In spite of all the bad circumstances, are the doctors you see happy with their choice?

[wondergirl3]

In spite of the ACA, long work hours, high stress, malpractice, and many more circumstances, are the doctors you have shadowed,work with, know personally happy and satisfied with their career choice of choosing medicine?

One or more of these reasons make many doctors regret their choice, but for motivated students, is this largely the case?

As long as I receive satisfaction with my choice of medicine, I will be happy with my career of a doctor. Do other doctors overwhelmingly feel this happiness with their choice? Or would they mostly say they would regret making that choice if they could go back?

Sincerely,
wondergirl3

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[AlbinoHawk DO]

Of course there are people happy with their choice, but you must remember that you can't predict that to be you.

 

[wondergirl3]

Of course there are people happy with their choice, but you must remember that you can't predict that to be you.

Haha yes you are right! But that can be said with every other profession!

I worded my question as "overwhelming number" and "vast majority" to factor in representativeness.

 

[Catalystik]

In spite of the ACA, long work hours, high stress, malpractice, and many more circumstances, are the doctors you have shadowed,work with, know personally happy and satisfied with their career choice of choosing medicine?

How happy you'll be might depend on your choice of specialty. Here is data from a survey done on most specialties from which you can get information on the happiest and most dissatisfied: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...se-your-specialty-again.708521/#post-10112976

Highlights:

 

[ratman7]

My observations are that those who went in it for the money & luxury lifestyle primary reasons are not, while those who went in it for the right, intrinsic and determined reasons are.

 

[ratman7]

How happy you'll be might depend on your choice of specialty. Here is data from a survey done on most specialties from which you can get information on the happiest and most dissatisfied: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...se-your-specialty-again.708521/#post-10112976

Highlights:

Out of curiosity, what specialty/field are you attending/have attended?

 

[Lucca]

Here are my two main clinical experiences: Multi-specialty oncology department.

Free clinic.

The free clinic docs (very few, most where PAs or NPs seeing patients) were very satisfied. Super selection bias because you have to volunteer to do something like that and I imagine anyone volunteering to work at a free clinic wanted to do that specifically.

Oncology: This was an academic center so different personalities were at play. The happiest person on the job? Super experienced (60+ years old) Ob-Gyn who might be the sweetest human being I have ever met. Just hearing him speak was soothing. He wore cowboy boots, had thin-rimmed glasses, a white beard, and referred to himself as a "trained monkey" but said that he loved what he did more than anything else. Most dissatisfied? Probably the urology guy I had a chance to shadow. Why? No idea. Maybe it was just that those two weeks were particularly hard but a lot of his patients were not in good shape. He was clearly very invested in his patients but it was clearly taking a toll on him. Another very dissatisfied looking person was the third year ENT resident. She looked, for lack of other words, "disaffected". The ENT attending was very chipper, handed me a textbook, and would ask me random questions in between patients. The questions were far simpler than a resident or med student might get (what is the most common cell type of cancer? Lung cancer used to be the most common type of cancer and now it isn't, why? What is the most common type now?) but we were both enjoying ourselves and I was glad that I got to do something besides stand around and listen. She seemed very happy with what she did and seemed most in her element when she was teaching or in the OR. Med-Oncs? I shadowed three in total. They complained a lot about dictation and having to sit at the computer when their patients clearly hadn't understood everything about the treatment plan. They have the hardest job in a sense that they have to quarterback the patient's care and a lot of patients either don't understand or don't want to understand or actively antagonize the physician while the physician has a bunch of other patients she needs to see. I asked them if they would do it again and they all said yes. The breast surgeon told me to do it only if I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else. Rad-Onc clinic was fun but they were definitely understaffed and rushing 100% of the time even though both Rad-Oncs were in. Both of them complained about the time spent at the computer and the administrative burdens that the hospital will stack on you every time you get promoted until they break your back. I talked to one about cynicism in medicine and he said that he regretted that pre-meds, Ned students, and residents all felt it was "cool" to be cynical about medicine now. He said they are all too young and in too important a part of their development as physicians to start being cynical. Either way, he had no problem making sarcastic jokes about how awful dictation and billing was.


The physicians I shadowed are from a very specific population, however, considering this is academic oncology in Houston then you might guess where it was and anyone working there probably wanted to do nothing else with their lives. All the same, there wasn't a doc who didn't complain about something but I didn't see anyone overtly apathetic, besides the resident perhaps but that might have been sleep deprivation. Cancer patients are a whole different beast altogether in that they are remarkably compliant, amiable, and a pleasure to work with from my experiences thus far. If all diseases had the same psychological effect - not the bit that inspires fear but the bit that calls the patient to be active in their care - on patients that Cancer does maybe medicine would be a much better place for everyone.

Interestingly enough, money only came up twice. Both times without my prompting and concerning the docs being thankful for graduating with very little debt.

 

[Catalystik]

Out of curiosity, what specialty/field are you attending/have attended?

