Do you respect the medical profession?

I respect people; I’m not so awed by positions. But with that said, I’ve had remarkably good doctors for the most part. My favorite was a crusty old guy in Michigan about 20 years ago. My second favorite was a female doctor I had in Connecticut who has since moved; I need to find another now.

doctors should be more careful when hiring front desk staff. i hate when great doctors, ones i actually don’t dread seeing, have bitchy, mean horrible staff.

The more a doctor actually cares about me and getting me well, the more I respect him or her. Seriously, some doctors just don’t care and write prescriptions for whatever they think works best and then shows you the door. Maybe if you actually looked at mine and my family’s medical history and asked me how I feel and where it hurts, you might be able to diagnose my condition much better. Which will result in a quicker recovering and less money taken out of my pocket.

@CyanoticWasp Sometimes the older docs are still the best ones. :-)

I agree with being careful about hiring office staff. They can make or break a practice.

@erichw1504 I hope you’ve managed to find a doctor you like; it’s definitely hard sometimes.

I don’t have a doctor. There is one guy at the urgent care practice that I go to who I like. I like him because he won’t prescribe drugs that aren’t needed (like antibiotics for something that may not be bacterial). I mostly like my son’s pediatrician. I like him because he won’t take a position on a question that there is no scientific evidence one way or the other on, but will flat out tell you if something is scientifically proven. For the most part I respect the medical profession, but there are a lot of doctors these days, and they are human, so one has to expect that most are mediocre, and almost half are below average. I also have a natural tendency to question people and that includes doctors.

@Snarp “What do you call the person who graduates at the bottom of their class in med school?”

“Doctor”

In general, I respect the profession. Some members of it are arogant in a way that interferes with patient care. They don’t listen to patients about their own bodies.

I like the doctor that I have now.

Most have been nice. They just seemed rushed.

I have a amazing amount of admiration for people that can retain so much info.

I respect the Doctor’s and the Nurses at the hospital who try their best to do what they can. Obviously I dislike any hospital bound nurse or doctor who is a complete…bimbo?.

I dislike the Doctors at the walk-in clinics and the one’s who host private practices, for the reasons as: The hours are nowhere long enough, forcing people in need of non urgent medical care to back up hospitals and have the already hard working doctor’s work even harder. The lack of Walk in clinics, for the same reason. And the doctor-patient quota, I am not sure who installs this, but whoever did is a complete moron, for the reason stated above. The Hospital is for people in urgent care and how shitty health care system forces non-urgent people to seek out hospitals, causing a terrible back up.

By the way, example of a stupid hospital doctor for kicks:

Doctor removes my girlfriends IUD because she was getting an infection…down there. After removing the IUD the doctor says “You have an infection”, we both look at the doctor, he says “What do you think we should do?”. I feel like saying “If I knew that, I wouldn’t have waited 4 fucking hours to see you”.

@LeopardGecko I’m not sure what you mean by a doctor-patient quota.

Maybe the don’t have it in other places besides Canada. But in our walk in clinics, the doctor is only allowed to see a certain number of patients a day (not very many) once this is full and if he is the only doctor staffed for that day, the clinic is closed

Our clinics usually run from 9 – 5 one doctor will work something like…9–2 and the other one will work 12–5. If the quota is met at 10:30 (which happens sometimes) the clinic is closed until doctor number two arrives.

We don’t have a limit to the number of patients we can see in a day. Each doctor has a certain number of appointment slots, although sometimes we “overbook” (schedule more than one patient at the same time) if we’re trying to squeeze someone in.

I am limited in the total number of patients I’m responsible for in my primary care practice. I can’t have more than ~830.

More and more I feel like I’m dealing with incompetence in the medical field.

You run your own practice and you get to see that many patients? Excuse my complaint earlier, I am only speaking on behalf of Canadians. The doctor’s at the private practices and walk in clinics try to get out of their office as soon as possible, using hands-on-the-door techniques at most offices I’ve been to.

