It’s awesome being a doctor because you get to try your best to help people all day, get held up by patients talking about 6 different issues they didn’t even book their appointment for, held up by admin demanding you finish your notes between patients, held up by arguing on the phone with insurance that won’t authorize clearly necessary treatments, held up by nursing staff (understandably) needing your input on things between patients, and then read people bitching online like you were just spending that time drinking coffee and flirting with the nurses when you have a caffeineh eadache because you haven’t even had enough time to stop and drink coffee at all AND admin is bitching at you because you aren’t seeing enough patients every day.
Unfortunately the doctors usually aren't the ones managing the schedule. The admin / secretaries are.
And good ones, that understand that a new patient with no file, that doesn't speak the language, that has a history of complications with her previous pregnancies, etc is not gonna be a normal half hour consultation are extremely rare.
Even kind ones that see that you are swamped day in day out just seem to assume that these are teething difficulties, adapting to the position, etc (even after almost two years).
And so that's how my wife ends up doing a ten hour workday. Nonstop. With no break for lunch because hey, too bad, she finished the morning shift two hours late and now her first afternoon appointment has been waiting for half an hour...
But of course if you tell patients there is no time for them because the few doctors that are here are already overworked...
(to be clear, I've been saying the same thing as you to my wife for two years now. But apparently the message is not getting across)
Idk if my boss gives me a schedule with unreasonable timelines and deliverables, I tell him, and we talk about it, and we get it fixed. If it keeps happening, I've found new work.
Maybe the medical industry has systematic issues that can't be resolved, but everyone should have some autonomy
The problem is that doctors and more broadly care workers have a hard time walking away from their job because, you know, they care for people that they would leave in a worse situation if they left.
It's not an industry, it's a public service (I'm in France). Also they're saving lives.
If she walks away, that's one fewer ob/gyn in a region where they have almost none left in the private sector (the last one in town retired this year). Women and children will quite literally die and she knows it.
On the other hand that means she's more valuable and surely she should negotiate her salary from a position of strength, right?
But the set of people who become doctors and who negotiate with "would be too bad if something happened to women and children" is, as far as I know, empty.
If any exist, I don't think they'd last the twenty odd years of studying and training before they start making bank. Much simpler and faster to become a gangster.
It’s awesome being a doctor because you get to try your best to help people all day, get held up by patients talking about 6 different issues they didn’t even book their appointment for, held up by admin demanding you finish your notes between patients, held up by arguing on the phone with insurance that won’t authorize clearly necessary treatments, held up by nursing staff (understandably) needing your input on things between patients, and then read people bitching online like you were just spending that time drinking coffee and flirting with the nurses when you have a caffeineh eadache because you haven’t even had enough time to stop and drink coffee at all AND admin is bitching at you because you aren’t seeing enough patients every day.
A doctor tha expects those things to happen should schedule based on that knowledge.
If the admin has unrealistic expectations, then those expectations need to be addressed.
Unfortunately the doctors usually aren't the ones managing the schedule. The admin / secretaries are.
And good ones, that understand that a new patient with no file, that doesn't speak the language, that has a history of complications with her previous pregnancies, etc is not gonna be a normal half hour consultation are extremely rare.
Even kind ones that see that you are swamped day in day out just seem to assume that these are teething difficulties, adapting to the position, etc (even after almost two years).
And so that's how my wife ends up doing a ten hour workday. Nonstop. With no break for lunch because hey, too bad, she finished the morning shift two hours late and now her first afternoon appointment has been waiting for half an hour...
But of course if you tell patients there is no time for them because the few doctors that are here are already overworked...
(to be clear, I've been saying the same thing as you to my wife for two years now. But apparently the message is not getting across)
Idk if my boss gives me a schedule with unreasonable timelines and deliverables, I tell him, and we talk about it, and we get it fixed. If it keeps happening, I've found new work.
Maybe the medical industry has systematic issues that can't be resolved, but everyone should have some autonomy
The problem is that doctors and more broadly care workers have a hard time walking away from their job because, you know, they care for people that they would leave in a worse situation if they left.
It's not an industry, it's a public service (I'm in France). Also they're saving lives.
If she walks away, that's one fewer ob/gyn in a region where they have almost none left in the private sector (the last one in town retired this year). Women and children will quite literally die and she knows it.
On the other hand that means she's more valuable and surely she should negotiate her salary from a position of strength, right?
But the set of people who become doctors and who negotiate with "would be too bad if something happened to women and children" is, as far as I know, empty.
If any exist, I don't think they'd last the twenty odd years of studying and training before they start making bank. Much simpler and faster to become a gangster.