If there are so many miserable doctors, why are you guys entering this field?

[Temporary Superman]

Same 4 reasons as everybody,

Chicks, money, power, and chicks.

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[Law2Doc]

Same 4 reasons as everybody,

Chicks, money, power, and chicks.

Meh, if you couldn't get chicks before med school you won't do better with less free time and atrophied social skills from lack of sleep and living on the wards. Buy a pair of scrubs and pretend to be a doctor and you'll do just as well. And the other two reason aren't as impressive as you might think as a premed.

 

[PhillyMed777]

The only appreciable skill i have is memorizing things and vomiting them up..

And I do it well. Lol.

 

[Psai]

Golly gee wilikers mister! You must be so down to earth and realistic. You should let everyone know how appropriately jaded you are, so they can be just like you!

Ok mr triage specialist

 

[Blackjack7]

Meh, if you couldn't get chicks before med school you won't do better with less free time and atrophied social skills from lack of sleep and living on the wards. Buy a pair of scrubs and pretend to be a doctor and you'll do just as well. And the other two reason aren't as impressive as you might think as a premed.

S T O L E N V A L O R ! ! ! Feel some shame ho.

 

[deleted407021]

Ok mr triage specialist

You are free to PM me if you have any questions about free clinics, their functioning or how you can get involved! ^_^

 

[NeuResurgens]

Golly gee wilikers mister! You must be so down to earth and realistic. You should let everyone know how appropriately jaded you are, so they can be just like you!

Yeah.. Never understood the pathological need to fight with premeds

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Yeah.. Never understood the pathological need to fight with premeds

It was more interesting when Dermviser was around. He'd take on like 5 pre-meds at once.

 

[Strigon]

I'm pursuing this field because it helps me become a better person. I see a physician as a teacher and role model to the community, and we teach best what we need to learn the most. The happiest moments in my life so far have been times when I've been a mentor to others, giving advice while opening myself up and finally learning much needed lessons.

 

[Law2Doc]

I'm pursuing this field because it helps me become a better person. I see a physician as a teacher and role model to the community, and we teach best what we need to learn the most. The happiest moments in my life so far have been times when I've been a mentor to others, giving advice while opening myself up and finally learning much needed lessons.

These are fine secondary reasons, but if you don't like the job function, hoping to become a role model isn't going to get you through months of overnights on the wards or make you not dread the 5 am alarm clock each Monday morning throughout residency. You won't really be more of a role model than the NP working at the CVS Minute Clinic anyhow -- both of you wear a white coat and stethoscope to work and garner about the same "respect" from your patients. Truth of the matter is you can probably be a role model and teach in any field. To be happy in a field where you invest so much of your time and life as medicine, you have to actually like the work, not some external benefit like how you hope others perceive you.

 

[Axes]

50%+ or so of most professionals are dissatisfied. The harder and longer you work, the more you feel you deserve-- and after a point, reality just can't deliver. Also, an argument can be made that professional school attracts smart, hardworking, but risk averse kids, and that this latter flaw precludes them from achieving their inflated expectations.

 

[Axes]

.

 

[Strigon]

These are fine secondary reasons, but if you don't like the job function, hoping to become a role model isn't going to get you through months of overnights on the wards or make you not dread the 5 am alarm clock each Monday morning throughout residency. You won't really be more of a role model than the NP working at the CVS Minute Clinic anyhow -- both of you wear a white coat and stethoscope to work and garner about the same "respect" from your patients. Truth of the matter is you can probably be a role model and teach in any field. To be happy in a field where you invest so much of your time and life as medicine, you have to actually like the work, not some external benefit like how you hope others perceive you.

That's a fair point, and it's certainly important to consider the job itself along with those secondary reasons. I realize that the amount of work to become a physician is immense and laden with many sacrifices on my part, and there'll be some parts that will be less than palatable at times throughout my training. Hopefully with core clerkships and exploration in the future, I can find a career that I can combine my secondary desires with a job that is enjoyable.

 

[Law2Doc]

That's a fair point, and it's certainly important to consider the job itself along with those secondary reasons. I realize that the amount of work to become a physician is immense and laden with many sacrifices on my part, and there'll be some parts that will be less than palatable at times throughout my training. Hopefully with core clerkships and exploration in the future, I can find a career that I can combine my secondary desires with a job that is enjoyable.

