Stupid Patients

[jc812]

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By stupid, I mean those who judge!!

Before I go on, I want to say that I realize the pros and cons of this profession. Just because I am focusing on a negative aspect doesn't mean that I don't know that it can still be rewarding! 😍

I am an Asian female who is pre-opt and work in an optometrist's office. I've had many insightful conversations (pros and cons) with the ODs that I work with take in a lot of the young female grads and what they have to say. Sometimes they express their frustration with patients who say "Okay... so when is the REAL doctor coming in?" or "Did you go to school for this?" or "You look too young to be a doctor". Sometimes they are men that say this. Sometimes they are even women!👍

Let's be real here. Men do not get this discrimination as much as women do and let's face it! There are more and more females that aspire and become ODs than males. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

Sometimes these judgmental patients will even call their ODs by their first name just for the simple reason that they cannot believe that they are even an OD. I am not really one for titles, but that is an act out of disrespect. 😡

I am not even in this situation, I guess I feel for the young, female ODs. Even more so for the minorities (as there are still some racist people in this day and age). Or even the attractive ones that will get sexually harassed by the male patients.

I guess I am venting, but I also want your inputs. How do you deal with this? When I ask that very question, they say "It used to really bother me but you get used to it".

 

[eyestrain]

How do you know men don't face the same thing? I'm a young looking white, male doc and hear all the same stuff all the time. It annoys me, but I deal with it. I'd rather look young than old.

 

[cpw]

Ditto. I've learned to deal with it. Once they realize you do, in fact, know what you're talking about they usually quiet down.

When they ask if I'm the doctor, I just point to the diploma in my exam room and say "that's me!"
When they then state that I don't look old enough, I say "Thanks, but *points to diploma* that's still me"

I definitely look younger than I am. I actually had one patient try to card me. The weirdest thing is.. the ones who usually give me the hardest time about being young are the women. The guys just hit on me and make inappropriate comments about my age, the doctor thing, how lucky my husband is, etc. I've learned to just roll with it. It really freaked me out my first year out, though.

 

[ProZackMI]

By stupid, I mean those who judge!!

Before I go on, I want to say that I realize the pros and cons of this profession. Just because I am focusing on a negative aspect doesn't mean that I don't know that it can still be rewarding! 😍

I am an Asian female who is pre-opt and work in an optometrist's office. I've had many insightful conversations (pros and cons) with the ODs that I work with take in a lot of the young female grads and what they have to say. Sometimes they express their frustration with patients who say "Okay... so when is the REAL doctor coming in?" or "Did you go to school for this?" or "You look too young to be a doctor". Sometimes they are men that say this. Sometimes they are even women!👍

Let's be real here. Men do not get this discrimination as much as women do and let's face it! There are more and more females that aspire and become ODs than males. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

Sometimes these judgmental patients will even call their ODs by their first name just for the simple reason that they cannot believe that they are even an OD. I am not really one for titles, but that is an act out of disrespect. 😡

I am not even in this situation, I guess I feel for the young, female ODs. Even more so for the minorities (as there are still some racist people in this day and age). Or even the attractive ones that will get sexually harassed by the male patients.

I guess I am venting, but I also want your inputs. How do you deal with this? When I ask that very question, they say "It used to really bother me but you get used to it".

Nonsense. It's not a male-female thing! I'm a 37-year-old male psychiatrist. Even now, I still look young for my age and when I was practicing, I often got comments from older men and women about me being a kid, too young to be a doctor, etc. I also got snide comments from people who were younger than me or my age who wanted someone with more "experience".

Don't be discouraged by some random comments made by ignorant patients. Just be professional and, in time, the comments will occur less frequently.

 

[Caffeinated]

Everyone has their challenges. The key is to have a nice but firm way of dealing with people's biases. To a certain degree, you also need to be able to meet patient's on their own turf. If this means permitting them some flexibility to call you by your first name, then this gives patients some degree of autonomy. For some patients, this gives them more of sense of comfort; for others, it is a way of equalizing the "power differential" in the doctor-patient relationship. At the end of the day, your professional satisfaction should come from what you did for patients, rather than how many times someone called you "doctor" or how much respect you think you received. I know that this is hard to do, but it's a goal worth working toward.

For what it's worth, when I was a young optometry student, I looked a lot younger than I was. Even as a recent grad, I still looked pretty young. My patients used to ask if I was old enough to be a doctor . Over the years, I have added some grey hairs and a few wrinkles. People now think I am older than I am, which is more depressing than looking too young.

By stupid, I mean those who judge!!

Before I go on, I want to say that I realize the pros and cons of this profession. Just because I am focusing on a negative aspect doesn't mean that I don't know that it can still be rewarding! 😍

I am an Asian female who is pre-opt and work in an optometrist's office. I've had many insightful conversations (pros and cons) with the ODs that I work with take in a lot of the young female grads and what they have to say. Sometimes they express their frustration with patients who say "Okay... so when is the REAL doctor coming in?" or "Did you go to school for this?" or "You look too young to be a doctor". Sometimes they are men that say this. Sometimes they are even women!👍

Let's be real here. Men do not get this discrimination as much as women do and let's face it! There are more and more females that aspire and become ODs than males. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

Sometimes these judgmental patients will even call their ODs by their first name just for the simple reason that they cannot believe that they are even an OD. I am not really one for titles, but that is an act out of disrespect. 😡

I am not even in this situation, I guess I feel for the young, female ODs. Even more so for the minorities (as there are still some racist people in this day and age). Or even the attractive ones that will get sexually harassed by the male patients.

I guess I am venting, but I also want your inputs. How do you deal with this? When I ask that very question, they say "It used to really bother me but you get used to it".