Why would anyone want to be a doctor or nurse? Too much overtime and schooling required.

[Horahngee]

I have a question. Why would anyone want to be a doctor or nurse? The negatives seem to far outweigh the positives. I mean, consider the negatives:

I don't know about the doctor side of job, but I do know a lot about nursing as I work in that profession.

I switched to this career as I was laid off from my business insurance job back in 2009 when the economy tanked. I decided to switch to a more "secure" field of job with a decent amount of income. I thought I was going to work in the business field my entire life and that everything was set for me. Especially since I graduated with an economics degree from UCLA. Err, wrong!
I no longer care for these jobs because they pay shitty and it's a lot of deskwork type of job.

I kind of agree with you that the negative outweighs "some" of the positives.

One of them being working around with a lot of "American females." Ewww. Don't get me wrong. A lot of my co-workers are great people. however, there are some times on my work days where I have to interact with bitches and women (these are co-workers or other nurses working in other departments I float to) who are having PMS. And no, bitchy women come in all colors. I am not only pointing fingers at white American females. Heck, the other day last week, I had to give report to this Chinese lady working as a day-shift nurse. She used to work as a doctor back in China....so she's a typical foreign Chinese lady with those Chinese attitude. I told her "okay, let me give you report on this patient you are assigned to, and let's do it at the bedside." She then responds in a cocky manner "no! I dont' have anything to write on so I don't want to go to the patient's room!" There is just a lot of passive aggressive people and "lateral violence" that goes on in this profession.


Another downside for me being a nurse, and being male and of East Asian descent, is that people think that I am a doctor. In fact if you guys were to pass me by in the halls of the hospital with my scrubs on and my stethoscope around my neck, some of you may mistaken me as being an MD.
That irks me a lot, especially when I go into my patients' rooms to assess them, and they call me "hey doc, what will you be doing today?"

- You are around sick, suffering and bleeding people all day. If that doesn't bring you down or drain you emotionally, nothing will. There is nothing more draining than trauma situations in ER's.

LOL! You crack me up Winston. There is MORE to medicine and nursing than ER/ED department!
I work in the medical surgical/ and also the post-operation orthopedic floors. A lot of the patients are there because they need care post-surgery, whether it be a knee replacement, hip replacement or some kind of bone fixture surgery to their lower extremities or upper extremities.

A lot of these patients of mine only need pain medications or other medications that they routinely take at home. If not pain meds, they are on continuous IV fluids to keep their bodies hydrated. So no Winston,.... we do not only deal with "sick" patients with severe congestive heart failure, COPD or severe cases of pneumonia, or TB or other contagious diseases.

- Being around sick people everyday means there is a high risk that you will catch some disease or be infected by something too. So it's a risk to your health as well.

It is true that you could possibly get sick from the sick patients on the floor. The worse part is working during the flu season, from November through March. For me, I usually exercise, eat healthy food, and load up with Vitamin C to optimize my immune system. I also "try" to get enough sleep.

What has been worst for me were the contact precaution patients with history of MRSA or C-dif. Some times, these patients are not diagnosed with these contact precautions, until the test results are posted in their chart or when the lab calls you with the result. Then you are like "oh shit, all this time I have been touching or been in contact with this patient without wearing proper PPE (gown, mask, etc...).

- If a patient dies under your care, their family may blame you for it or hold you responsible, or even sue you. How would you like to have a family hate you for life?

This is why we have insurance provided to us by the hospital. While it does not cover everything, there are insurance companies that send me brochures on signing up for their protection plan in case a patient or the patient's family decides to sue me.

Is all this worth it just to have a prestigious career or please your parents?

I am curious Winston. Did your parents originally want you to become a doctor and to work in the medical profession?

I hate to say this, but it seems like you have a grudge against people who made it into the medical field.

[Horahngee]

Nursing is an overrated occupation and attracts many f***ed up people.

