anybody else soured by experiences with MDs?

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redruby

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On paper, I have a really great job now that is offering me fantastic clinical experience. However, the doctor I work for is a complete condescending ******* who is rude to his staff and inconsiderate to his patients. He only half answers their questions, tells them it's just going to pinch right before he performs office procedures that makes them scream and cry, and has no problem making a waiting room full of pateints wait forever while he's on the phone with his credit card company. If it weren't for the med students rotating through who promise me that real medicine and other doctors aren't like this, I would have run away a long, long time ago.

I still want to be a doctor (having just taken the MCAT 2 days ago) but oh. my. god.

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that sucks, doesn't sound like a very fun place to work....don't let it get you down though, theres a$$holes in every career!
 
Yes, some doctors are just jack***es. But many are wonderful, intelligent, considerate people, and it's not worth giving up on an entire profession based on a few bad apples.
 
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Most of the doctors I have worked with were incredible (including attendings, residents, and fellows). The only doctors who have serious problems are the female ones. :eek: Imagine a woman on PMS through the entire day, through the whole week. It was generally the rule, and not the exception. YIKES!


(I am not joking about the above. :( )
 
g3pro said:
Most of the doctors I have worked with were incredible (including attendings, residents, and fellows). The only doctors who have serious problems are the female ones. :eek: Imagine a woman on PMS through the entire day, through the whole week. It was generally the rule, and not the exception. YIKES!


(I am not joking about the above. :( )

You are obviously male. And that is such a ridiculous statement to make. I have met stupid male and female doctors and would not be so sexist as to say they are limited to one gender. You should open your mind a bit and not chalk everything up to hormones. :thumbdown:
 
redruby said:
On paper, I have a really great job now that is offering me fantastic clinical experience. However, the doctor I work for is a complete condescending ******* who is rude to his staff and inconsiderate to his patients. He only half answers their questions, tells them it's just going to pinch right before he performs office procedures that makes them scream and cry, and has no problem making a waiting room full of pateints wait forever while he's on the phone with his credit card company. If it weren't for the med students rotating through who promise me that real medicine and other doctors aren't like this, I would have run away a long, long time ago.

I still want to be a doctor (having just taken the MCAT 2 days ago) but oh. my. god.

Pay close attention to this guy. You are getting valuable lessons in what NOT to do. You will find many positive role models in med school, though, so hang in there. :luck:
 
g3pro said:
The only doctors who have serious problems are the female ones.

Sounds to me like someone has serious problems WITH females being doctors.
 
I dont have any bad experiences with doctors, BUT... four out of five doctors I have spoken with have told me NOT to go into medicine. One of them called me an idiot for wanting to do so, and he was dead serious. :(
 
I've heard that alot too. Frightens me in some way b/c I know that some of the people who say this went into medicine for all the "right reasons". That being said, as a post-bacc with considerable experience in business world, there are always things the make ur job suck and are a pain in the a** in any field/industry. There is usually a big disconnect b/w the perception from the outside and the inside, again, in most jobs. I dunno what my point is...I guess it's to keep your beliefs and motivations for becoming a physician close. Remind yourself often.
 
g3pro said:
Most of the doctors I have worked with were incredible (including attendings, residents, and fellows). The only doctors who have serious problems are the female ones. :eek: Imagine a woman on PMS through the entire day, through the whole week. It was generally the rule, and not the exception. YIKES!


(I am not joking about the above. :( )

Sounds like another jacka$$ doctor in the making... :thumbdown:
 
thats hilarious that doctors dont encourage others to become doctors. greedy ba$$$$*****.
 
milanrp said:
I've heard that alot too. Frightens me in some way b/c I know that some of the people who say this went into medicine for all the "right reasons". That being said, as a post-bacc with considerable experience in business world, there are always things the make ur job suck and are a pain in the a** in any field/industry. There is usually a big disconnect b/w the perception from the outside and the inside, again, in most jobs. I dunno what my point is...I guess it's to keep your beliefs and motivations for becoming a physician close. Remind yourself often.

I agree, every career has its negatives. Physicians seem to like believing that their situation is unique, when it really isn't that different from everyone else's.

