<p><a href=“patients%20seem%20to%20think%20that%20all%20doctors%20are%20money-grubbers”>quote</a>, physicians are still quite respected by laypeople
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<p>Patients ARE laypeople. </p>
<p>Anyway, how does this “respect other professions” manifest itself in everyday life? I haven’t ever observed that at cocktail parties, everyone oohs and goos and gushes over the physician / corporate lawyer / investment banker etc as is postulated here on CC. People tend to like and respect people they like and respect; their job doesn’t automatically get them any kind of special sparkle brownie points. I don’t respect “physicians” as a whole; I respect certain ones and don’t respect others. It’s odd that people on CC think of it so categorically.</p>
<p>Not everybody defines respect by how much they can impress people at a cocktail party. </p>
<p>When I say respect, I mean that people are still willing to confide in doctors about some of the most personal and confidential parts of their lives. For example, despite the fact that NPs and PAs can adequately function as primary care docs, most patients still prefer to see MDs.</p>
<p>Doctors are a category Pizzagirl as are lawyers, police and other professions that go through a similiar type of training, way of thinking and if I may be so bold a certain indoctrination combined with high difficulty to make it through that type of structured education.</p>
<p>Sure there are various versions and personalities but there is a basic “type” that lean towards certain professions and who are responsive to the type of training. The rest drop out.</p>
<p>We confide more in doctors than NPs or PAs because their role puts them in the position of decision maker. While NPs and PAs make decisions, we know they work under the authority of a doctor. </p>
<p>If a patient is unsure or unclear about a decision of the NP/PA they can always go to the doctor. If we don’t agree with a doctor, we go to another doctor.</p>
<p>We all bring our own perceptions and perspectives from our own limited experiences into any conversation. In Pizzagirl’s world, I am guessing in some social stratosphere, physicians are not accorded any special respect. In my world (as an attorney in central Texas), one in which I interact with people from all social classes, I find that physicians, and to a slightly lesser extent lawyers, scientists, and engineers, are given immediate bonus points by people around or below the median in income and education. Some individuals, particularly those accustomed to a social stratosphere, may have so little interaction with such people or care so little about their opinions that it does not matter. Others will recognize that such bonus points can make so many interactions go more smoothly.</p>
<p>Actually, for me it’s the other way around. I prefer NPs or PAs for most types of care because I find it easier to talk with them. They’re regular people, with a level of education (master’s degree or the equivalent) the same as my own.</p>
<p>I always think of doctors as being “different” because of the decidedly abnormal lifestyle they had to live during most of their young adult years – with extraordinarily difficult work hours and an extremely extended period of training. I would never have told a physician that I was having trouble coping with the sleep deprivation of early parenthood, for example. It’s so much less severe than the sleep deprivation endured by medical students that I wouldn’t expect the physician to consider it a significant problem (despite my worries at the time that I was often so spacy that I did not consider it safe to drive). I would have felt comfortable discussing the same situation with an NP or PA because they’re “normal.” </p>
<p>Marian, I absolutely agree with you about comfort in expressing general medical symptoms. My gyn is an N.P. and she is my age with a child my son’s age.</p>
<p>However, if a N.P. told you you had cervical cancer shown on a PAP smear. You probably would want to talk additionally with the doctor and not just take the advice of a N.P.</p>
<p>Funny thing is that most doctors would not encourage, much less push, their children toward a medical career. Medicine is rife with uncertainty over payments, over-regulated and increasingly bureaucratic, and the increasing number of physician employees versus independent private practitioners should make you think twice if you don’t have your heart in it. I am sure there are plenty of lawyers who feel the same way about the practice of law. All I know is that medicine and law aren’t going away, but they probably won’t be all that they used to be. The issue is whether medicine and law will be regarded as professions, or merely jobs, in the future by most practitioners.</p>
<p>This seems to be true, but I’m not sure it’s unique to medicine. It seems common these days for professionals to warn their children against going into the same field as they did. I certainly would not want my child to pursue a career in academe. However, we are all biased by our own experiences. We know the pitfalls of our own chosen path, but not those of others.</p>
<p>True. Ignorance is bliss for our children; we are indeed biased. I am convinced the negativity is a result of most careers becoming more bureaucratic, less remunerative, and more demanding. It is tough to be worse off each year in some regard, no matter how enviable your situation appears to others. What to recommend when the grass looks brown whichever direction one looks? Sow some new seeds.</p>