Ideal height for physicians?

[Oculus Sinistra]

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I was reading an article today that said that men who were taller than average had significantly higher incomes in the business and legal professions. Do you think that this applies to the medical profession? Why or why not? Does this also apply to women - does being tall confer the same advantage on women as it apparently does on men in business and law - and would this apply to women in medicine. Obviously, this is because of subjective perception issues that have nothing to do with competence or intellectual ability but tall men apparently have an advantage in the business world. Do male doctors have an edge if they are tall? What is the ideal height for a man who is a physician? 6"0, 6'2, 6"4, or 6'6 or ? Or is this irrelevant. For the record, I am 6'2. Is being short a disadvantage?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I believe

no physician should be shorter than one foot tall.

 

[olemissbabydoc]

Yes. If youre shorter than 6' 00'', you have no potential for being a successful doctor. Youre screwed no matter what profession you want to enter. You may as well kill yourself now. 😉

****. I'm screwed at five foot.

 

[searun]

I think all of you are taking this thread a bit too seriously.
That being said, there's a lot of research [which I am far too lazy to look up right now]/"they" say that tall people are more successful. This is likely to be due mostly to nutrition/socioeconomic factors which lead to taller people. However, I'm willing to bet that there's a significant social part as well. Taller people are generally considered to be better leaders and are more likely to be taken seriously, etc. [speaking on a first-impression basis only, ignoring the trillions of exceptions to the rule].
Also I'm incredibly biased being a girl who's just a tad over 6' tall.


Could it just be that we have nicer legs?

Do you date men who are several inches shorter than you or do you prefer men who are taller than you or are you simply indifferent?

 

[moobaloo]

So if men are supposed to be taller are women supposed to be taller as well? What about bust size? Hair color? Torso to leg length ratio? Please I must know what massive surgeries I must undergo and what pair of stilettos to whip out in order to make myself most successful. Unfortunately as a female at 5'2 I fear I may not fit the bill. *laughs at own corny joke*😀

 

[DeadCactus]

You're a midget. Go get leg extension surgery so you can be successful. You deserve the pain...

 

[novawildcat]

If you have a large penis, you don't have to be tall. DUH.

so sophmoric, yet brilliant and hilarious with the timing.

 

[mfrenkie]

Funny... my barber actually brought this up with me the other day. According to him, taller people are perceived as being more authoritative than shorter ones, and everyone wants an authoritative doctor.

 

[szhao]

lol SHOOT, i am doomed to failure, o well

 

[shnjb]

Is the ideal size of khrum 7 inches for doctors?

 

[Mirc™]

5'7" male who's loving life. career is good, income is good, and i'll know by the end of the week if i'm going to med school in philly. the women surely do take me seriously, they have no problem with my height so why should i? my friends make short jokes all the time yet i pull the women they cant, have things they'll never have, and have the balls to pursue my dreams. self-perception and confidence will get you further in life than height ever will. believe that!

 

[Nasrudin]

5'7" male who's loving life. career is good, income is good, and i'll know by the end of the week if i'm going to med school in philly. the women surely do take me seriously, they have no problem with my height so why should i? my friends make short jokes all the time yet i pull the women they cant, have things they'll never have, and have the balls to pursue my dreams. self-perception and confidence will get you further in life than height ever will. believe that!

Just to corroborate the disproving of the Napoleonic Theheory. I'm 6'5" and have been chronically underlaid my whole life. My career stinks, income is crap, and I won't know if I'm in medical school for another 2 years. Women have never taken me seriously. The only reason I'm living with my wife instead of my mother is that I managed to inseminate her when she was drunk and my mom kicked me out. My friends make pathetic loser jokes and it gives me a real complex despite my rather lengthy frame. I'm ball-less and have no confidence except in my skill in video games and Star Trek trivia.

 

[Russell7]

I'm 5'9" nooooo how did this happen to meeeee! I'll end up in either business or medicine... guess I better invest in some platform shoes 🙁

Haha, but seriously, I don't see my height affecting my career. I'm far to smart and my personality is far too good for me to let that happen (although I wouldn't exactly consider myself short; merely below average).

 

[Soggun]

I'm 5'9" nooooo how did this happen to meeeee! I'll end up in either business or medicine... guess I better invest in some platform shoes 🙁

Haha, but seriously, I don't see my height affecting my career. I'm far to smart and my personality is far too good for me to let that happen (although I wouldn't exactly consider myself short; merely below average).

And far too modest too 🙄 😀

 

[Russell7]

Hmmmm I prefer to think confident 😉

Just jokes. I'm really not an egotistical kinda guy. I'm just saying that I'm not letting something as superficial as my height hinder my success.

 

[Encrypted]

🙁 I thought 5'7" was average for a guy, guess I'm wrong.

 

[Russell7]

🙁 I thought 5'7" was average for a guy, guess I'm wrong.

In China, maybe. Canada is like 5'11", USA ~5'10" (due to the latin influence). I need to move an eastern European country. I'd be average height.

 

[xcgirl]

Do you date men who are several inches shorter than you or do you prefer men who are taller than you or are you simply indifferent?

This is so not related to anything md, but to answer your question
I strongly prefer guys who are taller than me. My current bf is 6'2", and while I've gone out with guys who are shorter than me, frequently they have a problem with it. Of course there are also the really short guys who like really tall girls, but that's just a little weird.

