hostility in medicine?

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"down right hostility that so many in medicine show those who work with and for them. That's the kind of d-baggery that one should really be concerned about, as they don't outgrow that. People in medicine can be absolutely insufferable, and while you may hear horror stories about them, you don't fully understand until you experience it on a daily basis.

Makes me seriously second guess this career, and to think it's for a reason completely unrelated to the study and practice of medicine itself ticks me off."

Got this quote from another thread on SDN.

How true is this, that people in medicine can be insufferable or hostile?

 

[NickNaylor]

Those without balls never amounted to much.

Edit: sexism not implied.

 

[tartrate]

"down right hostility that so many in medicine show those who work with and for them. That's the kind of d-baggery that one should really be concerned about, as they don't outgrow that. People in medicine can be absolutely insufferable, and while you may hear horror stories about them, you don't fully understand until you experience it on a daily basis.

Makes me seriously second guess this career, and to think it's for a reason completely unrelated to the study and practice of medicine itself ticks me off."

Got this quote from another thread on SDN.

How true is this, that people in medicine can be insufferable or hostile?

It's not specific to medicine. You will find those types of people wherever you go, some worse than others.

 

[flatearth22]

You know those annoying, neurotic, gunner pre-meds that got on your nerves the past 4 years? Yeah a lot of those guys will be your colleagues in med school, in residency, and beyond.

 

[Morzh]

It's not specific to medicine. You will find those types of people wherever you go, some worse than others.

👍

Yeah. There will be cynics and malcontents in any profession. From all the doctor's I've shadowed and from working in an ER (stress!!) the docs have almost all been really great, down-to-earth people.

The grumpiest people I've seen fall into at least one of three stereotypes pretty well. Each is just another version of the same story--person unhappy with their position deflects their frustration onto others.

1. Hot shot doc who went into this more for the prestige or $$ than genuine love of the medical sciences & desire to help others. Now they either got the uber-competitive specialty they "wanted" but are miserable working 60+ hr/wk as a 50-year-old or they didn't get what they wanted and feel disenchanted with their careers or like they don't get the respect they always wanted.
2. 30-something-year-old NURSE or PA/NP who doesn't mind what they do, but seriously regret not going to medical school. These people usually didn't decide that they would like being a doc until they already had families and kids and full-time jobs and going back to school was out of the question for them. Sad thing is some of these would actually make great doctors IMO, but just can't bring themselves to put their family through the grueling process.
3. Older nurses who have had good nursing careers but are really cynical about the fact that a brand-new doc out of residency makes 5x what they do when they've been doing it for 30 years. These nurses also feel like they know everything and do exactly what the doc does but because they don't have the initials after their name they get screwed

Like I said they are stereotypesof my anecdotal experience. When I read the OP I thought through all the grumpy pants I know in this field and each of them fits well into one of these boxes.

BUT THEY MAKE UP <5% OF THE PEOPLE I KNOW IN MEDICINE!!! Like in anything, its always the highly visible minorities who determine stereotypes. By and far I think medicine is full of hard-working, compassionate people who are committed to working together as a team in order to make lives better.

Just worry more about the type of professional YOU want to be and less on what the people around you are doing.

 

[Tapepsi]

Hot shot doc who went into this more for the prestige or $$ than genuine love of the medical sciences & desire to help others. Now they either got the uber-competitive specialty they "wanted" but are miserable working 60+ hr/wk as a 50-year-old or they didn't get what they wanted and feel disenchanted with their careers or like they don't get the respect they always wanted.

^Have definitely seen this during my shadowing experiences. Which again emphasizes the moral of the story that you shouldn't go into medicine for the wrong reasons.

 

[ceng2doc]

^Have definitely seen this during my shadowing experiences. Which again emphasizes the moral of the story that you shouldn't go into medicine for the wrong reasons.

+1 👍