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ciroccojIn a survey done on Career Satisfaction recently, there were the following stats among doctors:
Chris fits all of those stats. Wishes he hadn't gone into medicine, would love to leave, can't because of enormous debt and lack of any other job skills.
I wonder if anybody's ever done a survey on doctor's spouses and what they think of their life choice. I know that as much as I love Chris, if I had the chance to go back in time I definitely would not marry him if I knew he would go into medicine.
I'm musing about this today because Chris is of course once again on call. It's been a terrific Christmas so far </sarcasm>. I've mostly been able to make it nice for the kids, but for me it's just another lousy "holiday" marked by resentment of Chris' stupid job.
And as I sit here thinking all of this, I wonder if the medical profession will ever change. I know it has changed significantly, for the better, but that's more cause for horror at how bad things were in the past than cheer at how good they are in the present. And I can't see it ever actually becoming a humane profession. Not in my lifetime, anyway.
It really bugs me when people say they or their kids want to go into medicine. I mean, it seems like such an impressive career, when you watch ER and Chicago Hope and all that crap. There's lip service paid to "Oh yeah, and they work long hours and it's not easy on them or their families", but TV reality doesn't come close to real reality. On TV, their hard work and sacrifice seems noble and heroic. In reality, it's mostly stupid and pointless drudgery.
Verve and Val (a couple of my classmates) and I were chatting after our exam a couple of weeks ago, and at one point Val said, "Your husband's in medicine, right?"
"Yeah."
"Can I ask you something? My daughter's thinking of going into medicine."
"Tell her not to."
Haha, Val was amused. "No, what I want to know is, should she be applying only to universities that offer Honours BA programs? Because that's what her guidance counsellor said."
"I don't know."
So Verve of course piped up saying, "Isn't that wonderful! Does she have a chance of getting in?" and they started to chat about their kids, and at one point one of them asked me, "So what about your kids? Are they going to be doctors like their daddy?"
"I sure as hell hope not."
They both laughed, quite amused. Verve said, "Yeah, you know I read somewhere that everybody wants their kids to grow up to be doctors, except doctors," and she laughed at this funny little factoid. "I wonder why that is?"
"Personally, it's because I love my kids. I wouldn't wish that kind of life on anybody I cared about in the slightest."
Haha, very funny, they chuckled some more.
"No, actually, I'm serious. We don't want our kids going into medicine. We've told them so."
"Why? It's a pretty good life, high pay - they even get paid while they're students! I wouldn't mind that, getting paid to study."
"Um, not exactly. They do a few hours of classes a week and the rest of the time they do most of the actual work in the hospitals. The hospitals would collapse without the residents as cheap labour."
"Still, they get paid pretty good money."
"As residents? I think Chris worked out that it comes to about $6/hour for the first few years."
"That's better than a lot of other jobs."
"Not if you're in debt over $100,000. And you've been in school about 7 years to get to make $6/hr."
"Well, it's only for a couple of years, and it's worth it in the end."
"It can be anywhere from 3-10 years. And I doubt it."
"Why, because they have to work a little extra for a couple of years?"
"No, because they have no life outside of work and not enough time to sleep for years on end."
"Oh, yeah, I know they do a few overnight shifts, but still, a couple of overnights a month isn't that bad."
"No, but 10 overnights a month for a couple of years is that bad."
"Oh, come on - they get to sleep at the hospitals, they just get woken up for emergencies."
"Depends on the service. On some services they don't bother to go to bed because 'on call' is just a euphemism for 'working' - there's no downtime."
"Well, if it was really that bad nobody would stay. If they don't like it they can always quit."
"And pay off $100,000 debt working at McDonald's?"
Anyway. Went on like this for a bit, until I made up some lame excuse and left. They had their own ideas about the wonderful world of medicine, were getting annoyed at me for being so gosh darn negative about the whole thing, and it wasn't worth wasting any more breath on it. They both seemed far more interested in the glory of being Mothers of Doctors than what that glory would cost their kids.
::shrug:: Nothing I haven't seen first-hand.
- 75% of family doctors responded that if they had the chance to do it all again, they would not choose medicine.
- The figure was 60% among all doctors, meaning that just under 50% of specialists (eg surgeons, psychiatrits, pediatricians) also said that if they could go back in time they would not choose to go into medicine.