It seems like Doctors are more just generalists, and mostly seem to have to send you to specialists. In the ‘old” days you had a relationship with a doctor, now you spend more time at specialists. Who are more intent on the disease and not on the patient. I don’t respect them nor disrespect the, but I do rely on them in the hope they can help.

I view all Humans as unique individuals . I have a few Doctors I admire and respect. Unfortunately I wish there were more.
Last Year my Internist relocated because her Son was diagnosed with Bipolar . When she called me to go over my Blood work . I reminded her my Son was Autistic. She said, how do you do it? I said, I have no choice.
I told her she would do research and find help for him. She thanked me. I still miss her. she was a good Doctor and a decent Human being.
I have one other Doctor I truly admire. She is not simply a good Doctor . She cares about her patiences. She explains things to me and is never cold or condensing .
I will not tolerate anyone who treats me like I am an idiotic. I will walk out and tell them where they can go.

I try not judge professions – even lawyers – as a whole. There are many doctors I like and respect, many I have no use for.

I generally respect doctors, because of all the schooling they go through and how much they have to remember, but I hate when doctors are only doing their job for the money. If they don’t care about the patients, what are they doing there?
A good example of a doctor I had was when i had to give blood. I don’t have much of a problem with needles, but the actual act of giving blood freaks me out. The nurse taking my blood told me to look the other way, and then decided to tell me a story about when she took blood from a baby, and the glass vial rolled off the counter. She said she did a dive for it like in the movies, but didn’t catch it. The story made giving blood a lot easier.

I would like to say that I could give you my opinion in a rational manner. After the past three years I’m not sure that I can keep my frustration out of my answer. So something to keep in mind, I suppose.

I am sick. I have been getting sicker and haven’t found a doctor yet who will listen to me. I have been to many different doctors, specialists and ER’s. I am educated, intelligent and I will research and read medical journals for fun. Yet, when I go I am treated like an idiot and someone who doesn’t live in my own body.

I am overweight and everything is being put down to that. I tell them that I eat 1500 calories a day and I have to work to even eat that much. Hubbs pressures me to eat because left to my own devices, I won’t. Partly because I’m not hungry and partly because now I’ve developed a complex from having so many authority figures tell me that I’m doing this to myself.

Move more and eat less they say. So I did. For two years I ate 500 cals a day of healthy food. No weight loss. I worked out five days a week with HITT and cardio all done properly and researched well. I lost ten pounds. Two years- ten pounds. Then I began to have severe pain. 8 or 9 on the pain scale. I couldn’t walk, talk or stop rolling around in pain.

What was wrong? They said I needed to join Weight Watchers.

I now have seizures. Go to the ER? Why? By the time I get seen (about five hours wait here) it will have stopped and then they will look at my fat body and tell me to move more and exercise less. Or they will look at my teeth and tell me they won’t give me pain pills. I know I have bad teeth- I was on meds that rotted them right out. Yet when I explain this I get looks of ‘Yeah, right’.

I don’t want pills. I want someone to listen to me and actually give a flying crap. I want some tests run so I can figure out why in three years I’ve gone from a strong person to an invalid who’s afraid to leave the house without walking aides.

My last doctor asked me if I had been in prison. Prison? Why, you ask? Because I have bad teeth and have a tattoo. Why not just ask me if I had ever been tested for Hep since that’s what they were going for?

I am now without healthcare and have no desire to go back to a doctor. I have given up and it makes me sad. Yet, when something happens I don’t feel that I will ever be listened to so what’s the point?

So, for me, I have trouble respecting doctors anymore. The illusion has been broken and now when I see a doctor all I see is a person who likes white coats and went to school. When I see them talk to pharm reps I get angry- they can give them ten minutes and listen but they can’t do the same for me.

Perhaps when I find some kind doctor who listens, I’ll feel differently. Like I said above, I’m so frustrated with the past three years that I can’t keep this anger from my response, so I apologize for not being able to keep emotions from this response.

@gemiwing I am so sorry for your pain. You deserve much better care.

@janbb Thank you. I know it could always be worse so I hope I didn’t sound like a whiny child! It feels good to even know that someone (you) listened

@gemiwing I am so, so sorry. So much of the time that’s the kind of thing I experience, or my loved ones experience…..

