This article nearly brought me to tears. As an overworked second-year resident only three or four years from the medical school experience described, it's pretty easy to forget that there are lay people, potential patients, actually out there rooting for me. In general I feel undervalued, underpaid, and looked on with undue suspicion at this point in my training. Thanks Ms. Yoffe, for reminding me that I'm here to do a good thing, and that sometimes people are pretty understanding of that!

right back. Anyone who has ever had a friend or relative go through med school, knows that you are tired and overworked. But we need you to care not only about your career, but us as humans too. The fact that you took the time to thank Ms. Yoffee gives me a lot of gratitude that there are doctors like you out there. Hang in there. We need you.

Oh, please...

I have taught pre-med and medical students and have found most of those who succeed to be hardworking, intelligent young men and women who accept the hardships of the education and training as part of the requirements for becoming a competent medical professional.

Considering the competition for medical school and the number of qualified, passionate individuals who never make it, I find self-pity from those who do to be indulgent at best and simply ungrateful at worst.

Without a doubt residency training is difficult, but if there was another way to gain the necessary experience in a reasonable amount of time, then I have not heard of it. Based on research, expertise in a subject usually requires about ten years of concentrated effort, so the medical education system in place seems to be as efficient as humanly possible.

Finally, the recompense for the relatively few years of hardship experienced by residents is easily made up in future earnings, thanks to the stranglehold by the AMA on the importation of fully qualified, foreign doctors. Even a family practitioner can expect to earn a comfortable six figures after residency as reported by labor statistics.

Get over your pity. If you really do feel persecuted, then quit. We can't afford physicians who are more worried about their own "unfortunate" circumstances than they are about their patients', who actually do have something to worry about.

man, you are such a pompous, nasty ass its hard to believe you are real.

that resident was venting a little steam like almost all residents do, in a very nice and subdued manner, and here you come throwing self-evident stats and facts so importantly...

Crap, you beat me to it!

To the OP, hang in there!!! I know it's probably exhausting (law school was excruciating), but you're going to be a great doctor!

Plus, like the "pompous, nasty ass" up there pointed out, you'll be making a nice living pretty soon.

All I can say is I hope your not one of my doctors. Pompos is not the word for you.

As a nurse I've had the previlage of working with some of the best. What made these doctors stand out as true professionals in the field of medicine were there abilities not to loss sight of why they spent 24 hours in a 24 hour work day :) doing what they were doing. Never loss sight of your compassion. 9 out of 10 times your patients feel inferior to you, your abilities and your knowledge and they stand in awe of you. Always meet them on their level and in their safety zone. Your commitment, your drive, your heart as you're trusted into some of the absolute worst working conditions a person should ever have to endure speaks volumes the "angel of mercy" who lives inside of you. You all the rewards that your profession will bring you...spiritually, emotionally and finacually. Always let your compassion remain the catalyst in so much that it promotes change but it (itself) never changes. All the best to you Doctor!

Tamela

Oh please...

I suppose you would prefer Dr. Touchy-McFeely attend to your life-threatening illness or injury, asking every 15 seconds how you're feeling as you go into shock or or bleed internally from an unknown source?

A physician must never forget that she is first and foremost a professional. Any self-indulgent pity at being "overworked" or "underappreciated" is unseemly at best and debilitating at worst.

When physicians allow personal problems to interfere with professional responsibilities, the patients are the ones who pay. While outrageous medical incompetence may make the headlines, smaller acts of forgetfulness or neglect often go unnoticed until it is too late, and the physician responsible often goes unpunished by either the hospital or professional boards of conduct.

Nobody said the life of a physician was an easy one, and those unwilling or unable to make the necessary sacrifice for the privilege of practicing medicine have no business taking on the responsibility for another's health.

Thank You!! I had the privilege of being a patient to a second year resident! She was the most caring, wonderful doctor I have ever had. I know that she worked long shifts sometimes 2 ina row to cover for someone else. I felt comfortable that she would make me feel at ease (placenta previa in first pregnancy) to really being supportive after a miscarriage in a later pregnancy. I saw her notes after the miscarriage on my chart and I could tell by her scribbles that she too was upset. I was so touched that she really cared! You sound like the same type of doctor and it would be a pleasure to have you as a doctor!! (unfortuately, she left the state following graduation)

Thank you.

I have a 5 year old and hope that here docters have more compation and understanding. If not I would find a nother docter that understands fear and that they are not above us pations. With out us they would not have the pay that was yoused to tell them to get over them selfs. To the med. students keep uo the good.

If my I or my child had you for a docter I would find a more compatioinate docter. How mutch money a docter makes is not importent it is how many people they help. So to all you future docters keep up the good work and remeber that you will one day save or inprove lives.

Dear doctor:

I truly do feel your pain. You'll be fine, I'm sure. Try to catch some zzzzz's whenever you have a spare 15 minutes. If I may offer you a tip on a subject that is probably most doctor's least favorite part of the job-dictation. As I'm sure you are aware, everything that goes into a patient's chart is a legal document. Please, please, please, when you dictate, enunciate your words, don't speed talk, eat, burp into the phone, talk to people in the area, and please find a quiet place to dictate. You must remember the person on the other end of that phone line has to interpret everything you say and errors can and do affect patients treatments. Some have died from getting an incorrect medication or dosage because the MT could not understand what the doc was saying (the MT should most defnitely place a blank if not 100% sure). If you can't pronounce a word you certainly cannot expect the MT to spell it, so please spell it for her/him. Not that it is your problem, but since you brought up the pay aspect, a medical transcriptionist does not get paid by the hour. We get paid by the amount of lines we type, so I beg you to not make our jobs even more difficult. You'll also get a lot less blanks on your reports if you take the time to speak properly. I hope you'll share this with all the other residents you know. Proper dictation will help to make you a better doctor, too. Good luck and God bless you and all the other future docs out there!!!

WTF brought that on?

I didn't find any self pity in that post.

Does seem as though someone shoved a hot poker up your ass though!

Thomas Paine, oh please...

Let's see..., "As an overworked second-year resident...I feel undervalued, underpaid, and looked on with undue suspicion [italics mine]..."

If those subjective self-assessments and feelings don't indicate self-pity, then either Kelton520 is a far subtler ironist than his post would seem to indicate, or your definition of self-pity differs radically from both dictionary and common usage.

Regardless, the metaphorical poker up my ass comes from a concern for the professional competence of persons entrusted with the health care of others. Perhaps, however, that concern was misplaced, as the responses on this board seem to indicate that people would prefer warm, fuzzy feelings rather than having capable physicians who can function with a clear head unclouded by self-indulgent feelings of victimhood.