Stop! I'm saying don't go in to medicine "hoping" you'll find something there in your clerkships you like or that's palatable. Bad bad idea and i think you are going to become the underlying casualty OPs question suggested. You should already have an interest in clinical medicine/ taking care of patients and only use your rotations to tweak things and find the best fit in terms of how you'll do that -- not start considering medicine as a career at that late point.

Do lots of volunteering and shadowing and if at the end the only thing you like about medicine is that you'll be a role model, run far away and find something you actually LIKE to do. You won't be a role model if you are beaten down and miserable, working 24 hours a call doing something you really don't enjoy. I'm not a role model or pillar of the community that I'm aware of, but I like the job, and I think that's the only recipe to avoid misery in this chew you up and spit you out field. Everything else mentioned on this thread is a nice side perquisite if you can get it, but shouldn't be the driving force.

 

[Law2Doc]

50%+ or so of most professionals are dissatisfied. The harder and longer you work, the more you feel you deserve-- and after a point, reality just can't deliver. Also, an argument can be made that professional school attracts smart, hardworking, but risk averse kids, and that this latter flaw precludes them from their inflated expectations.

1. I disagree that most people believe that they deserve more money because they have worked harder/for more years, but I do agree that if this is your mindset you'll be disgruntled in medicine.

2. I agree that at least SDN, if not medicine, attracts risk averse people who want a decent safe income, and frankly this leads to job dissatisfaction both because we will all have peers who will be buying cars and houses while we are still in residency because they had the balls to forego the security of a Professional field, and because the salary and job security in medicine isn't really as "guaranteed" as many premeds seem to think. I know people who had to sacrifice quite a lot in terms of geography, hours and job function to find gainful employment in certain specialties, and I know quite a few people who have been laid off as groups lose lucrative hospital contracts to their competitors. Salaries are dictated by reimbursements which continue to go down, which leads to people having to constantly choose between upping their hours or earning less, which also adds to angst in the field because it wasn't a short houred job to start with.

3. In short it's a good job for the right person, and a bad career choice for many. I like the job but know plenty who went into the field thinking it was different than it is and are forever frustrated. You really have to do your due diligence, and see if it's something you'll enjoy, not hope you'll find something you like on rotations or think that money, power and respect will be enough of a reward at the end of years of suffering through training to make it all worth it - its not a good game plan.

 

[Temporary Superman]

Meh, if you couldn't get chicks before med school you won't do better with less free time and atrophied social skills from lack of sleep and living on the wards. Buy a pair of scrubs and pretend to be a doctor and you'll do just as well. And the other two reason aren't as impressive as you might think as a premed.

You can do that?! Thanks for saving me 200k in student loan debt! Followup question: where can I buy some scrubs?

 

[Strigon]

Stop! I'm saying don't go in to medicine "hoping" you'll find something there in your clerkships you like or that's palatable. Bad bad idea and i think you are going to become the underlying casualty OPs question suggested. You should already have an interest in clinical medicine/ taking care of patients and only use your rotations to tweak things and find the best fit in terms of how you'll do that -- not start considering medicine as a career at that late point.

Do lots of volunteering and shadowing and if at the end the only thing you like about medicine is that you'll be a role model, run far away and find something you actually LIKE to do. You won't be a role model if you are beaten down and miserable, working 24 hours a call doing something you really don't enjoy. I'm not a role model or pillar of the community that I'm aware of, but I like the job, and I think that's the only recipe to avoid misery in this chew you up and spit you out field. Everything else mentioned on this thread is a nice side perquisite if you can get it, but shouldn't be the driving force.

Good point. I think I could've been more detailed and eloquent... Would you mind if I PM'd you with my current situation in preparation for the cycle? I'd rather not spend additional thread space detracting from the topic.

 

[Axes]

1. I disagree that most people believe that they deserve more money because they have worked harder/for more years, but I do agree that if this is your mindset you'll be disgruntled in medicine.

I think you're right in saying it's not just money. Just from what I see around me and can gather from things I've read, people want careers to give them some sort of almost divine altitude above a life of obligation, fear, desire etc, but these things are all essentially inescapable. Money and "lifestyle" factor in as they denote control.

The other thing that is important to think about is when in one's career are these surveys conducted? Because professional jobs are definitionally repetitive. You could love it 28, and see only the worst aspects at 52.