My wife is a nurse so I get a first hand account of what she and doctors and others in the medical field deal with on a daily basis.Its a tough job that I feel you should get into because you want to help people and NOT because of the pay. My wife works hard and gets stressed out.I think shes a terrific nurse and patients are in good care with her and her staff. There are doctors that she works with who in her opinion have no business in the medical profession.But thats every job.

@Val123 Thank you. I wish no one would ever have to work so hard to get someone to hear us. I’d like to think that we’re the minority, yet the more people I talk to- the more I hear stories like this. I wish there was something we could do to help. Not just patients but doctors as well. We need more amazing doctors and nurses.

@gemiwing It’s especially bad in small town hospitals….

Do I respect the medical profession? Hmmm. I’m not sure if it is a profession any more. Profession implies that professionals are not wage slaves working for a corporate machine. Now, you can work for a large company, and be a professional, but for doctors, I don’t know if they aren’t slipping into a new area.

Many more doctors now work for someone else. Not themselves. They have quotas of how many patients they must see. It’s not presented as quotas, but it is quotas. There is constant pressure to see more patients more quickly.

There are professional office managers who hire the front room staff. The billers and greeters and records people. There’s probably someone else who hires the nurses and phlebotomists, etc. Its hard to make a group work well together, especially when there is such a strict hierarchy, and many doctors still do have an attitude of privilege within organizations and also with patients.

I respect individual doctors. I know many of them—as friends, as colleagues, as providers. The profession as a whole has problems as any profession does. Oh, there are so many different aspects of this that I can’t really begin to reply. The hierarchy amongst doctors; the politics of it all, the personalities involved, attitudes towards patients, socio-economic factors and race relations and on and on.

If you’re asking me about the doctors I meet, then some I like and respect, and others—those who disrespect me—I don’t put up with. I find another doctor. As a result, I only have doctors I like and respect.

I don’t respect professions I respect individuals. I’ve had one doctor that I really liked and who I felt was actually concerned about my well being. However, I have had sooo many shitty doctors that I cannot unilaterally say that doctors are great, or knowledgeable or deserve respect.

I had one doctor tell my daughter that she “probably” had uterine cancer…the day before Christmas break started. She had to go through the next two weeks in utter terror until she could be tested at the first of the new year….and she didn’t have it.

@Val123 I know what you mean. I’m not giving anyone any test results until after the holidays. Fortunately, they’re only mild abnormalities.

The medical profession as a whole is a wonderful profession to be involved in…but I am skeptical over the big pharma and insurance industry element of the profit making mentality that drives much of what exists for our health and well care services.

My Dr. by the way is awesome and so is his staff!

Here’s a cut and paste of a response to a question on Inquire. I posted that they’re finally taking my husband’s Dad off of sedatives (after SIX WEEKS) because he’s just been…WAY out in left field mentally.

Benny, who is a Doctor, noted “All sedatives are bad.” Especially for older folks…..

I said, “I agree. His heart doctor, Dr. S, who is miles smarter than his GP, Dr. C, kept taking Dad off of the sedative, and Dr. C kept putting him back on. Dr. S has an assistant who, it turns out, IS a geriatric psychologist! She’s been involved this whole time! We just found that out when Rick asked about one! Apparently the two of them finally got Dr. C to listen to them, and take all meds off his chart, as of 8 a.m. yesterday morning. Hoping for some improvement soon….
I’m sorry that the night shift doesn’t want to have to deal with Dad’s combativeness in the middle of the night, sorry it’s such an inconvenience, but that’s their freaking JOB!

Incompetent doctors like Doctor C seem to be in the majority.

Having had 2 NDE’s and the Big C I must say I have a healthy respect for the majority of the folks in the Medical profession, BUT the management of hospitals and Health in the Govmnt? Well theres a whole different bag of spanners…..............

Um, my father in law is being taken care of via Medicare.

