Do doctors/ 3rd and 4th year med students get sick alot?

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surftheiop

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I was curious if doctors (especially those who practice in a hospital ) get sick alot?

I know there are million of measures taken to protect doctors/patients from each others germs but the sheer volume of sick people doctors are exposed to would seem to gurantee your exposed to alot of germs no matter how careful you are.

I was thinking maybe doctors can build up a really strong immune system over time after being exposed to so many things. But that would make it seem like 3rd/4th year med students would be getting sick constantly due to be in contact with so many germs they arent used to.

So bottom line, do doctors/med students get sick alot more than the general population due to exposure to sickness or does the increased medical knowledge actually alow them to get sick less often?
 
I was very surprised how infrequently I got sick. I mean I had the usual occasional cold, and there was one flu-like virus (but with some GI symptoms) that I came down with, but that was the only time I had to miss days of a clerkship.

I think most of it is that doctors' hand hygiene (while not as good as everyone wished) is probably better than most people's. I know I'm not 100% compliant all the time, but in the hospital it's rarely much more than 30 minutes between hand washings or alcohol gel for me. Seriously, I put on my white coat and it's like there's a little buzzer in my head that goes off.

The other thing to remember is that exposure to germs doesn't mean automatic infection. Your body fights off a lot without you getting sick.
 
surftheiop said:
I was curious if doctors (especially those who practice in a hospital ) get sick alot?

I know there are million of measures taken to protect doctors/patients from each others germs but the sheer volume of sick people doctors are exposed to would seem to gurantee your exposed to alot of germs no matter how careful you are.

I was thinking maybe doctors can build up a really strong immune system over time after being exposed to so many things. But that would make it seem like 3rd/4th year med students would be getting sick constantly due to be in contact with so many germs they arent used to.

So bottom line, do doctors/med students get sick alot more than the general population due to exposure to sickness or does the increased medical knowledge actually alow them to get sick less often?
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I don't know if there are any studies about this, but it hasn't been an issue in my case. This year, the worst that has happened to me is that I got a cold for a few days. That probably came courtesy of a sick resident with a young child, not from any of the patients. 🙄
 
Doctors get sick like everyone else in the world, but I doubt any more than the average person (maybe even less). Even though they are around sick people they also have FAR better hygiene than the average person...I mean something like a quarter of people don't even wash their hands when they go to the bathroom. I know just when I volunteer in the hospital I am constantly washing my hands after every little thing I do.

I think probably another part of it is doctors are trained to overcome very high levels of stress and difficulty, so even though they get a cold or a flu I think they tend to fight it a little better than other people. It is a lot harder to just "call in sick" when you are feeling under the weather.

My father is a physician and I can only think of 1 day in the past 10 years he took off for being sick, and that was because he literally did not leave the bathroom for 6 hours in the morning (Food poisoning). And even in that situation my mother had to force him to call in, he wanted one of us to drive him so he could even just do paperwork in his office.
 
I have been working as a patient transporter now for almost two years with tons of direct patient contact and I have only been sick once or twice. It has really surprised me.
 
Well, lately I've been waking up with night sweats and coughing up some blood...I had a patient doing the same thing but I think it's a coincidence...
 
It depends on what field you are working in. My father is an internist and specifically decided against Peds because he was always sick on his Peds rotation. With a field like IM, GI, Derm, Cardio, Neuro you are much less likely to be dealing with patients with infectious diseases (notice I didn't say that you will never deal with patients with infectious diseases).
 
Aladdin said:
It depends on what field you are working in. My father is an internist and specifically decided against Peds because he was always sick on his Peds rotation. With a field like IM, GI, Derm, Cardio, Neuro you are much less likely to be dealing with patients with infectious diseases (notice I didn't say that you will never deal with patients with infectious diseases).
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I work with surgeons, and they seem to get sick with the same regularity a normal person does. I'm also a mom, and I was going to guess that pediatrics would be the rotation that would slay you. Since my kid has hit daycare, I'm constantly fighting something off. You can wash your hands all you want. When a tiny stealth finger ends up in your nose, you're kind of screwed. :laugh:
 
Aladdin said:
It depends on what field you are working in. My father is an internist and specifically decided against Peds because he was always sick on his Peds rotation. With a field like IM, GI, Derm, Cardio, Neuro you are much less likely to be dealing with patients with infectious diseases (notice I didn't say that you will never deal with patients with infectious diseases).
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that's unfortunate. each rotation lasts 1-2 months and supposedly after a year or so your body adapts fairly well. i'm sure you'd still be sick more often than a cardiologist but not as bad as the first year on the job.

i volunteer in a free primary care clinic, so the only kind of ppl who come in are infectious ppl. i've asked the staff your question several times and they always said after the first year it's fine. that first year is supposedly ****ty as hell, tho haha. so far, i've only been sick once in the 6 months i've been there. i only have direct patient contact once a week, though ha
 
3rd years get sick on peds alot.
 
rocketbooster said:
that's unfortunate. each rotation lasts 1-2 months and supposedly after a year or so your body adapts fairly well. i'm sure you'd still be sick more often than a cardiologist but not as bad as the first year on the job.
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Oh I should have said my father (who has gotten sick once in the past ten years) is a pediatric cardiologist...most of the children he works with were born under his care and rarely does he deal with anything infectious.

So ya, I'm sure it varies. But like someone said, be happy we have an ADAPTIVE immune system and not just an innate one.
 
I intentionally dont wash my hands so I expose myself to as many bacteria as possible and now my immune system is invincible and I will never die.
 
bodonid said:
3rd years get sick on peds alot.
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Agreed. Peds or EM during the winter months pretty much maximizes your odds of getting something. Some percentage of the class will be wearing a mask during these rotations by the end, to prevent coughing on patients. Get your flu shots each year -- it makes a difference. And wash (not just avagard) your hands frequently during each day.
 
chessknt87 said:
I intentionally dont wash my hands so I expose myself to as many bacteria as possible and now my immune system is invincible and I will never die.
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Well I have a perfect immune system and that's why I never have been sick/will never get sick again.


Also I can raise and lower my cholesterol at will
 
Kaustikos said:
Well I have a perfect immune system and that's why I never have been sick/will never get sick again.


Also I can raise and lower my cholesterol at will
Click to expand...


Why would you want to raise it?
:laugh:
 
As an EMT I've only gotten sick from a patient once and it wasn't even my pt. The other crew transported said pt, got sick, and then proceeded to give it to co-workers and it spread quite quickly through our company. It was a very fast, very crappy stomach flu. It wasn't the first crew's fault they gave it to everyone else - it was very contagious (fire department got it too). 🙁

Other than that, so far I've survived the cold/flu season without getting anything from working in health care. Although, we don't transport very many kids (or at least, I haven't).
 
I shadowed a doctor who washed his hands so much, they bled. Surely that's going too far?
 
chessknt87 said:
I intentionally dont wash my hands so I expose myself to as many bacteria as possible and now my immune system is invincible and I will never die.
Click to expand...


🤣 hahaha that made my day.. well i can only hope i can become as invincible!!
 
I would be more worried about the lack of sleep and high stress taking a toll on one's immune system than simply being in a clinical/hospital setting.

In the past 5 or 10 years, I think at least 9 times out of 10, every time I got sick it was when I was sleep deprived and stressed.
 
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