I think, though, that a lot of the people telling us not to go into medicine did go into it for the wrong reasons. I have found that physicians who seem to enjoy their jobs and have their priorities in the right place don't tell me not to do it. They may tell me to make sure I really want to do it, but when I assure them that I do, they are satisfied. They are the ones who talk about the positive aspects of the career as well as the negatives.
 
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I think that the changing medical field may play a significant factor in physician dissatisfaction. The doctors that entered medical school in the 80's thought that they were going into a field where they would be autonomus entities that make an obscene amount of money. They didn't count on spending hours a day on paperwork, endlessly dealing with HMOs, or making any less than $400k a year. Now that they have been practicing for some time and are dealing with the aforementioned entities, they are caught longing for the job that they thought they were going to have, but dont.
I think the trick is to really get to know the medical field before you enter - spend a good amount of time at a hospital (volunteering, working), shadow doctors, READ about the medical field - get to know the ins-and-outs of a physicians life, and then make the decision of whether or not to pursue a career as an MD.
 
And one more thing - realize that you are going to hate life during residency, for at least three years, no matter who you are. I dont care how much you love medicine, but working 80+ hours a week as a bottom-tier doctor with few priviliges and low pay is enough to depress anyone.
 
g3pro said:
Most of the doctors I have worked with were incredible (including attendings, residents, and fellows). The only doctors who have serious problems are the female ones. :eek: Imagine a woman on PMS through the entire day, through the whole week. It was generally the rule, and not the exception. YIKES!


(I am not joking about the above. :( )


Talk about dumba$$e$... Hello Einstein-women don't get PMS for a whole week.
 
has anyone read house of god (shem)?
some of the comments seem a bit nieve (pms, money, 80's expectations) as to why 1/5 doctors honestly discourage premeds from going into medicine.
 
ssingh0 said:
has anyone read house of god (shem)?
some of the comments seem a bit nieve (pms, money, 80's expectations) as to why 1/5 doctors honestly discourage premeds from going into medicine.

Hey Chief, House of God is a great book.

Gotta love the FatMan!
I have actually used the buzz-words from HOG; turfs, and lols in nad (lolnad)Great way to break the ice with the ward staff!
:smuggrin: :smuggrin: :smuggrin: :smuggrin: :smuggrin: :smuggrin: :smuggrin:

Remember it's only funny until someone puts a stethoscope down his pants!
 
ssingh0 said:
has anyone read house of god (shem)?
some of the comments seem a bit nieve (pms, money, 80's expectations) as to why 1/5 doctors honestly discourage premeds from going into medicine.


Well of course the comments seem naive - none of us are doctors yet, and the comments are merely assumptions/opinions on what may be the cause of dissatisfaction. And only 1/5 discouraging premeds from going into medicine? Is that your experience? Because that must be one nice place to practice medicine. My experience has been that only about 1/5 doctors encourage premeds to go into medicine, the rest being highly cynical. But maybe San Diego is just a bad place to practice medicine, I dont know...
 
I was talking about the female doctors I have met while shadowing. :rolleyes:


The attitude of the women I have met seemed very unhappy, willing to criticize everyone else with touches of sarcasm. Many of them did not seem to have much joy in caring for their patients. What's the worst part? If some of them are criticized, they get very upset and their voice changes and they sound very harsh.

I'm sorry if you guys don't like what I said, but that was my experience with over 20 female attendings and residents in 6 weeks.

What's more sexist? Telling the truth or lying about it and stereotyping women doctors? :idea: :rolleyes: Deal with it. If you don't think it should be this way, then when you are practicing, then make it change.
 
Dr Turninkoff said:
yeah, i swear some have it year-round. a week is a low estimate for a professional woman.

<----- and note my phallic banana on the left <-----
 
Yup, it sure is a good thing men never get affected by their testosterone....
 
Is thread going to devolve into a men vs women argument? Damn it...

<runs from thread, never to return>
 
Seems to me most threads on this board degenerate into fluff or fighting sooner or later, usually sooner.

Anyway, to comment to the OP, yes, some doctors are jerks. Frankly, I think the proportions may be higher than the general population, given the competitive and anal-retentive nature of the premed curriculum and of (at least until recently) the medical school and hospital power structure as well. But as others have said, you're getting a lesson in how not to be when you're a doctor. Just think of it that way.
 