I only know how many individuals in my family became Dr.s by working and studying hard, dedicating a good portions of their lives to become medical authorities. I see them spending the remainder of their lives helping their patients in an atmosphere of hostility and uncertainty with no light at the end of the tunnel. I for one can have nothing but respect for them.

@nitemer I guess…all I can say is I have respect for certain individuals within the medical field. Others, not so much.

I expect and receive respect from the doctors if entrust to help me with my health care.
I try never to act as if I know more than they do about good medical practice but I am a well informed patient and I ask and get reasonable answers from my doctors.

Of course, I never consult a doctor (more than once) who lacks empathy or who shows disdain for anyone without a medical degree.

I live in Canada where I am never forced to accept a doctor because my insurance provider has a list of doctors they approve, and they won’t pay for the services of any other doctors.

We have many excellent doctors in Canada, despite what you may have been lead to believe about our socialized medical system. People with urgent or emergent medical needs rarely have to wait long to receive proper medical attention. Yes, there are long wait times in some hospital emergencies. This is often due to the failure of patients with non-urgent conditions to see their doctor during normal office hours. Sometimes there are circumstances where access to specialized procedures or assessments take longer in Canada than in the USA. Of course, here everybody is entitled to the best possible care, not just the rich or well connected!

Here’s an example of why the medical profession frustrates the hell out of me. My father in law is still in the hospital. He has developed sore gums, so can’t wear his dentures, hence can’t eat food that needs to be chewed. In fact, won’t eat ANYTHING that has pieces in it, even if it’s something like peas, that can be mashed up in his mouth. He hasn’t worn his dentures in the last five weeks. In spite of repeated family requests for soft, mashed foods, like mashed potatoes and jello, the nurses keep bringing him trays of sandwiches, fruit chunks, chicken, etc. WTH?? He can’t eat that!!! He’s lost 30 pounds since he went in six weeks ago. He’s lost 7 just since Wednesday. Tonight I murmured “Baby food,” to my husband. I’ve been thinking about saying something about baby food before, but didn’t because I thought surely that’s such a logical thought that they’ve thought of it already and discounted it for some reason….but when I said it tonight it was like my husband had a Eureka moment! So…there isn’t any food you can’t get in baby food form.
If it works, my question would be…why haven’t the Doctors and Nurses thought of this before now too?

2 themes I’m noting – the usual spectrum of competancy, but also a recurring sentiment that “quotas” are cutting time short, and leaving the doctor harried and unsympathetic.

I don’t know how it’s done in cananda, but in america – I have to see a certain number of patients to meet overhead. I will not underpay my hardworking staff for what they endure. Requirements, rent, taxes, healthcare goes up every year, while reimbursement runs flat at best.

Most doctors compensate with volume. I refuse, I have neither the desire, nor ability to deliver quality product at that speed. If a doctor needs to see 2.5 patients an hour to hit overhead, then at 3 an hour, the janitor is beating him. At 4 an hour, now he’s catching up to the plumber, but not yet. At 5 an hour, he’s almost making what the lawyer will get out of the lawsuit caused by that level of volume.

Those doctors that will give you a funny look of frustration. What do they see in their minds? You know the cartoon where the survivors on the life raft start seeing their friends as food items. To a doctor every patient is a potential plaintif. Especially after their first law suit.

We all need to tighten up our belts, the days of rich doctors, patients that get 25 minutes, and short wait times are gone. Replacing it will be an army of extenders.

@DrMC I need to make an appointment with you. I’ll wait.

LOL

I get more than half an hour for my checkups. Lucky me. Sick visits—I don’t get nearly so much time. On the other hand, a good well visit could probably save them ten sick visits.

Not having read all the answers, I’ll just jump in. I don’t usually respect anything as a whole, I respect (or not) the individuals involved in the whole.

I love my doctor. He has bent over backwards to provide me with excellent care, always listens – even when rushed -, and when I am uninsured (like now) he provides samples of several drugs I’m on and charges me less for visits. I’ve recommended him to several friends, and all of them love him as well. Just a great guy. I even like his nurse, who is crabby. ;)

Very much so. I really appreciate all of my doctors.