Old or New school?

[peehdee]

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old school physicians = long hours, spend all your time in the hospital/office, lifestyle is not so important, family comes 2nd to patients well-being

new school physicians = moderate hours, spend some time, but NOT all your time in the hospital, have a life outside 'work', have time for your family

what do you all think?

if you asked an older doc about the younger generation, they'd say that we we lazy, wanted a 'life' outside of medicine. just because we wanna go into medicine does that mean that we have to work 100 plus hours to 'prove' that we belong ? is wanting a nice career, a family, a decent income wrong reasons to go into medicine? i know that if you were asked on an application, no one would be stupid to say those things, but are they not valid reasons?

speak your mind.

 

[erin682]

New school for me. Maybe older physicians think of us as lazy but ask their kids what they thought about never seeing there parent. Medicine has made a lot of progress over the last 50 years and mostly it has been improvements. I think this is one of them.

 

[Super Rob]

on one hand...

better quality of life for residents and attendings means happier doctors, happier families of doctors, more ammunition to recruit the brightest minds to our field, and more importantly, less malpractice due to fatigue and impatience.

on the other hand...

residents have to learn a lot before they are on their own and they are not well compensated (financially) for the time they spend as residents. With loans, children to care for, and a spouse to live with, you may invite considerable sacrifices in order to get through training faster.

As far as established physicians are concerned, they should have more flexibility and the option to work fewer hours. A fifty hour work week is not unusual, but a seventy hour work week is not compatible with most families. However, we need to balance this idea against the demands of patients (that are not presented exclusively between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm). We also need to consider how difficult it has become to actually make an appointment to see a doctor. Last year, when my eye was twitching uncontrollably, I spent one month waiting to see the doctor, and that was after a dozen other primary care doctors told me that it would be at least six months! There are only so many medical schools that produce a limited number of physicians to serve the community. I encountered these difficulties in the suburbs of a major city! Imagine if I lived in the middle of nowhere and wanted to be checked out?

Something has to change. If we elect to work forty hour work weeks, we will never be able to help enough people. It is bad enough not having insurance and wanting to see a doctor. If doctors worked less, even the middle-class receiving insurance through their employers would be out of luck, unless they wanted to wait in line for a day or two at the emergency room, miss work, and fork over a hefty co-payment (and I can hear the EMDs groaning at the thought of little Timmy being hauled in for a runny nose or a scratch from a rusty nail).

Before most doctors can adopt a more relaxed schedule (which we as people deserve, although not all of us would neccesarily want to work less), we are going to have to change the system a little bit. Obviously, we're not the only ones whose lives are affected by the way the system works. Unfortunately, we are not the most powerful people in the system and even if we were, we're an awfully divided bunch.

You might have to move to another country if you want to see this in your lifetime.

 

[fang]

here's a different viewpoint:

Some people are going to be happiest in life by focusing on family life-- they work 40 hours a week, go home, forget about it, and have a great time with their spouse and kids. Other people want to be more ambitious and immerse themselves in achiveing and becoming excellent in their work life. (Not to the exclusion of ALL social life, just a bigger emphasis on work than your average professional mom or dad.) Maybe they choose not to have kids and enjoy living as a DINK, or stay single and become a terrific uncle or aunt. If I had to pick one over the other as my doctor, I'd want the second type of person. Medicine isn't just about raw intelligence or innate social skills, its a combination of those things plus a commitment to constant improvement and a lot of hard work. I want someone who puts a lot of themselves into wanting to be an excellent physician, and unfortunately that means less time for everything else. Obviously there are extremes-- it's not good to work to the exclusion of everything else, social skills ARE really important, and you need to take care of yourself to take care of other people. However, I think it's appropriate that the system encourages competition and long hours-- as long as we're handling the stress ok, I think that it makes us strronger, and ultimately a better doctor.

So I think there are advantages to the "old school" philisophy, even above the concept that more patients can be seen in a day. There are plenty of other health care options if you don't want to work your ass off all the time!

 

[ermonty]

My theory is that medschools are creating the demand for the lifestyle specialties and turning out doctors with less of a work ethic by focusing on the humanistic qualities in admissions. By trying to get the most down to earth, caring, compassionate individuals to train, they are also getting the type of people who want to have families and lives outside of medicine even more. These people may be more compassionate towards patients while at the office, but they will likely choose a specialty where they can get out of the office 'at quittin time' to go home and be with their loved ones. Just my 2 cents. (In case you're wondering I prefer the sound of 'daddy' to 'doctor' - I will work hard to be the best damn doctor I can be, but I know my limitations, and Neurosurgery isnt in my future). Peace, and God help us if all future doctors think the same way LOL. 🙂

 

[Baditude]

I don't have a problem working hard and learning on the job but when you work long hours to the point of exhaustion you are doing a disservice to the patients and possibly causing harm to them as well. So I feel a middle ground between the two thoughts maybe best. If they want to cut hours for residents then we need to make up the extra learning time somewhere. How about an extra 6 months or so of training as opposed to 80+ hour work weeks.I think it would make for better care and better learning as nobody would be exhausted and make stupid mistakes. I know longer training time is not popular because it is a longer time before real money is being made and loans do need to be repaid but there is room to work here if it became a popular movement. I have a children to think about too and family is important to me and I am sure it will be reflected in the speciality I eventually choose which is unfortunate. I think more of us would choose tougher and more interesting specialities if it didn't mean choosing profession over a life and family.

Well just my 2 cents

 

[azzarah]

I have never had that experience with older doctors. I have asked and a lot of them tell me to go into a field with a nice lifestyle. Maybe because I'm a girl. 👍