SanDiegoSOD said:
I think that the changing medical field may play a significant factor in physician dissatisfaction. The doctors that entered medical school in the 80's thought that they were going into a field where they would be autonomus entities that make an obscene amount of money. They didn't count on spending hours a day on paperwork, endlessly dealing with HMOs, or making any less than $400k a year. Now that they have been practicing for some time and are dealing with the aforementioned entities, they are caught longing for the job that they thought they were going to have, but dont.

In short, they went into it for the wrong reasons.
 
principessa said:
In short, they went into it for the wrong reasons.

:D :D Grazie, Principessa. Sommario grazioso.
 
aparecida said:
Seems to me most threads on this board degenerate into fluff or fighting sooner or later, usually sooner.

Anyway, to comment to the OP, yes, some doctors are jerks. Frankly, I think the proportions may be higher than the general population, given the competitive and anal-retentive nature of the premed curriculum and of (at least until recently) the medical school and hospital power structure as well. But as others have said, you're getting a lesson in how not to be when you're a doctor. Just think of it that way.

did i miss something? how has the med school/hospital power structure changed? PM me if you don't want to post it here
 
SanDiegoSOD said:
Well of course the comments seem naive - none of us are doctors yet, and the comments are merely assumptions/opinions on what may be the cause of dissatisfaction. And only 1/5 discouraging premeds from going into medicine? Is that your experience? Because that must be one nice place to practice medicine. My experience has been that only about 1/5 doctors encourage premeds to go into medicine, the rest being highly cynical. But maybe San Diego is just a bad place to practice medicine, I dont know...
Yeah, San Diego is pretty negative then, because that hasn't been my overall experience.
 
Dr Turninkoff said:
<----- and note my phallic banana on the left <-----

I'm sorry, I just can't take comments about PMS from a banana seriously.
 
I had some sour milk in the state of MD once, does that count?
 
RunMimi said:
I shadowed a dermatologist for two weeks that was nice to my face but a complete snob. I could never do what she does (essentially cosmetic/laser surgery on a bunch of incredibly rich people) but she is really well known in the field, makes a lot of money, has a social of social clout, etc. Anyways, the experience really turned me off for a while.


How true! :)



Of course, when I wrote about a large segment of these kinds of women with whom I worked, I was called a sexist and an idiot. :rolleyes:

There are these kinds of people out there in medicine. I'd bet dollars to donuts that these are the same people who would have loaded up on "volunteering in Africa for AIDS" if they had the chance. I bet the phoniness and the money get to you after a while, and in the women's case, it's that they have no time for family and have very little satisfaction in that regard.
 
g3pro said:
How true! :)

Of course, when I wrote about a large segment of these kinds of women with whom I worked, I was called a sexist and an idiot. :rolleyes:

But what you actually said was:

g3pro said:
The only doctors who have serious problems are the female ones. Imagine a woman on PMS through the entire day, through the whole week. It was generally the rule, and not the exception. YIKES!

It sounds like you're saying that all female physicians are like this. Would you like to clarify?
 
aparecida said:
Yup, it sure is a good thing men never get affected by their testosterone....
Wrong, I've heard of a man who received hormone therapy to reduce his testosterone levels who got hot flashes and mood swings. :cool:
 
g3pro said:
I was talking about the female doctors I have met while shadowing. :rolleyes:


The attitude of the women I have met seemed very unhappy, willing to criticize everyone else with touches of sarcasm. Many of them did not seem to have much joy in caring for their patients. What's the worst part? If some of them are criticized, they get very upset and their voice changes and they sound very harsh.

I'm sorry if you guys don't like what I said, but that was my experience with over 20 female attendings and residents in 6 weeks.

What's more sexist? Telling the truth or lying about it and stereotyping women doctors? :idea: :rolleyes: Deal with it. If you don't think it should be this way, then when you are practicing, then make it change.

And by the way, you really didn't avoid stereotyping female doctors here.
Looks like someone has issues with their Mommie.
 