 

[ClrkKnt]

The honest answer for most is the big salary and job stability that is mostly guaranteed, compared to other professions at least. No other profession can give you that kind of salary outside of the ones where you just have to be pretty lucky to get them (A-list actor, rockstar, pro athlete, etc.). Money isn't everything but it plays a massive role in determining how happy someone is in life because it ultimately influences your status in society and the kinds of things you can do. Once you're in your 30s and have that 200k+ salary rolling your way, you will have more chances of being happy in life than someone that doesn't.

As much as everyone wants to deny it due to some sense of moral superiority, wealth plays a massive role in how happy someone is in life. You can be a much happier parent when you know that you can send your kids to the nicest schools and raise them in the nicest neighborhoods as opposed to having to worry about it when you don't have the money.

If physicians are miserable, I can only wonder how much more miserable other professions are.

 

[ClrkKnt]

Strongly agree with this. Only go into this field if you enjoy the job function, enjoy working with patients in a clinical setting. Because much of this other stuff rarely/barely happens, and so just aren't smart reasons to choose this career path. If you go into medicine primarily for money, job security, respect or because it's what your parents want, you'll be miserable. If you enjoy the job, even without respect or some of the other perks, you'll do fine.

Most Asian Americans (no racist).

 

[Dr.Sticks]

After seeing someone close to me go under the knife for over 10 hours by a neurosurgeon, personally having a medical crisis, then moving forward and witnessing medical illness first hand..
I felt a calling to medicine.. I didn't chose to go into it.. I just couldn't envision myself doing anything else

 

[altblue]

It was more interesting when Dermviser was around. He'd take on like 5 pre-meds at once.

He needs to come back.

 

[NeuResurgens]

It was more interesting when Dermviser was around. He'd take on like 5 pre-meds at once.

Heard a lot about Dermviser but never seen him post, must have left before I got here. What was his mantra?

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Heard a lot about Dermviser but never seen him post, must have left before I got here. What was his mantra?

Lol, here's an example:
Think medical school is for you? You’re probably wrong

 

[Psai]

Yeah.. Never understood the pathological need to fight with premeds

Because you have a lot of dumb opinions

 

[altblue]

The honest answer for most is the big salary and job stability that is mostly guaranteed, compared to other professions at least. No other profession can give you that kind of salary outside of the ones where you just have to be pretty lucky to get them (A-list actor, rockstar, pro athlete, etc.). Money isn't everything but it plays a massive role in determining how happy someone is in life because it ultimately influences your status in society and the kinds of things you can do. Once you're in your 30s and have that 200k+ salary rolling your way, you will have more chances of being happy in life than someone that doesn't.

As much as everyone wants to deny it due to some sense of moral superiority, wealth plays a massive role in how happy someone is in life. You can be a much happier parent when you know that you can send your kids to the nicest schools and raise them in the nicest neighborhoods as opposed to having to worry about it when you don't have the money.

If physicians are miserable, I can only wonder how much more miserable other professions are.

This kind of reasoning irritates me, because very generally you can live pretty comfortably on 100-150k or even 75k if you're frugal enough and your SO works (which you can get from many other professions) provided you don't live in a ridiculously CoL area and have a large family. There's a point where things level off...

Many people think they must live in NYC/LA (or buy a large house if they don't), pay for their kid's education, and go on trips to foreign countries though to be happy or be satisfied, so I guess it isn't enough for some.

 

[Glazedonutlove]

The honest answer for most is the big salary and job stability that is mostly guaranteed, compared to other professions at least. No other profession can give you that kind of salary outside of the ones where you just have to be pretty lucky to get them (A-list actor, rockstar, pro athlete, etc.). Money isn't everything but it plays a massive role in determining how happy someone is in life because it ultimately influences your status in society and the kinds of things you can do. Once you're in your 30s and have that 200k+ salary rolling your way, you will have more chances of being happy in life than someone that doesn't.

As much as everyone wants to deny it due to some sense of moral superiority, wealth plays a massive role in how happy someone is in life. You can be a much happier parent when you know that you can send your kids to the nicest schools and raise them in the nicest neighborhoods as opposed to having to worry about it when you don't have the money.

If physicians are miserable, I can only wonder how much more miserable other professions are.

Take a psych class. After a certain amount of salary, additional money does not increase your happiness

 

[Spector1]

Lol, here's an example:
Think medical school is for you? You’re probably wrong

I love how a masters candidate is telling premeds why they are bad candidates for a medical doctorate.

 

[bearintraining]

This kind of reasoning irritates me, because very generally you can live pretty comfortably on 100-150k or even 75k if you're frugal enough and your SO works (which you can get from many other professions) provided you don't live in a ridiculously CoL area and have a large family. There's a point where things level off...