Pediatrics!

 

[Winged Scapula]

I'm happy - but don't we have a thread on this exact same topic just started a few days ago?

Why yes we do: you might want to check this thread out.

 

[Salt Salt]

This is an incredibly empirical question; stop asking for anecdotes and just google "Physician satisfaction rates."

 

[Goro]

All but one of my 40+ clinical colleagues are very happy with their career choices.

In spite of the ACA, long work hours, high stress, malpractice, and many more circumstances, are the doctors you have shadowed,work with, know personally happy and satisfied with their career choice of choosing medicine?

One or more of these reasons make many doctors regret their choice, but for motivated students, is this largely the case?

As long as I receive satisfaction with my choice of medicine, I will be happy with my career of a doctor. Do other doctors overwhelmingly feel this happiness with their choice? Or would they mostly say they would regret making that choice if they could go back?

Sincerely,
wondergirl3

 

[WingedOx]

I like what I do, but I regret not being a pro-bowl caliber defensive end. If only I didn't weigh less than 150 lbs in high school.

I just wish that I could alter my career to combine providing care to populations that desperately need it, and knocking Aaron Rodgers on his ass.

 

[deleted407021]

Taken from the 2014 Medscape Physician Lifestyle Survey which was, admittedly, not very broad as they only surveys a small percentage of physicians in really a handful of specialties. Too bad they don't demonstrate whether or not the differences are significant, however I'd say the majority of physicians across the specialties have around the same average "happiness". Note that these are for "very happy" and "extremely happy", so a higher percentage of doctors probably indicated "satisfied" or just "happy", which is probably right around what most people expect with their work lives. Overall, these numbers make me optimistic.

 

[AlteredScale]

View attachment 188207

Taken from the 2014 Medscape Physician Lifestyle Survey which was, admittedly, not very broad as they only surveys a small percentage of physicians in really a handful of specialties. Too bad they don't demonstrate whether or not the differences are significant, however I'd say the majority of physicians across the specialties have around the same average "happiness". Note that these are for "very happy" and "extremely happy", so a higher percentage of doctors probably indicated "satisfied" or just "happy", which is probably right around what most people expect with their work lives. Overall, these numbers make me optimistic.

Do you know approx how many physicians were surveyed? Quite surprised to see ID so far down the list!

 

[deleted407021]

Do you know approx how many physicians were surveyed? Quite surprised to see ID so far down the list!

A total of 24,075 respondents between Dec 11, 2013 and Jan 24, 2014. Only a small percentage of each specialty responded.

 

[AlteredScale]

A total of 24,075 respondents between Dec 11, 2013 and Jan 24, 2014. Only a small percentage of each specialty responded.
View attachment 188209

Thanks for the resource. It would be nice to see a bigger sample size per specialty that was at the 1% mark. But it's a good outlook.

 

[Funke]

Just to add one experience for an ID doc at a peds hospital, he was definitely the happiest doctor I've shadowed. The patients and staff all loved him. He gave his cell to all his patients' parents, and my boss said when his son had an infection, the doctor called my boss for a few weeks afterward to see how he was doing. The other ID doc seemed happy but she wasn't too social or talkative, so that was hard to gauge.
Radiology residents just seemed tired and stressed. No real conversations with them at all.
Peds residents seemed really happy. I hung out with mostly third years. Only one was kind of burnt out, but he was in the last month of his med-peds residency and HATED the NICU, which we were in.
I talked with a rural family doc, and he said he loved his patient population and job, but he did not like switching over to the digital age and said the transition has created a lot of extra work hours for him until it's all settled in.
The geneticist also loved his job and had a really, really cushy clinic going.

Anyway, since you asked for personal experiences, I'd say the vast majority of attendings and residents I've shadowed were very satisfied with their jobs. The remaining ones I either couldn't get a good read on, or were rather burnt out like the one guy and ready to move and start his job as an attending. Not one person ever told me to think twice about it, or warned me about the healthcare field going to crap, or anything. They were all really excited to show students what their job was like.

 

[wondergirl3]

Do you think this same correlation would hold if the question was "Do you not regret being a doctor" ?

 

[ProMed13]

My mentor, who is a very well known doctor in my location, is very excited with his job and told me a good tip is that doctors will get burned out if they focus all their efforts on medicine for their whole life. If you can find an outlet or hobby that can take you away from the job time to time, then you will be very happy.

 

[pithy84]

The vast majority of MDs that I know are happy with their choice to go to medical school.

What's more, the MDs that I know who are unhappy tend to be unlike me in various respects. Some of the unhappiest MDs that I know hate their patients, for instance. I tend to love patients. I very rarely get frustrated with people, even when they are stupid, uncooperative, and smelly.

I wouldn't phrase it this way in a med school interview. I am working on the euphemism-rich politically-correct version of this answer.

I do know MDs who started doing one thing, were unhappy, and then changed to something else. But now they are happy. As an MD, you have options.