Tuesday, December 27, 2005

"So You Want to be a Doctor"

A rant from the 1970's:
We of the AMA are concerned over the current wild proliferation of doctors in America today. There are simply more than enough physicians to serve our society efficiently already, yet increasing numbers of students think they want to plan for a career in medicine...

A doctor cares for, maintains, and treats the human body. They cure diseases that have names they can barely pronounce. They tell people that they are going to die of cancer. They spend all of their time either in their too-small, suffocating office–where the brats scream at the sight of a tongue depressor–or, worse, in a hospital—where the halls are full of the dying and the dead, and everybody and his brother is throwing up. On you, yes, doctor, on you and your nice white slacks...
Someone has a bit of an anger problem, don't you agree? Mind you, this was years before anyone had heard of "managed care." The part about training is giving me some flashbacks:
Begin with four years in college: you must take biology courses (where you will most certainly dissect frogs, pigs, and Christ knows what else) and chemistry courses (where you will inhale things unknown in hell itself). Then if you are accepted, you will go to medical school. For four years. I say “if you are accepted’’ because you will not be accepted. Nobody is accepted, and those who experience rejection undergo permanent damage to their self-esteem...
Today, Dr. Sepsis would have a blog, I think. An angry blog.

2 Comments:

Blogger Joel said...

You know, both of the doctors I had have problems with were educated in the 1970s.

Do you think there's a corellation? (Yes, Joel. We'll generalize from exactly two bits of data....)

12:36 AM  
Blogger Medicoglia, RN said...

Giggling about "Dr. Sepsis"...goes right along with the orthodontist in my town who's name is Dr. Payne.

Sera

9:08 AM  

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