File this under "Things I never thought I'd say".
Today I was talking on the phone to my wife. She was asking me about the ER doctor I was seeing. That's when I heard the following come out of my mouth; "I don't remember his name but he seems like a nice kid".
Doctors are by definition people who should be older than me, and have some gray hair. It doesn't have to be all gray, but a little bit of gray would help. Don't get me wrong, he did a good job. He seemed to know what he was doing and he got me in and out quickly. All in all I was happy with his work. He just looked like he should be busing tables or surfing or on a PlayStation instead of a doctor.
In college I used to take my great grandmother to her doctor appointments. Sometimes she'd complain about the "kid" who was seeing her. That's to be expected, after 80 you've probably out lived all your doctors. I thought it was weird because the "kid" was clearly over 50 and what hair he had left was white as snow. The dude was ancient by my standards.
Fortunately my two regular doctors are over 60 and one is over 70. Oh jeez, I have two doctors. How did get so old?
Back in the day when hubby and I had cable, I used to like watching a particular medical mystery show. I started noticing after about the 5th episode or so, that there is an actual divide in the profession.
ReplyDeleteI also came to the conclusion while watching the series that medical insurance has allowed the younger generations to be very VERY lazy in the practice of medicine. What do I mean by that?
The younger doctors are most likely to kick the patient down the road because not only will they get paid even if the patient is not cured/disease ID'd, but they also never really dug in and did any real investigation into what was causing the patient to be sick in the first place. They do not like to get their hands "dirty", and it makes one wonder why they got into the profession in the first place.
The old school MD's were forced to learn some very interesting little tricks to figure out what was wrong with their patient, like in one case, simply using their noses to ID a serious ailment.
Because they knew that unless they figured it out, they did not get paid. Remember, they learned their trade before medical insurance footed the bill.
Medical insurance in general, while great for catastrophic disease/emergencies, is generally not in the best interest for most patients. Because like Vegas gambling, the house always wins. The house in this instance being the doctors, not the patient.
Because one thing I have learned from my daughter being in the nursing profession for a decade now, is that the nurses spend the most time with the patient and they are the ones you want to make friends with if you are ever in a bad medical situation.
Res Ipsa: "the ER doctor I was seeing"
ReplyDeleteNot to get too personal, but I hope all is OK?