Rants about nurses:

http://predatort.blogspot.com/2007/07/i ... urses.html

^^ The downside is that I sometimes have to work with bitchy women with an attitude. Unlike other professions that have either an equal ratio of men to women or more men than women.

And no! Nursing does NOT attract f***ed up people. I think you're just hating because you could not finish your program without dropping out of school.

[GuyAbroad8293]

The average doctor makes like 250,000 dollars a year tho, right? That's worth 8 years of school, if you ask me.

[Horahngee]

The average doctor makes like 250,000 dollars a year tho, right? That's worth 8 years of school, if you ask me.

Huh? I think your regular family practice MD or internal medicine doctor makes less than $250K per year.

Don't forget that there is also "taxation" involved (i.e. social security, medicare, state income tax, etc..) . So the net income that the doctor takes home is less than what is advertised on salary.com.

[HouseMD]

The average doctor makes like 250,000 dollars a year tho, right? That's worth 8 years of school, if you ask me.

Huh? I think your regular family practice MD or internal medicine doctor makes less than $250K per year.

Don't forget that there is also "taxation" involved (i.e. social security, medicare, state income tax, etc..) . So the net income that the doctor takes home is less than what is advertised on salary.com.

The average for IM is around 230k, general family medicine 220k. It us very area dependent though. My field normally pulls around 260-280, but I'm a few hours out from the city and attending offers are between 350-400k even though the call is brutal aince the groups are small. The biggest player in my field pulls seven figures by using physician extenders, his lifestyle is unbelievable.

[Horahngee]

The average for IM is around 230k, general family medicine 220k. It us very area dependent though. My field normally pulls around 260-280, but I'm a few hours out from the city and attending offers are between 350-400k even though the call is brutal aince the groups are small.

Yeah, but are you talking about GROSS income or NET income?

Don't forget, you can make a shitload of money. But what you take home is AFTER uncle sam, your state and local government, your retirement fund deduction and medical/dental benefits are deducted from your paycheck (403B and medical insurance are usually pre-tax), ass rapes your paycheck.

And by the way,....what is your "field" of medical expertise, if you don't mind me asking?

The biggest player in my field pulls seven figures by using physician extenders, his lifestyle is unbelievable.

If you're talking about internal medicine or family practice and a seven-figure salary attached to that kind of job?!! hahaha, I'd say bullshit.

Also, don't forget the medical school student loans that you have to repay every month.

[GuyAbroad8293]

The average doctor makes like 250,000 dollars a year tho, right? That's worth 8 years of school, if you ask me.

Huh? I think your regular family practice MD or internal medicine doctor makes less than $250K per year.

Don't forget that there is also "taxation" involved (i.e. social security, medicare, state income tax, etc..) . So the net income that the doctor takes home is less than what is advertised on salary.com.

The average for IM is around 230k, general family medicine 220k. It us very area dependent though. My field normally pulls around 260-280, but I'm a few hours out from the city and attending offers are between 350-400k even though the call is brutal aince the groups are small. The biggest player in my field pulls seven figures by using physician extenders, his lifestyle is unbelievable.

holy shit. So let me get this straight, if you have a specialized degree in Medicine, and live in a rural area where there are no such specialists, you can get 400,000 dollars a year?

[Ghost]

.

[Moretorque]

A thousand $'s a day is really not that much money with how expensive it is to live today and all the money and effort to get a medical degree.

[HouseMD]

holy shit. So let me get this straight, if you have a specialized degree in Medicine, and live in a rural area where there are no such specialists, you can get 400,000 dollars a year?

Something seems off here. I believe if, say, a patient lived in a small town and needed specialists, they would go into the city when they needed them. Or in the event of an emergency, the small town hospital would just transfer the patient to a hospital in the city which would have the needed specialists. Small towns have lower salaries for virtually everything, and I assume this includes doctors. Small town hospitals are probably not going to be able to grant such large salaries. But maybe I'm missing something here. Not an expert, just trying to follow the thread.

Also wondering how such high salaries would be possible with all the doctors from India and China.

