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As a physician, I attend conferences, subscribe to online references, question banks, various journals, take ongoing CME, repeat licensing exams, and spend the
by wittyreference 6y ago
As a physician, I attend conferences, subscribe to online references, question banks, various journals, take ongoing CME, repeat licensing exams, and spend the equivalent of one workday a week reading those new materials, and try to spend a couple hours refreshing myself on materials outside of my specialty. This amounts to an extra un-reimbursed workday a week, and several thousand dollars a year.
When I worked in a place that offered CME/conference reimbursement, it covered about 1-2K a year, depending on budgeting issues. In my current place, and for all independent or small practice physicians, that comes out of your own pocket.
This does not have any career benefit whatsoever; it’s done so as to be worthy of our patients’ trust.
I wouldn’t mind if it was at least partially reimbursed though. It’s an enormous chunk of change, and not for my benefit.
- wolco 6y agoDoctors around here don't do anything close and pay out of pocket. Most will take sponsored vacations paided for by drug companies for being the top subscription giver. Same for dentists usually paided for by some whiting product they will push over the next year.
- chefandy 6y agoHow would you compare your earning potential to a software developer's?
- enraged_camel 6y agoDoctors on average make more, but they also start their careers burdened with overwhelming debt (a few hundred thousand dollars) and work much longer hours than software developers. Both my parents are doctors, and I'm a software developer. And you know what? I have it really, really good in comparison. edit: I noticed that you phrased the question as "earnings potential" -- well, in that case, it's comparable. High-level engineers at FAANG make boatloads of money.
- jimmydddd 6y agoGood points. Doctors do appear to have good career longevity though (in the US). The practice my children go to has several doctors in their late sixties. The doctor who delivered my kids was close to seventy years old. So if you look at career earnings, doctors seem to be in a better spot, as they aren't worried about finding a job from ages 50-65. Is that your parents' experience with their colleagues?
- vageli 6y ago> This does not have any career benefit whatsoever; it’s done so as to be worthy of our patients’ trust. Keeping abreast of changes in the field and state of the art offer no benefits and is done solely for patients' trust?
- sukilot 6y agoIn medicine it's largely to college bribes from vendors.
- Nasrudith 6y agoThey said no career benefits. They don't usually get a promotion for knowing about X or a salary raise so its effects are indirect if they don't actually use it regularly like say a dentist knowing about dental implant options.
- vageli 6y agoThat is a fair point and in that light the statement is far less jarring.
- wittyreference 6y ago> This does not have any career benefit whatsoever; it’s done so as to be worthy of our patients’ trust. That's what I said. It's surprising how many people chose to read into my post something that isn't there.
- heymijo 6y agoGoodhart's Law May be what OP is referring to. I have seen it in teaching. Teachers need xx hours of training per year. Training often satisfies that requirement but provides no significant benefits in terms of pedagogical improvement or content knowledge. Teachers that want to improve do so by other means. The training keeps us in compliance.
- pmiller2 6y ago
- hendzen 6y agoIn fairness the CME/conference circuit is basically a way for physicians to legally embezzle a free vacation. Many of those conferences are held at places like Jackson Hole, the Bahamas, etc, with relatively short amount of hours per day spent in talks and the rest skiing/relaxing/drinking etc on the hospital dime.
- pmiller2 6y agoThat's quite a workload you've set for yourself. I honestly don't know how my doctors do even the basic stuff I see them do, like seeing patients and charting. When you have to see 4+ patients in an hour (this is too many!), it would seem to me that charting would be one of the things that ends up going out the window. I also find it interesting that you go so far as to repeat your licensing exams. Is this common among physicians as a whole? Having known a couple of med students personally, these exams were usually seen as a hurdle to be overcome and a source of stress, but, I suppose it might get easier after a few years of practice. On a related note, I find it hard to imagine that, say, lawyers would routinely re-sit the bar exam for funsies. Regarding CME, isn't that required to maintain licensure? Or, are you talking about courses above and beyond the minimum to keep your license? And, BTW, I don't know who you are, where you practice, or even what your specialty is, but you sound like the kind of person I'd like to have be my doctor.
- scrozier 6y agoInteresting how people interpret things so differently. A doctor who says that keeping abreast of their field has no benefit to them sounds like the kind of person I'd not want as my doctor.
- pmiller2 6y agoI agree, but I also know how chronically overworked doctors are. That gives me a bit of sympathy toward the ones who don't want to basically work an extra day a week just to avoid falling behind.
- coffeemaniac 6y agoThey specified no career benefit. I'm almost certain they view increased trust from their patients as a benefit, and the extra confidence you gain from keeping up with the latest clinical science is hard to measure in terms of personal value but almost certainly comes out to $0 in financial terms (or negative if you value your free time).
- wittyreference 6y ago> This does not have any career benefit whatsoever; it’s done so as to be worthy of our patients’ trust. "I do it for my patients, not for my paycheck." If you have a problem with that, then by all means, I'm sure you can find another physician that would suit you better.