Many people think they must live in NYC/LA (or buy a large house if they don't), pay for their kid's education, and go on trips to foreign countries though to be happy or be satisfied, so I guess it isn't enough for some.

I read something somewhere that a study said above 150k the increase in wealth doesn't affect happiness..

 

[Glazedonutlove]

I read something somewhere that a study said above 150k the increase in wealth doesn't affect happiness..

I think it was 75k depending on number of dependents and other factors but the reasoning is the same-

 

[Dral]

I've questioned a few times in the past whether I should have done something else.

Now I'm fellowing. I love it....while I know there are other things I could be happy with, I am absolutely satisfied...that's not the correct descriptor...I'm way above satisfied. I look forward to going in every day...seriously.

It helps that ALL the people I work with are an absolute pleasure to be around.

 

[deleted407021]

Heard a lot about Dermviser but never seen him post, must have left before I got here. What was his mantra?

He was a particularly abrasive poster who was a bit notorious for jumping from one subforum to the next starting fights and generally being very unpleasant.

 

[deleted407021]

Because you have a lot of dumb opinions

We're so lucky to have someone like you who can keep us silly little premeds grounded! You're so much more self aware than us dumb kids. You should broadcast that more!

 

[Dral]

...and in accordance with many of the surveys out there on physician job satisfaction, I'm in Derm...just finished residency.

I may not be saving lives on a daily basis, but saving lives isn't really what makes me happy. It makes me happy to see other people (and pts) be happy.

I'm a very visual person so it makes sense to do something that I can outright see (opposed to say managing someone's blood sugar). People who have messed up skin are unhappy...when I help their skin get better, they look better and feel better (physically and mentally). When patients come back and thank you for helping them out it's just really satisfying...at least for me. Not just job satisfaction, but like life satisfaction...knowing people are doing better and are at least a bit happier in one aspect of their life due to what I do for them.

No complaints here.

There are always people who can't be helped or don't want to be helped...but every specialty has that. Ya just gotta do your best, express to the pt you did/are doing your best, and just accept it and help the pt accept it the best they can.

 

[altblue]

I read something somewhere that a study said above 150k the increase in wealth doesn't affect happiness..

Tbh, I think 150k is a milestone not just because you can do more in your life, but it's also more that probably you have less money related stress.

Worrying about health care payments, saving for retirement, student loans etc really sucks.

Of course if you don't have the money for movies, decent food & casual restaurants, or short trips that's a bit different...

 

[Lyoness]

Security. People will always want doctors.

 

[allantois]

Take a psych class. After a certain amount of salary, additional money does not increase your happiness

The sort of generalizations psych research produces cannot be directly applied to any given individual. Plus there's a lot more factors to career satisfaction than just salary. Things like stress levels, how much control you have over your schedule, your position in bureaucratic hierarchy, etc.

Psych major here.

 

[Glazedonutlove]

The sort of generalizations psych research produces cannot be directly applied to any given individual. Plus there's a lot more factors to career satisfaction than just salary, such as stress levels, how much control you have over your job, etc.

Psych major here.

Of course other factors matter...the question was specifically about salary alone. I was responding to a generalization.

 

[ClrkKnt]

Take a psych class. After a certain amount of salary, additional money does not increase your happiness

It's not about "happiness", it is American culture and everything wants to play the game of Keeping up with the Joneses. We don't settle for mediocrity or even above average, we want the big pay check, nice house, nice car, beautiful spouse, and a ticket into higher class society. Medicine is one of the very few careers that can give people a guaranteed ticket to that society if they do certain things right along the way. No other career choice can really do that.

 

[altblue]

It's not about "happiness", it is American culture and everything wants to play the game of Keeping up with the Joneses. We don't settle for mediocrity or even above average, we want the big pay check, nice house, nice car, beautiful spouse, and a ticket into higher class society. Medicine is one of the very few careers that can give people a guaranteed ticket to that society if they do certain things right along the way. No other career choice can really do that.

Hopefully people want to be a doctor because they actually want to do the work. Hopefully the benefits you listed are of secondary concern for most.

 

[getdown]

If you're dissatisfied with current health care, then contribute to its change. If you have nothing productive to contribute, then please don't bully people out of their idealism. You're just stifling innovation . . .

Cynicism should not be mistaken with realistic point of views. Cynics can be just as naive as idealists . . .

