redharbor23 said:Medical interns earn between $4,200 and $1533, depending on their location. Once licensed—meaning they are practicing physicians, not yet specialists (keep in mind general practice itself requires a five-year specialization)—salaries hover around $5,000 to $2000, though emergency medicine pays more due to on-call shifts and irregular hours.
A specialist, following six years of medical school, one year of internship, and five years of residency, earns $3000, which increases significantly if they work hospital shifts.
Go ahead and try to compare those salaries to the training required for janitorial staff. This isn't about disparaging anyone; it's a matter of fact. You don't need even a high school diploma to clean, whereas a physician's education spans over twenty years.
I was just thinking about why people treat doctors like deities, and I decided to look into it and write something up regarding the way doctors are treated, the constant excuses made for them, and so on.
Of course, we should probably start a separate thread dedicated solely to medical errors; then all the aggrieved patients can line up. That would be fair.
I have something else to address. Regarding how they treat patients and the intrusion into privacy—regardless of the established boundaries between doctor and patient during care, procedures, or exams—it hasn't exactly reached an enviable standard here in America.
People are forced to strip down and trust any random staff member. They have zero protection from the "hundred eyes" and the constant commentary, especially in OBGYN. For some, the experience during a hospital stay can lead to lasting psychosis or depression, depending on the individual.
Doctor arrogance isn't just about mistakes (everyone slips up); it's about how they carry themselves toward their supposed "end consumer," which is the patient. Their behavior is often appalling. They don't say, "Please prepare for the exam." Instead, a gynecologist at a local clinic might just bark, "Get naked." I've heard of interns crowding a pregnant woman, shoving past her while she was exposed and panicking. There are rude comments directed at elderly women who are perfectly fine, just because some uneducated person finished med school. Or they leave a patient wandering in a hallway, unsure how to even find their ward. During rounds, they mock you openly and laugh at things that aren't funny.
In our hospitals, a patient constantly feels like they've wandered into a concentration camp where only Mengele stands between them and recovery.
That is why people recoil. And yet, in the absence of rational thought, some people still insist on treating them like gods.
Most of them are just ordinary people who fell in love with a calling that doesn't pay well. Everything else is just nonsense we make up. Personally, I would never marry a doctor. You won't end up with a husband, a lover, or a provider; you'll just end up with someone who stays overnight occasionally and tries to compensate for every neglected responsibility with money. That is not a solution.
And don't even get me started on the nurses and the staff on shift with them. If you are a spouse, you are better off staying away from the ward entirely. But I will save that for another time. It might turn out they are great lovers, or they aren't. That's all there is to it. Some of this knowledge comes from firsthand experience during internships in certain facilities, and some comes directly from being a patient.
