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Sunday, September 30. 2012

Stethoscope blues

The article is at Ricochet. The comments are good.


For young docs these days, it's about paying off $200,000 in loans (not to mention 3-4 years after that as an intern and resident on a pittance), the incredible burdens of paperwork and new regulations, conflicts between wanting to be independent and the security temptations of getting a salary.


The big change in the past 20 years is women becoming 50% of medical school students. When I went to med school, it was around 25%. Many of the women, I have observed, are happy working limited hours, do not mind being salaried, and do not welcome the burdens and risks of private practice, taking full personal responsibility for patients, being on call, etc. They want to have babies, with work as a sideline. It's a big change from the independent cowboy medical practice of the past. Those cowboys were my role models.


Without wanting to sound sexist, I do have to observe that women are more comfortable following the rules than men are.

Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects, Our Essays at 14:49 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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All in unknowing preparation for Obamacare I suppose. When that call at 3 AM persuades to roll over instead of rolling out. Much like the O going to bed upon hearing of Stevens death.

We should all aspire to be cowboys, though except for an any longer rarefied few, alas, that age lies in the dustbin of history.
#1 XRay on 2012-09-30 21:44 (Reply)
Most doctors in the USSR were women. Medicine wasn't a high paying job. Viva socialism.
#2 Jewel (Link) on 2012-10-01 01:17 (Reply)
On my door knob this morning: a flyer for "a doctor on your doorstep in an hour", which reminds me of my brother's friend -- the vet who makes house calls in NYC and is out-earning his MBA classmates/money managers. About 20 years ago, I met a healthcare executive who forecast that medical services would be provided in a van equipped with all the necessities that would drive up to your home. That day has come.
#3 jma on 2012-10-01 04:32 (Reply)
Jewel, the Russian-English dictionary may translate "vrach" as "doctor", but in the US we call people with that level of training "physician assistants" or "nurses" (i.e. a bachelor's degree with some clinical hands-on training.) The realio-trulio physicians in the USSR were and are overwhelmingly male.
#4 Laura on 2012-10-01 08:49 (Reply)
Another one along the same lines is where a guy walks into a bar and bets the bartender that he can stand on the counter and pee into a dozen shot glasses, filling them to the top without spilling a drop.
#5 chuck on 2012-10-01 15:01 (Reply)
Absolutely. My medical experience too. The girls turn up looking very pretty - make up and heels etc. 98% opt for part time and easy work not wanting to take onerous rosters and generally avoid demanding training and so forth. Even the "General surgeon' females do bits and bobs, thyroid and breast surgery. WITHIN 5 YEARS THEY DECLARE THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO CONTINUE ON THE GENERAL CALL ROSTER. This is a blessing as this group have obviously higher complication rates and avoidance of difficult cases too. Irritatingly they produce private practice leaflets declaring that "women want to be treated by women". I would have though that women would want to be treated by a competent doctor. I guess I am out of touch.
#6 thehawkreturns on 2012-10-03 02:34 (Reply)

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