do you think people like or dislike doctors ?

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abracadabraone

abracadabraone

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please state your opinion and reasoning...
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It seems kind of split nowadays. There was a time when they were looked up to as something like "heroes," but now many are viewed as "evil, money-greedy" doctors. Still, in a lot of other countries I've visited people have the traditional respectful view of doctors.

Also, in b4fraziersilversurferpic
 
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Depends on whether or not they have a medical condition, I think.

If they don't, then it's relatively easy to demean their role in society.
If they do, then doctors are very appreciated.

Overall, I think the majority of the population has an ambivalent relationship with doctors.
 
Everyone hates doctors until their kid wants to be one, or until they call 911.

Just like everyone hates lawyers until they spend a night in jail.

Why? Because of a relentless decades-long propaganda campaign by the world's most worthless cash-skimming middlemen (well, aside from pimps), the insurance companies.
 
I think the public's opinion of doctors is much lower. Web md and the internet in general has made medicine much less mysterious. It has also given people the opportunity to question their doctors or think that their doctors are wrong... whether that's true or the person in question doesn't have/understand all the facts the doctors do.
Add to that the fact that doctors are generally quite well complicated and drive very nice cars and are almost guaranteed to never be unemployed despite the fact that the economy is in the crapper, unemployment is high, and we spend absurd (crippling) amounts of money on healthcare....
Plus some doctors just aren't that good and give others a bad name.

So no, i don't think people like doctors so much anymore, and honestly, that kind of stresses me out. At least we won't be thought of like lawyers are.
 
Like Family practitioner/surgeon etc - help/fix them

Hate ER Doc - Becuase he/she didnt give them the pain meds they asked for and they had to wait for people with real emergencies
 
Doctors are money-grubbing, rich, stingy, narcissistic, haughty, arrogant, overeducated, and overpaid nurse-haters that should be working for free but are too greedy to do so.

Also, any doctor that says - "But wait, I spent a decade of my life to learn medicine while accumulating more debt than most houses are worth" - is simply lying to you. Although it wouldn't matter because that line of reasoning seems to go in one ear and right out the other for many in the general public.
 
People like doctors as individuals but don't like doctors as a whole.
 
This question is asinine, it might as well be do you like red or green better? Or, do you prefer Pepsi or Coke?
 
please share your opinion...
please state your thoughts...

?
 
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I think medicine is a lot like law. A lot more people dislike/hate physicians/lawyers, but they would be extremely proud of their son/daughter for attending law/medical school.
 
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Bl4ckout said:
I think medicine is a lot like law. A lot more people dislike/hate physicians/lawyers, but they would be extremely proud of their son/daughter for attending law/medical school.
Click to expand...

Not only do people hate lawyers and doctors but they hate each other even more and who wins every single time? With their mandatory coverage on one end and damage caps on the other?

The insurance companies.

It wasn't always like this. Wasn't an accident, either.
 
Bl4ckout said:
I think medicine is a lot like law. A lot more people dislike/hate physicians/lawyers, but they would be extremely proud of their son/daughter for attending law/medical school.
Click to expand...

I agree, but I really wish people would stop thinking about law/law school in the same genre as medicine.

A law degree isn't worth what it used to be. Just about anyone can get in because of the obscene number of law schools. There are so many that there are schools whose average class LSAT score is lower than the national average on the LSAT - i.e. the average LSAT-taker is overqualified for the school.

Their job market is in the toilet and they have to find some way to make a living so they make up silly lawsuits which set a precedent for more silly lawsuits. Did you see the one about the itunes gift cards? It's such a sad, sick racket and it'll continue as long as mommy and daddy talk it up about being a great career.

OP: I agree that it's a mix. Much of society hates us for having good, stable, in-demand, prestigious jobs, not to mention the fact that they never really want to come see us. Some recognize the amount of training it takes to get where we are and respect us for it. I tend to get more of the latter in my circles, but I really try not to let it slip that I'm a doctor unless I have to. No med school shirts, etc when I'm out on the town.
 
I can say from experience that people from South America have a lot of respect for doctors.

As for the US, it's a mixed bag.
 
People generally hate doctors. They think they are too expensive, they hate waiting in the waiting room for doctors, and they hate that doctors aren't always 100% correct with a diagnoses/treatments.
 
thesauce said:
I agree, but I really wish people would stop thinking about law/law school in the same genre as medicine.

A law degree isn't worth what it used to be. Just about anyone can get in because of the obscene number of law schools. There are so many that there are schools whose average class LSAT score is lower than the national average on the LSAT - i.e. the average LSAT-taker is overqualified for the school.

Their job market is in the toilet and they have to find some way to make a living so they make up silly lawsuits which set a precedent for more silly lawsuits. Did you see the one about the itunes gift cards? It's such a sad, sick racket and it'll continue as long as mommy and daddy talk it up about being a great career.

OP: I agree that it's a mix. Much of society hates us for having good, stable, in-demand, prestigious jobs, not to mention the fact that they never really want to come see us. Some recognize the amount of training it takes to get where we are and respect us for it. I tend to get more of the latter in my circles, but I really try not to let it slip that I'm a doctor unless I have to. No med school shirts, etc when I'm out on the town.
Click to expand...

I agree, Law is def not a viable way to go these days unless you truly have a gift (or an ivy league JD). I blame the fact that whoever regulates the education allowed law schools to become degree mills that pump out far more lawyers then are needed. Sounds like another field that gets discussed on the med forums (hint hint: Nurse anest). With the advent of the for-profit med school (Rocky Vista DO school) who is to say that it wont happen to us?

/rant for yo pleasure

But in all actually i think the general population hates all forms of individual success (doctors, lawyers, CEOs, CFOs) really anyone who makes money. I think the ideology of money=self-worth has driven this hate. Who likes to think that someone else is better then them?
 
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4VbOHvaPRc&feature=fvst[/youtube]
 
whether or not people like or dislike doctors is irrelevant, haters gonna hate. If you're going into this trade based on whether people will like or respect you, then I would have to say you have severe self-esteem/ego issues and you should immediately seek a counselor.
 
Opinions are certainly heterogenous on this subject. I would say that I do not expect the average person to like physicians, but there's a great variety of opinions on the matter, and it changes across circumstances, socioeconomic class, and past experience as well as current illness.
 
abracadabraone said:
please state your opinion and reasoning...
Click to expand...

In 30 years of caring for critically ill infants, I have very very rarely found families who express, in words or action, a dislike for the physicians and nurses who are caring for their infants. Families don't, and shouldn't be expected to express extreme gratitude to us, but they commonly say thank you and sometimes go out of their way to tell us they appreciate us.

As always, YMMV, and what is true in a NICU may not be true in an ER, etc. However, this is my experience and, of note, I have seen absolutely no change in this over the last 30 years.

Happy match day to all.
 
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