My work is done outpatient, mostly. When you're the only, say, neurologist in a cachement area of 500,000 people, there is a lot of potential for clearing large salaries as you're the only game in town. You can easily bring on 5 nurse practitioners and double your salary, as every patient with nerve damage, migraines, epilepsy, etc in the population is coming to your shop. I'm in a field with similar dynamics, where regular care is required on an outpatient basis and the waiting lists for getting in to a practice are literally 6 months to a year long. You could drive hours to a practice in the city, but why drive 3 hours for an outpatient appointment?

[HouseMD]

https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/2018 ... ew-6009667

Like, I could argue with you all day long, but you can easily look up this data on Medscape or Merritt Hawkins. Foreign doctors don't affect US doctor salaries, as the number of training posts is fixed and all foreign physicians must complete a residency in the US to practice. This limits the number of practicing physicians to a set amount each year.

[HouseMD]

A thousand $'s a day is really not that much money with how expensive it is to live today and all the money and effort to get a medical degree.

Lol, what planet are you on? If you think $30,000 a month isn't much money I want some of whatever you're on. I managed to afford a house, car, etc on my paltry resident salary and still have plenty of money to do the things I enjoy despite making just over a tenth of what you claim is practically unlivable

[Ghost]

.

[Cornfed]

But bringing foreign doctors into the country to practice at all must impact American doctors' jobs and salaries. Companies insource immigrants for cheap labor from the third world, why would the fundamental purpose be different for doctors? I understand that doctors may not be as affected as, say, construction workers, but surely there is some effect. If not, why would foreign doctors be brought to the U.S. to practice?

I think he means that it is young white men who want to become doctors that are screwed, not existing doctors. And as exterminating the white race is the whole point of the exercise, this is good.

[HouseMD]

My work is done outpatient, mostly. When you're the only, say, neurologist in a cachement area of 500,000 people, there is a lot of potential for clearing large salaries as you're the only game in town. You can easily bring on 5 nurse practitioners and double your salary, as every patient with nerve damage, migraines, epilepsy, etc in the population is coming to your shop. I'm in a field with similar dynamics, where regular care is required on an outpatient basis and the waiting lists for getting in to a practice are literally 6 months to a year long. You could drive hours to a practice in the city, but why drive 3 hours for an outpatient appointment?

What place is so isolated that the nearest city is no less than three hours away? Are you talking about the U.S. or a foreign country? This sounds like a situation from a third world country that lacks adequate facilities and doctors.

https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/2018 ... ew-6009667

Like, I could argue with you all day long, but you can easily look up this data on Medscape or Merritt Hawkins. Foreign doctors don't affect US doctor salaries, as the number of training posts is fixed and all foreign physicians must complete a residency in the US to practice. This limits the number of practicing physicians to a set amount each year.

But bringing foreign doctors into the country to practice at all must impact American doctors' jobs and salaries. Companies insource immigrants for cheap labor from the third world, and medicine is big business, so why would the fundamental purpose be different for doctors? I understand that doctors may not be as affected as, say, construction workers, but surely there is some effect. If not, why would foreign doctors be brought to the U.S. to practice?

The AMA carefully controlled training positions via lobbying efforts to maintain doctor/patient ratios that would make salaries stay stable. The US never had enough medical school positions to ensure that we would have enough doctors for safe care, so we've always had to import a good number to keep the system afloat (this is changing, as medical school class sizes have exploded in recent years, so a smaller number of positions is left for foreign applicants each year).

I'm a couple of hours from the nearest major city. There is a "city" with a population of well under 80k nearby, but that's still not enough of a metro to attract most doctors, who tend to want the sort of amenities only cities with populations of 1+ million offer (fancy restaurants, top private schools, live entertainment, larger academic centers for fancy positions, etc). America is a big place, and much of it is undeserved because most doctors want to be less than half an hour from NYC/Boston/Houston/Chicago/DC/Seattle/LA/etc. The tens of millions that live outside of these areas want care that no one wants to provide. I'm willing to go where the money is though.