3 ms·
I am slightly older than you, and a physician working at a academic center in the US. Going into the field has placed me in close contact with persons from all
by slaw3 1mo ago
I am slightly older than you, and a physician working at a academic center in the US. Going into the field has placed me in close contact with persons from all walks of life, which I doubt I would have been exposed to had I picked another profession. I am grateful for how much it has taught me about life, death, families, and human resiliency.
With that in mind, I still advise NOT going into the field if you already have a stable career with above average income. It will take at minimum 10 years, of doing little else, before you will become a fully independent physician. Although some of this time can be shortened if you choose to become a PA/NP (sorry I don't know their equivalent in Europe, they are essentially clinicians with shortened training with some but limited individual practice autonomy).
If you work in a hospital every day is stressful. It is increasingly thankless although you still bear the brunt of responsibility and liability. You are also interchangeable.
I don't know if this helps explain my perspective of it's just a weird analogy, but being in a hospital feels like working in a grocery store now. You're told the margins are slim and you need to move produce (patients) faster out the door so that more produce can come in. A lot of the times the produce is not safe to sell but the managers pressure you to do it anyways. You could ask the managers (who were mostly at one point produce managers) to sell it but they would never. But if that apple you sold was mealy or at a rotten core its going to be on you.
- bruce511 1mo agoWhile your experience is valuable, it may not be universal. The US operates a for-profit health system. That has an impact on all the players. The OP is European (although doesn't say which country) ; most of Europe has a for-health health system. As such there is less incentive to churn through patients as fast as possible. Personally I have experienced public health, and while clearly every interaction, hospital, country etc is different, I have not experienced time pressures. Sometimes the doc visit takes 5 minutes. One time over 2 hours. Of course the balance is a wait in the queue, which can be substantial, but I'm in the fortunate position that I can take a day off when necessary. While neither system is perfect, overall I prefer the one which prioritzes good health outcomes.
- VirusNewbie 1mo ago>The US operates a for-profit health system. I have a non profit insurance and most of the hospitals in my area are non-profit as well. Some of the parts of the system are for profit (maybe the imaging centers?, pharma companies), but most of it isn't... that doesn't seem to be the main issue.
- bruce511 1mo agoWould you say that non-profit insurance companies and non-profit hospitals are the norm in the US? Or is your area an outlier?
- VirusNewbie 1mo agonon profit hospitals are the norm. Many insurance companies have capped profits. but the profits are capped as a percentage of revenue. So... Hmm...