4 ms·

Breaking news: people in a job about caring for people, care more for people than people in a job not about caring for people. Film at 11.

MrMatters 14y ago
A more interesting comparison if you're going to use medicine, IMO, is how it's the exact opposite for surgeons compared to doctors. If you believe The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success by Kevin Dutton (which is the basis of this HuffPo article): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-barker/which-professions-have-the-most-psychopaths_b_2084246.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-barker/which-professions-... It makes sense because doctors require a high level of empathy whereas surgeons need to be better under pressure, be able to hold longer focus, etc. which are qualities of psychopaths.
- Turing_Machine 14y ago
  Also, surgeons need to be able to cut people open without freaking out, possibly even enjoying it.
- roc 14y ago
  How much of that can we ascribe to turnover though? Is it people who go into surgery care less? Or only people who care less can handle a career in surgery, where you typically have no bond to the patient, see many more people die (potentially due your own limitations or outright mistakes) and even when they live, you may see them for a follow-up exam or two, but not really ever again? There seems to be huge down-sides for an empathic surgeon and very little emotional up-side.
  - sliverstorm 14y ago
    Bang. This guy hit all the points I was going to make.
meaty 14y ago
From my experience, at least of the NHS, people in the job of caring for people don't care about people...
- byefruit 14y ago
  Really? I've only ever had positive experiences with the NHS so far. They've saved both my life in an emergency and my father's life too.
  - meaty 14y ago
    You win some and you lose some. It's nice to hear of a good story, but it's not the norm by far.
    - nodata 14y ago
      If it's not the norm by far, can you back up your claim with some evidence?
      - meaty 14y ago
        Start here: http://transparency.dh.gov.uk/category/statistics/patient-experience/ http://transparency.dh.gov.uk/category/statistics/patient-ex... Then read here, the comments: http://www.nhs.uk/service-search http://www.nhs.uk/service-search Then ask people around you.
        nodata 14y ago
        Start here That's a link to a pdf document. Can you quote the part you are referring to? I can see “Safe, high quality, coordinated care” at 74.5% and “Building closer relationships” at 80.8% All the rest is confirmation bias and unrepresentative. People like to moan. 10/1 ratio and all that.
        meaty 14y ago
Mz 14y ago
Or perhaps they just fake it better.

MrMatters 14y ago

A more interesting comparison if you're going to use medicine, IMO, is how it's the exact opposite for surgeons compared to doctors. If you believe The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success by Kevin Dutton (which is the basis of this HuffPo article): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-barker/which-professions-have-the-most-psychopaths_b_2084246.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-barker/which-professions-... It makes sense because doctors require a high level of empathy whereas surgeons need to be better under pressure, be able to hold longer focus, etc. which are qualities of psychopaths.

Turing_Machine 14y ago
Also, surgeons need to be able to cut people open without freaking out, possibly even enjoying it.
roc 14y ago
How much of that can we ascribe to turnover though? Is it people who go into surgery care less? Or only people who care less can handle a career in surgery, where you typically have no bond to the patient, see many more people die (potentially due your own limitations or outright mistakes) and even when they live, you may see them for a follow-up exam or two, but not really ever again? There seems to be huge down-sides for an empathic surgeon and very little emotional up-side.
- sliverstorm 14y ago
  Bang. This guy hit all the points I was going to make.

meaty 14y ago

From my experience, at least of the NHS, people in the job of caring for people don't care about people...

byefruit 14y ago
Really? I've only ever had positive experiences with the NHS so far. They've saved both my life in an emergency and my father's life too.
- meaty 14y ago
  You win some and you lose some. It's nice to hear of a good story, but it's not the norm by far.
  - nodata 14y ago
    If it's not the norm by far, can you back up your claim with some evidence?
    - meaty 14y ago
      Start here: http://transparency.dh.gov.uk/category/statistics/patient-experience/ http://transparency.dh.gov.uk/category/statistics/patient-ex... Then read here, the comments: http://www.nhs.uk/service-search http://www.nhs.uk/service-search Then ask people around you.
      - nodata 14y ago
        Start here That's a link to a pdf document. Can you quote the part you are referring to? I can see “Safe, high quality, coordinated care” at 74.5% and “Building closer relationships” at 80.8% All the rest is confirmation bias and unrepresentative. People like to moan. 10/1 ratio and all that.
        meaty 14y ago

Mz 14y ago

Or perhaps they just fake it better.