twitter




Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Why in hell everyone wants to be a freakin doctor?

That job is so oversaturated. Cant people consider other options. I know that as a doctor you can specialize in many areas but almost all of them are saturated.
Answer:
Oh, not true.Doctors are fleeing the job. By 2020, the US should have a "doctor deficit" of two-hundred thousand physicians! Medical schools aren't filling up and people who have made it into the profession are leaving to find more rewarding jobs. The reasons are varied- people sue wildly in this country and without cause. Malpractice insurance premiums are EXPENSIVE! Also, the insurance companies would rather settle than go to court. Most of the daily practice goes towards documenting patient care to protect from litigation rather than towards patient care. Also Medicare and Medicaid reimburse poorly. People think that the physician's labor cost should be equal to that of the car mechanic's. Despite the fact that physicians have spent 4 yrs in college, 4 yrs in medical school, 3-5 years in residency, and 2-4 years in fellowship. People also would rather pay more for a pizza than a colonoscopy. Surveys of physician "unhappiness rates" are higher than ever. Physicians are not rich, the insurance companies are. Add on to that the price of an education (most physicians enter their residency carrying a back-breaking $150,000 of debt). In residency, if hourly wages are calculated from the overall salary, the salary equates to less than $12 an hour. Enough to feed a family? And these are intelligent people who could presumably find another job. And the hours worked! To make enough to pay the education debt there is no such thing as a 9-5 job. Residents were just limited 4 years ago to an 80 hour work week. Usually this equates to 1 day off a week out of 6. Residents typically stay overnight in the hospital 90 days a year! That's three months.Is the job rewarding? Yes, it has its moments. Would it be rewarding to have a 40 hr a week job and get paid what the job was worth and not have to worry about some sue-happy over-litigating person taking away the kids college funds? Yeah, that'd be nice, too.
while it's not oversaturated at all, (quite the opposite) the real reason not to be a doctor is the self-sacrifice involved - crazy long hours listening to people's problems, often being on call at all hours, huge student loan debt, etc. I sure wouldn't want to do it...
Because of the salary.
money
Some people truly get a joy out of helping others.
Because it has good money and reputation in society
the cha-ching, bling-bling, lettuce. In other words, money.
People used to want to be doctors because of the huge amounts of money they made, but now that the insurance companies regulate everything, that's not so anymore. I'm sure that misperception is still floating around though, but the medical field is very exciting now with so much research going on. As far as it being an over-saturated field, it's nowhere near as over-saturated as the field of law! My niece was interested in medicine, but I advised her to try the field of veterinary medicine instead ... before the HMOs get a hold of it! LOL
the money
but with all the school and the student loans
not too mention all the long hours and and always being on call and if you can't handle blood and guts you out.
eeewwww
and you can't have all your patients live some of them will die
You clearly have no idea what you're talking about.As for the salary, it's not bad, but there are MUCH easier ways to make a LOT more money, without sacrificing your personal life and without the constant risk of a lawsuit."Everyone" does not want to be a doctor. Very few have the drive to actually become one.
PRESTIGE
Dotors make a lot of money that is why everyone wants to be a feakin doctor...
Why not be a doctor? When I think of a doctor I think of someone that is very educated and skilled in their profession. They are the top of the mill. Doctors train and study so hard for what they have. Medicine is a very intriguing science. The human body is so mysterious in the way it works. So many medical break throughs have come about from very dedicated individuals during the long hours and the difficult environments. Think of Paramedics in the field. They work for very little pay and terrible conditions. They have dogs chasing them and rain soaked accident scenes, low light intubations and high speed drivers passing them on the road.
If a doctor has $150,000 in loans after they finish school, I wonder how long it would take them to pay it off making usually a minimum of $150,000 a yr? Plus, once those bills are paid off it's bling bling baby.
there hasn't been that much change in salary for doctors recently, so one can't point to that as a primary factor in the increasing numbers of applicants to medical schools in the US. my speculation is that the success of medical dramas like er and grey's anatomy have made the profession more popular- much like the boost in applicants to the military that occurred in the aftermath of the movie top gun.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

 
vc .net