In this country, people have unfortunately put doctors (meaning MDs) on a pedestal, an undeserved one. When I have done public talks to students in the health care professionals and so called "allied health sciences", and revealed that many, if not most MDs are profit oriented, and are NOT infallible, I have noticed nursing students, physical therapy students, and other pre-professional students react very negatively, as if I was an atheist speaking at a national charismatic meeting.
I am from a family of medical doctors. My great grandfather, uncle, cousin, all MDs (allopathic medical doctors). Over the years, in my practice, I have referred to medical doctors , specializing in family medicine, neurosurgery, physiatry, psychiatry, orhopaedic (also often spelled orthopedic) surgeons,
OB/Gyn, oncologists, pain management specialists, plastic reconstructive surgeons, and others.
The reason that some time back, most medical students switched from family practice medicine, arguably a specialty in which they could see larger numbers of general patients and do more good for famiies, to subspecialties like Cardiothoracic surgery, was because of MONEY, plain and simple..
Medical doctors are not, in general, stupid or underachievers. I am not saying they are excellent human beings, just talking about their IQ and ability to function in society as a functional and money making unit. If you could make ten times as much money going into a specialty like surgery, than being a family practice physician, for many docs, this was a "no-brainer".
I notice people "getting their back up" when I tell folks the truth about many doctors motive for entering medicine. When I was in pre-med training in undergraduate school, NO ONE would have said they were going into medicine to relieve suffering. My friends and fellow students were up front, even boastful of their reason for entering medicine when talking to their friends, and it was "to make lots of money" (though I am sure their essay on why they wanted to be a doctor was less about making money and more on "helping people", because they were smart enough to know that educators have this as the ":accepted answer").
Now, it always confuses me when laypeople get upset when I dare to speak such "sacrilege" or "heresy". I always wish that I could give each of them a copy of Robert Mendelsohn, M.D,
( http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Medical-Heretic-Robert-Mendelsohn/dp/080924... ).
"Confessions of a Medical Heretic was written in the late 1970s, a time when medicine bordered on religion. "
Their reaction always reminds me of a bible believer who is told by an atheist there is no God, or, even better, the reaction of the Church during the time of the Inquisition, to any new or novel ideas in Science that might conflict with "revealed truth".
Maybe there are some MDs who like being thought of as god-like and infallible. I would diagnose these people as delusional, having a Narcissistic personality disorder.
Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration. They believe that they're superior to others and have little regard for other people's feelings. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem, vulnerable to the slightest criticism.
I have met M.D.s who are like this, and they are some of the most insufferable, jerks you ever want to meet. They are NOT what my idea of a healer is, by any means.
Probably one of the best doctors I have ever met in my life, a doctor who I felt honored to be a patient of, was in Austin Texas. He was an MD and DDS, an oral surgeon. He was friendly, unassuming, approachable, extremely knowledgeable, and accomplished. When you were visiting him as a patient, he gave you the impression you were the only patient he had, and that he had all the time in the world to answer your questions or explain procedures. This is the kind of doctor that I, and I believe ALL doctors should aspire to be.
So, if you believe MDs are like Gods in white with stethoscope vestments, wake up and smell the alcohol swabs. They are just people like you, trying to make a buck in an increasingly harder time to make a living.
You DO NOT do doctors a service by dehumanizing and idealizing them.
Doctors are NOT Gods.
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If doctors acted like God.....by NegativeC00L1,051 views
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