VienneseWaltz said:
Sounds to me like someone has serious problems WITH females being doctors.
umno.gif
Somebody can't tell when other people are speaking regarding personal experience.
jerkit.gif
 
TheProwler said:
umno.gif
Somebody can't tell when other people are speaking regarding personal experience.
jerkit.gif

Gross, Prowler.
 
Well, I know I really shouldn't say anything here but ... I can't help myself. ;)

I agree with most people who posted above, that there are a#$%^&es in every profession - both male and female. I am female and I get the impression that I am pretty well respected by both men and women, but then, I have spent alot of time myself in lots of crummy jobs and I tried to learn from them. What I learned most of all, is I didn't like it when snotty people insulted or condescended to me. And so, I try my darndest not to be like that whenever I can.

One thing that I also noticed, is that there are gender perceptions: that women are expected to be "nice" and really friendly all the time, whereas men are not. Men or sort of expected to be tough and demanding as a boss, and so that is considered 'normal.' So, a problem arises when a women is tough and demanding (which is ok in a boss, really - they're in charge and work has to be done). Some people think: humph .. she's being a real b*tch, when she's not. She's just being a good manager.

Perceptions -

I don't mind a difficult boss at all, as long as they're fair and they're trying to get the work done. But the original poster, his doctor is just a complete :thumbdown: no matter how you look at it - male or female!
 
so the situation the OP posted...i mean its nothing anything to be surprised about. it exists and im sure it exists in more places than we want to admit. but this is something you are just going to have to deal with.
 
I was doing an autopsy with 2 pathology residents and before we even cut open the abdomen there was this foul sour smell that crept up on me. The residents tried to pass it off on the dead guy, but I'm sure one of them cut the cheese. So I guess you can say I was soured by this experience w/MDs. :D
 
stwei said:
Wrong, I've heard of a man who received hormone therapy to reduce his testosterone levels who got hot flashes and mood swings. :cool:
yup, that's because I was being sarcastic. Obviously men are affected by testosterone. My point being that I don't understand why women get this bad rap for having hormonal mood swings when [some] men are affected as much or more by testosterone.

Moving right along ... yeah. Bottom line: Jerks everywhere. Try not to be one.
 
aparecida said:
yup, that's because I was being sarcastic. Obviously men are affected by testosterone. My point being that I don't understand why women get this bad rap for having hormonal mood swings when [some] men are affected as much or more by testosterone.

Moving right along ... yeah. Bottom line: Jerks everywhere. Try not to be one.
Precisely.
 
Paws said:
Well, I know I really shouldn't say anything here but ... I can't help myself. ;)

I agree with most people who posted above, that there are a#$%^&es in every profession - both male and female. I am female and I get the impression that I am pretty well respected by both men and women, but then, I have spent alot of time myself in lots of crummy jobs and I tried to learn from them. What I learned most of all, is I didn't like it when snotty people insulted or condescended to me. And so, I try my darndest not to be like that whenever I can.

One thing that I also noticed, is that there are gender perceptions: that women are expected to be "nice" and really friendly all the time, whereas men are not. Men or sort of expected to be tough and demanding as a boss, and so that is considered 'normal.' So, a problem arises when a women is tough and demanding (which is ok in a boss, really - they're in charge and work has to be done). Some people think: humph .. she's being a real b*tch, when she's not. She's just being a good manager.

Perceptions -

I don't mind a difficult boss at all, as long as they're fair and they're trying to get the work done. But the original poster, his doctor is just a complete :thumbdown: no matter how you look at it - male or female!

An intelligent and insightful reply that no one else thought of! I'm sure it was the the OP's gender expectations that led him to make his comments-otherwise why would he mention gender at all?
 
I haven't really had any doctors try to sour me on the profession. The male ones were too busy looking at my rack to say anthing discouraging. The females seemed eager to encourage more females to enter medicine.

As for PMS, I'm lucky enough to not have a problem with it (at least nothing a little chocolate can't fix). Maybe the nasty female docs weren't getting enough nookie (which would put me in a crappy mood too).
 
Innocent Girl said:
Maybe the nasty female docs weren't getting enough nookie (which would put me in a crappy mood too).
If ya ever need any nookie just halla at ya boy. They don't cal me long dong for nuthin. :D
 
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