A question to doctors:do you think medicine as a profession is greatly undervalued or underestimated nowadays?

Question

If so, how much blame would you say lies on certain doctors, and how much on patients' mindsets? Also, how much has your perception of the medical field changed before and after entering it?

Thank you for your answers and have a nice day.

Answer 1

I think it's an excellent question.  Yes, I think medicine is grossly undervalued as a profession until people need medical care.  I assign most of the blame on HMOs and exorbitant cost of medicine that is the prodcuct of HMOs & Big Pharm Interests.  I think that disgruntled physicians are the consequence of a bad system, not at all the cause.

Patients have a much worse opinion of physicians than, say, 30 years ago, again, largely the product of HMOs and the pressure that such a system places on physicians.  Extensive television advertising by Big Pharm plus the advent of the internet as some sort of "surrogate" for sound medical care is, indeed, a culprit.

I still feel that the medical profession is a noble profession (perhaps one of the most noble).  Had I to do it over again knowing what I know now, I'd never have done it.

Answer 2

I think there's a general undervaluation of professions, not just medicine. The three classic professions of medicine, law, and the priesthood are all based upon a level of expertise and a sense of deference to authority. Many in today's society have bought into bits of absurdity: "Everybody is entitled to his own opinion" has ceased to be tempered by the idea that expert opinions are more valuable than those of the uneducated.

The social is a good portion of the change. A good deal of the degredation of the profession is governmental. We are no longer physicians but rather "health care providers" in a business model, and quacks (AKA "alternative medicine providers) are on a roughly equal legal footing. And finally, we have ourselves to blame; we don't have to accept these changes, though it would be hard to say "no" to insurance payments, for instance.

We all had something of a shock when we began our clinical rotations in medical school. Few of us expected the time spent on paperwork would exceed the time in patient contact.