LOL spoken like a true idealist. You'll soon realize that you as the physician cannot adequately contribute to significant change to the system because of too many factors to individually hash on this post but essentially it comes down to money. You just don't have enough capital power to promote the change necessary on the whole system.

Also, it's not bullying people out of their idealism. It's telling you how things are and trying to temper your optimism. I understand some people could express this in a better way but it's extremely ignorant to come in here with this idea in your head, get angry when someone paints a brutally honest picture of the current situation and then lash out because it goes against what you have in your head. It's probably similar to how kids ignore their parents warnings only to later realize they should probably have heeded it a little closer.

 

[Psai]

We're so lucky to have someone like you who can keep us silly little premeds grounded! You're so much more self aware than us dumb kids. You should broadcast that more!

I hope you're not under the impression that you are funny and witty

 

[Law2Doc]

... Medicine is one of the very few careers that can give people a guaranteed ticket to that society if they do certain things right along the way. No other career choice can really do that.

Except that it's not "guaranteed". Not even close. Maybe it was a decade or two ago but now you've got to be much more geographically flexible, specialty flexible and willing to work pretty rough hours to get what many premeds on here describe as "average". (And there are whole specialties that max out below what's described as average on here.) Premeds understandably like to think if they make it into med school they've won the race and are set for life, but guess what -- it's not so. In a number of specialties the job market is pretty ugly, and people do get laid off when their groups lose big hospital contracts and the like. I've known people who after a protracted job search have had to take a job that didn't meet most of their situational needs, and I've known people who recently were part of a departmental layoff. I've also in my prior career worked with many doctors whose practices went belly-up. It's a premed fantasy that anything in this career path is guaranteed, sorry. It's better than a lot of fields but you'd better be ready to work hard, be geographically flexible and make yourself indispensable every step of the way because you aren't guaranteed a job or an income, other than on the pre-allo board. This "guaranteed" concept IMHO is probably the most dangerous myth that gets spread around on here, and I think it must originate from a prior generation where doctors had a lot more leverage (but things still probably weren't "guaranteed" even then).

And this notion probably creates an unrealistic expectation that leads to being a "miserable doctor" when you invest a lot of years and find that the work to stay afloat isn't over, and sometimes isn't even less than some of your friends in objectively riskier fields.

 

[Frazier]

I've questioned a few times in the past whether I should have done something else.

Now I'm fellowing. I love it....while I know there are other things I could be happy with, I am absolutely satisfied...that's not the correct descriptor...I'm way above satisfied. I look forward to going in every day...seriously.

It helps that ALL the people I work with are an absolute pleasure to be around.

...and in accordance with many of the surveys out there on physician job satisfaction, I'm in Derm...just finished residency.

I may not be saving lives on a daily basis, but saving lives isn't really what makes me happy. It makes me happy to see other people (and pts) be happy.

I'm a very visual person so it makes sense to do something that I can outright see (opposed to say managing someone's blood sugar). People who have messed up skin are unhappy...when I help their skin get better, they look better and feel better (physically and mentally). When patients come back and thank you for helping them out it's just really satisfying...at least for me. Not just job satisfaction, but like life satisfaction...knowing people are doing better and are at least a bit happier in one aspect of their life due to what I do for them.

No complaints here.

There are always people who can't be helped or don't want to be helped...but every specialty has that. Ya just gotta do your best, express to the pt you did/are doing your best, and just accept it and help the pt accept it the best they can.

Dude, way to be a cliche.

Why not be unique - why not be...an unhappy dermatologist? You could be a pioneer in uncharted territory.

 

[deleted407021]

I hope you're not under the impression that you are funny and witty

You're an obnoxiously superior person. You believe that since you're a medical student, you reserve the right to come to pre-allo, find those among us with even the slightest sense of idealism and call us all stupid kids with idiotic opinions, as if you're so uniquely self aware and qualified to critique the impression of medicine that some maintain. All I'd really have to say to someone with your sense of superiority, someone who gets off to degrading the endeavors of others, if I had the opportunity to say it to your face is "p1ss off. You don't reserve the right to dog people for their perceived misconceptions"
Unfortunately there are a million just like you.

 

[bc65]

The original question was: Why do doctors keep entering the field?