- In any given year, 50% of doctors are looking into retirement or career change. Their reasons for not leaving are many, but most have to do with debts, lack of any other work skills, and bureaucratic and ethical difficulties inherent in leaving their patients, not job satisfaction or dedication to medicine.
Chris fits all of those stats. Wishes he hadn't gone into medicine, would love to leave, can't because of enormous debt and lack of any other job skills.
I wonder if anybody's ever done a survey on doctor's spouses and what they think of their life choice. I know that as much as I love Chris, if I had the chance to go back in time I definitely would not marry him if I knew he would go into medicine.
I'm musing about this today because Chris is of course once again on call. It's been a terrific Christmas so far </sarcasm>. I've mostly been able to make it nice for the kids, but for me it's just another lousy "holiday" marked by resentment of Chris' stupid job.
And as I sit here thinking all of this, I wonder if the medical profession will ever change. I know it has changed significantly, for the better, but that's more cause for horror at how bad things were in the past than cheer at how good they are in the present. And I can't see it ever actually becoming a humane profession. Not in my lifetime, anyway.
It really bugs me when people say they or their kids want to go into medicine. I mean, it seems like such an impressive career, when you watch ER and Chicago Hope and all that crap. There's lip service paid to "Oh yeah, and they work long hours and it's not easy on them or their families", but TV reality doesn't come close to real reality. On TV, their hard work and sacrifice seems noble and heroic. In reality, it's mostly stupid and pointless drudgery.
Verve and Val (a couple of my classmates) and I were chatting after our exam a couple of weeks ago, and at one point Val said, "Your husband's in medicine, right?"
"Yeah."
"Can I ask you something? My daughter's thinking of going into medicine."
"Tell her not to."
Haha, Val was amused. "No, what I want to know is, should she be applying only to universities that offer Honours BA programs? Because that's what her guidance counsellor said."
"I don't know."
So Verve of course piped up saying, "Isn't that wonderful! Does she have a chance of getting in?" and they started to chat about their kids, and at one point one of them asked me, "So what about your kids? Are they going to be doctors like their daddy?"
"I sure as hell hope not."
They both laughed, quite amused. Verve said, "Yeah, you know I read somewhere that everybody wants their kids to grow up to be doctors, except doctors," and she laughed at this funny little factoid. "I wonder why that is?"
"Personally, it's because I love my kids. I wouldn't wish that kind of life on anybody I cared about in the slightest."
Haha, very funny, they chuckled some more.
"No, actually, I'm serious. We don't want our kids going into medicine. We've told them so."
"Why? It's a pretty good life, high pay - they even get paid while they're students! I wouldn't mind that, getting paid to study."
"Um, not exactly. They do a few hours of classes a week and the rest of the time they do most of the actual work in the hospitals. The hospitals would collapse without the residents as cheap labour."
"Still, they get paid pretty good money."
"As residents? I think Chris worked out that it comes to about $6/hour for the first few years."
"That's better than a lot of other jobs."
"Not if you're in debt over $100,000. And you've been in school about 7 years to get to make $6/hr."
"Well, it's only for a couple of years, and it's worth it in the end."
"It can be anywhere from 3-10 years. And I doubt it."
"Why, because they have to work a little extra for a couple of years?"
"No, because they have no life outside of work and not enough time to sleep for years on end."
"Oh, yeah, I know they do a few overnight shifts, but still, a couple of overnights a month isn't that bad."
"No, but 10 overnights a month for a couple of years is that bad."
"Oh, come on - they get to sleep at the hospitals, they just get woken up for emergencies."
"Depends on the service. On some services they don't bother to go to bed because 'on call' is just a euphemism for 'working' - there's no downtime."
"Well, if it was really that bad nobody would stay. If they don't like it they can always quit."
"And pay off $100,000 debt working at McDonald's?"
Anyway. Went on like this for a bit, until I made up some lame excuse and left. They had their own ideas about the wonderful world of medicine, were getting annoyed at me for being so gosh darn negative about the whole thing, and it wasn't worth wasting any more breath on it. They both seemed far more interested in the glory of being Mothers of Doctors than what that glory would cost their kids.
::shrug:: Nothing I haven't seen first-hand.
