.
Not surprisingly, many doctors want out. Medical students opt for high-paying specialties so they can retire as quickly as possible. Physician MBA programs—that promise doctors a way into management—are flourishing. The website known as the Drop-Out-Club—which hooks doctors up with jobs at hedge funds and venture capital firms—has a solid following. In fact, physicians are so bummed out that 9 out of 10 doctors would discourage anyone from entering the profession.
It’s hard for anyone outside the profession to understand just how rotten the job has become—and what bad news that is for America’s health care system. Perhaps that’s why author Malcolm Gladwell recently implied that to fix the healthcare crisis, the public needs to understand what it’s like to be a physician. Imagine, for things to get better for patients, they need to empathize with physicians—that’s a tall order in our noxious and decidedly un-empathetic times.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
If you are a doctor and hate your job ... then you are not doing things right.
quit working for the hospital, go to a small town and open your own practice and don’t accept medicare, medicaid, or insurance and all your problems will magically go away.
In the 35 years I’ve been a nurse, I’ve seen physicians go from being proud, independent professionals to insecure, slavedriven employees.
being a lawyer can be awful too dealing with people screaming at you and unhappy
My whole family used to have a doctor that was so wonderful. He was excellent. Many of the procedures were done right there in the office. This was back in the 70’s and the 80’s.
Prices were affordable.
Then all the increased paperwork and government intervention came along. He quit because that was not what he had in mind for practicing medicine.
We sure missed him, but he was able to see the writing on the wall early on.
A small-town doctor who opens a practice and doesn't accept insurance is likely to end up like a small-town auto mechanic who only works on Volvos, Saabs and Range Rovers.
I once talked with a doctor about half an hour after he had just told a man’s family that he had opened him up, found his gut full of tumors, and their loved one could not be saved.
Can’t recall ever having more sympathy for another human being. Would not have taken his job for six times whatever he was being paid.
I have several relatives that are doctors and don’t accept insurance, medicare, or medicaid. And they are doing just fine. All own their own practices in small towns.
But don’t worry, folks, we’ll soon have all those nice foreign doctors to take their place. They will not speak English very well and will accordingly mistake what you are saying, and their training isn’t nearly as good, but heck, healthcare will continue to be free, right? Blessings be upon Obamacare!
When you cut out the middlemen (the hospitals, the insurance companies, and the government) you can afford to charge much less.
my doc did just exactly that. He’s awesome. I don’t think he makes a TON of money, but he makes enough to live, and I think he has a lot of satisfaction with his job. He seems to anyways.
Fair enough. What’s the most complex medical procedure these doctors typically do?
my kid’s pediatrician works his fanny off, he barely has time to draw breath.
A physician’s greatest joy is the patient relationship.
Assembly-line medicine undermines the patient-physician relationship.
Most doctors are burned out, overworked, or exhausted.
Many doctors spend little time with their families.
Workaholics are admired in medicine.
Medicine values competition over nurturing.
Many doctors function in survival mode.
Doctors are not supposed to make mistakes.
Caring for sick people can make you sick if you don’t care for yourself.
Medical education often dissociates mind from body and spirit.
Some medical students believe they graduate with PTSD.
Seeing too much pain and not enough joy is unhealthy.
For a physician, a cry for help is weakness.
The reductionist medical model is dehumanizing for patient and physician.
Many doctors are emotionally detached (especially male physicians).
Doctors are obsessive-compulsive perfectionists in an imperfect medical system.
Physicians are the nation’s social safety net with few resources to help patients.
Some doctors feel like indentured slaves.
Death is perceived as failure.
Doctors don’t take very good care of themselves or each other.
Many doctors are in denial about the high rate of physician suicide.
Physicians are often bullied by insurance companies, employers, and patients.
Doctoring is more than a job; it’s a calling, an identity.
Doctors are often socially isolated.
Doctors can’t just be people. They’re doctors 24/7.
Doctors can feel severe psychological pain.
Doctors can feel powerless.
Doctors can feel trapped. Some see no alternatives to their suffering.
Doctors have easy access to lethal drugs and firearms.
Doctors have the same problems as everyone else.
Doctors have marital distress. They get divorced.
Doctors have addiction to drugs and alcohol.
Doctors have economic hardship and unbearable debt.
Doctors have mental illness.
Doctors are human.
Thank you. In the thirty years I have been a doctor I have seen the same. I started as an orderly in the ‘60s. The first step in the “fall” was the change in nursing philosophy to “Primary Care Nursing”. The Nurses bought into it hook, line, and sinker and I remember wondering why such a major change that had such repercussions on both our professions was allowed to take place with almost no discussion or public planning. Almost like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” one day it had just been accomplished. The “unintended consequences” seemed so clear to me and as the subsequent years unfolded the fact that they seemed to surprise folks just left me slack jawed. I tried to mention things here and there at the time but I was such a peon (still am) no one listened. Too bad, really. If the groups that claim to represent us (think AMA, etc.) wou7ld have actually done so much of what has taken place in the USA in the interval would not have occurred. The Fascist Media has colluded every step along the way. Phyllis Schafly tried to warn about the AMA years ago and was dismissed as a “right wing kook” as they played Alinsky on her like they do. I suppose as We the People didn’t think of ourselves as “an empire” we thought we were immune to the historical stages of empire. Too bad, really.
the internist, family practicioner, pediatrician are able to cut out the middleman.
Surgeons who utilize operating rooms, hospitals, hospital staff can only offer to control their own fees. The ancillary services do not.
family practice and dermatology
Sounds nice but ignores paying back school loans, cost of setup, not enough business to pay for malpractice insurance, complying with EMR, keeping up with continuing education, 24/7 call, etc......
There is a reason why small towns are losing their independent practice docs. It’s just not a viable business anymore.
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