 

[MasonPrehealth]

Read "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell (who also wrote "The Tipping Point"). There's a chapter on "The Warren Harding Factor: Why We Fall for Tall, Dark, and Handsome."

 

[searun]

This is so not related to anything md, but to answer your question
I strongly prefer guys who are taller than me. My current bf is 6'2", and while I've gone out with guys who are shorter than me, frequently they have a problem with it. Of course there are also the really short guys who like really tall girls, but that's just a little weird.

to support the proposition that height has profound psychological implications for people, certainly in mate selection, but probably in other areas of human interaction as well.

 

[Newton Bohr MD]

Hahahaha good point

A lot of NBA players are smart

Emeka Okafor 1350 SAT/ Magna Cum Laude graduate/ 3.8 college GPA
David Robinson 1350 SAT blah blah bah
Ben Gordon etc etc etc

 

[seadizzle]

For those interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heightism

 

[112258]

Do you date men who are several inches shorter than you or do you prefer men who are taller than you or are you simply indifferent?

I am not as tall as her, I am a little over 5'9"....and I gotta say I don't date guys shorter than me. I did it in high school for 2 years (he was 5'6" and the not being able to wear heels thing got old). I am generally only attacted to guys over 6'

 

[searun]

I am not as tall as her, I am a little over 5'9"....and I gotta say I don't date guys shorter than me. I did it in high school for 2 years (he was 5'6" and the not being able to wear heels thing got old). I am generally only attacted to guys over 6'

Especially your comment about wearing heels. I recall the comment that Nichole Kidman made when she was divorced from Tom Cruise. Nichole is 5'11and Tom is only 5'7. Tom was pretty insecure so he would not allow Nichole to wear heels and he wore lifts in his shoes to try to equalize their heights. So following the divorce, Nichole said the best thing about being divorced from Tom Cruise was that she could wear heels again, which flattered her legs.

Of course, the real issue in this thread is the extent to which height affects the doctor/patient relationship. Do you think that patients are influenced in anyway by the height of their physicians? For example, are patients more likely to adhere to directions and advice from tall physicians because the patient is more likely to regard the taller doctor as an authority figure. Interesting stuff.

 

[Schaden Freud]

Having read this thread, I demand the last 5 minutes of my life back!

 

[sebsvenmdc]

This is hilarious.

I am 5'8". Being short when I was young was a huge advantage. I went to an all-boys, private school in a foreign country. I was teased a lot. And I was a late developer which only accentuated being small. Now for the advantage part, being teased a lot, resulted in a ton of positive personal development. It helped me become bold, outspoken, and influenced my ability to lead and stand out from the crowd. Throughout primary school, the coaches called me "Tiger" and were baffled by how hard I would tackle in rugby games. I would say to a good proportion of women, height is a big deal...but it's definitely not everything. I might not be tall, dark, and handsome...but girls like blonde, blue-eyed, and cute too. Lol...this is getting pretty personal. Anyway, the several girls that I have dated over the past 6 years have ranged from 5'6" to 5'9".

Also, this may across as a little vain...sorry. I have an excellent build. Like Men's Health type of body. So, some of us don't get the tall gene, but we get the ripped gene. Some of us get the ripped gene, but we're not as smart as plenty of other people including tall, ripped people. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is plenty to appreciate in your genetics. Just look for it and be grateful. Do I sound like a male-version of Cameron from House?

 

[searun]

Just to corroborate the disproving of the Napoleonic Theheory. I'm 6'5" and have been chronically underlaid my whole life. My career stinks, income is crap, and I won't know if I'm in medical school for another 2 years. Women have never taken me seriously. The only reason I'm living with my wife instead of my mother is that I managed to inseminate her when she was drunk and my mom kicked me out. My friends make pathetic loser jokes and it gives me a real complex despite my rather lengthy frame. I'm ball-less and have no confidence except in my skill in video games and Star Trek trivia.

6'5 is a pretty impressive number. Are you sure that you cannot play above the rim? Look, if you enroll at my medical school in 2 years, you definitely can play on my med school intramural basketball team in the post. I usually play on the wing, and I am going to try and recruit XCGIRL for point guard. She is a six foot college varsity athlete, captain of her team no less, so I know that she has the chops and the competitive fire. Now if I can just get two of BeatrixKiddo's 6'3 Pakastani med students to join our team, we are good to go. Or at least we have our starting lineup.

 

[Bubblehead-to-MD]

For the aspiring proctologist or urologist 👍 , I'm going to go with somewhere between 3'5" to 4'1".

 

[Cirrus83]

Why do almost all women prefer to marry men who are taller than them. And why do almost all men prefer women who are shorter. I have a friend, a man, who is 5'3 and he married a woman who is 4'11. It is an objective fact that taller men make more money than shorter men in the business world. I understand that this is a cultural/perception issue that is not related to competence - I just wondered whether this also applies to medicine. I have no idea. Just curious.

lol I don't care if a girl is taller than me, so long as she doesn't care that I'm shorter than her.

(I'm not short, just average height).

But then again chicks tend to care so whatever.

 

[dfymarine]

i heard from this chief of internal medicine at city hospital, the ideal height should be in the ranges b/t 5'10 and 6'1 for surgeons. taller surgeons have problems doing this and that u know.. since you have to stand there for long period of time.

as for the internal medicine like the physicians, their heights do not matter, as long as you are competent and able to make decision in timely manner.

😛

 

[Mac11]

well, i think we can all agree that if you're shorter than your mcat score (in inches)... theres a problem.