Women Doctors and the Decline in Patient Care
June 14, 2011
JAMES N., a physician, writes:
Regarding the ways that female physicians have changed the profession, here’s another (younger) doc’s perspective:
The typical feminist cry is “Feminism has made things better for men, too!” I agree with this when it comes to medicine. I would not want to work the long hours of my forebears. A 60-70 hour week? No, thanks.
But women have changed medicine in other ways that I do dislike – for instance, the attitude and demeanour that is expected from doctors today is different than it was in the past. Many times throughout my medical education I received poorer evaluations than I otherwise might have because of my somewhat serious and grave nature. Essentially, I was penalized for not being a bubbly, chatty, “empathetic” woman. There is much more emphasis on “the patient’s feelings” than there used to be, which is fine so far as it goes, but not when it becomes the primary focus. That is my opinion, at any rate.
A. writes:
I have noticed the decline in competency among the whole of the medical profession, not excluding doctors.
I have many years and experiences both with which to judge. I was married to a physician before he went to medical school and worked in his office for many years. I have four children, four siblings, my parents and ten grandchildren and all their experiences. I have practicing physicians as close friends.
The decline is global. It includes the white male as well as the minority, women and all affirmative action entrants. The hours of training required now is laughable compared to those medical students, interns and residents of just forty years ago. .But the issue is much more than hours alone.
The majority of people in all medical programs are victims of modern educational failures. They cannot speak and write the language (an editor of medical articles and textbooks told me that the grammar, logic and syntax of almost all authors, including doctors, has been abysmal for over twenty years)
The English as a second language personnel are, in my experience, just plain dangerous. They just do not understand words. In addition, they are in general further away from the Hippocratic ethic than are the English as a first language person.
I could give you example after example, but will just give you my last one. I asked a question of a minority urologist. The answer given me was anatomically impossible. Just think of that. Anatomically impossible. I told my family doctor who is in practice forty years and he said what I have been saying, that they can’t communicate.
As the Greeks say; Old doctor, young lawyer.
Solution? Extremely high standards for admission, including demonstrated competence in language, math, science, logic and physical and psychological vigor and a patient oriented motive rather than a dollar oriented one. After that a ruthless weeding out process. An absolute requirement that all people will be required to put in the long hours to gain the competence necessary or be required to leave.
Keep nurse practitioners in their proper role. I understand they can now prescribe and administer Morphine without physician oversight.
Georgia writes:
I thought it was too bad Karen Sibert’s article implied not just that women who care about their family might not be suitable doctors, but that women who want to be doctors give up their families and be like the author who is so proud that she managed to make it to soccer games and school plays, but presumably missed quite a lot of her children’s lives.
Either way, intelligent women who are interested in medicine but do not want to displace dedicated men might want to consider becoming physician’s assistants. I saw one for years in lieu of an OBGYN and only rarely saw the doctor that supervised her. She lived in our neighborhood and only worked when her children were at school. Physicians assistants cost less money too.
Laura writes:
Yes, this is a good point. She does not argue that there is anything immoral about a mother spending little time with her children.
James N. writes:
Samson said, “The typical feminist cry is “Feminism has made things better for men, too!” I agree with this when it comes to medicine. I would not want to work the long hours of my forebears. A 60-70 hour week? No, thanks.”
In other words, Samson doesn’t want to work until the work is done. He (Samson claims to be a man) doesn’t want to work until all the patients are, in a manner of speaking, “put to bed.”
Samson wants somebody else to bear ultimate responsibility for making sure that every person he’s responsible for is OK before he rests. Maybe the government. Maybe his partners. Maybe that ultimate refuge of a nurse, “the supervisor.” Maybe the “healthcare team.”
One of the reassuring things about the grinding fatigue is that it defines the profession. Moses Maimonides wrote about this nine hundred years ago, how strange it was that the last house to visit was always at the top of a steep hill.
Samson is in the wrong business.