1. Because everyone ignores all the advice to the contrary, because everyone thinks they "are above average", and they are doing it for the right reasons, and will live happily every after, not like all those other people who did it for the wrong reasons. " All those doctors with 10, 20, 30 years of experience couldn't possibly know what they are talking about, because they are not sincere, dedicated, and informed the way I am at 20". In finance, this takes the form of "this time it's different".

2. Because everyone is focused on the short term, and don't look at the end goal:

Once I get through Organic, it will be downhill from there.
All I have to do is get accepted to med school, then I'll be set for life.
I just have to get through my first 2 years, then it will be great.
After Step 1, I'll be fine.
I just have to get through 3rd year.
I just have to get my residency.
I just have to get through internship.
I just have to get through this year of residency.
I just have to finish residency.
I need to get that first job.
I just have to pass the written boards.
I just have to pass the oral boards.

Then, you find yourself in your early or late 30's, finally in a job. It might be a great job, it might be more satisfying than any other ( or not) but it's a job, with all the problems that jobs entail: You job has a lot of responsibility, long hours, little free time, either earning less than you expected or finding out that the money either isn't enough or doesn't go as far as you thought it would, or isn't as satisfying as you expected. You find out that you really don't cure very many people, that you rarely make a clever diagnosis, ( it's all pretty obvious), that patients who should be grateful aren't, that they don't pay what they owe, the insurance companies try to cheat you, your staff steals from you, or doesn't do their job, administration fights with you, other doctors are lazy/stupid/argumentative. You know, just like with any job.

That's why the only good reason to do it is if you're sure you won't be happy doing anything else. Not because that insures that you'll be happy, because it doesn't, but because if you're sure that you can't see yourself doing anything else, then when you do it, and you find out that you don't really like it all that much and it probably wasn't worth it, you can at least say that you're better off having done it, because otherwise you would have spent your whole life regretting not doing it. This way, you only spend 20 years regretting that you did it.

Or, go into a specialty that earns you so much money that you can enjoy counting it, or spending it, or use it to retire really early if you find out that you don't like medicine after all.

 

[Glazedonutlove]

If the alternative to being idealistic is looking forward to the bleak and bitter future painted by some posts, ild rather be the former

 

[deleted407021]

So you'd rather be idealistic than realistic?

He'd rather be optimistic about his future career than jaded and pessimistic - before he even starts - based on the opinions of a group of people griping on the Internet.

 

[Glazedonutlove]

He'd rather be optimistic about his future career than jaded and pessimistic - before he even starts - based on the opinions of a group of people griping on the Internet.

she* but yes

So you'd rather be idealistic than realistic?

Are premeds supposed to hate patients, hate working life without getting constant gratitude, etc.? If they feels that way, then they shouldn't be going into medicine.

Also, you have a right to be bitter about life, your job, going into medicine, whatever, but don't deny that you were idealistic as a premed too. The point is there are different stages of life, and until we premeds have gotten to the stage where we are "supposed" to start feeling all bitter, there is no point feeling that way now when we have not experienced anything to make us feel that way!

 

[Holmwood]

LOL spoken like a true idealist. You'll soon realize that you as the physician cannot adequately contribute to significant change to the system because of too many factors to individually hash on this post but essentially it comes down to money. You just don't have enough capital power to promote the change necessary on the whole system.

Also, it's not bullying people out of their idealism. It's telling you how things are and trying to temper your optimism. I understand some people could express this in a better way but it's extremely ignorant to come in here with this idea in your head, get angry when someone paints a brutally honest picture of the current situation and then lash out because it goes against what you have in your head. It's probably similar to how kids ignore their parents warnings only to later realize they should probably have heeded it a little closer.

You don't have to do everything by yourself... and you don't have to throw an insane amount of cash on it. There are communities of physicians and other medical workers banding together RIGHT NOW trying to produce relatively small but nonetheless meaningful changes for the patients. Some of these efforts include research for cost-effective screening, providing transportation for disadvantaged populations to local hospitals, experiments on flat-payment models of care, workshops on understanding health disparities research fallacies, changing ridiculous patient attire in a single hospital, etc.

Idealism is "bad" in a sense that it is defined as such: "the practice of forming or pursuing ideals, especially unrealistically."

Yet, idealistic premeds will not remain idealistic when they are given sufficient knowledge and support to devise some sort of plan to work with their medical community and contribute similarly small but significant changes as an attending physician. Individuals such as yourself are keen on bullying (or in your words "parenting") premeds before they even start their medical training or make realistic plans, which I find unfortunate. That is what I mean by stifling innovation.