How Being a Doctor Became the Most Miserable Profession
thedailybeast.com
How Being a Doctor Became the Most Miserable Profession
1–10 of 147 posts
Re: How Being a Doctor Became the Most Miserable Profession
#2Suicide rates are about 17.7 per 100,000 for men and 4.5 per 100,000 for women, and 11.3 overall. There are about 535,000 male physicians in the U.S., and 234,000 female physicians, and 66,000 of unreported gender. So the expected number of suicides would be 113 rather than 300.
Re: How Being a Doctor Became the Most Miserable Profession
#3You'll find this is happening in many industries. Despite that it lowers productivity and increases costs.
The problem is that management is filled with perverse incentives. It looks good on the books to have fewer employees - until you realize you have highly trained specialists spending hours per week working on paperwork or rushing their actual job and increasing long-term costs.
Re: How Being a Doctor Became the Most Miserable Profession
#4Suicide rates are about 17.7 per 100,000 for men and 4.5 per 100,000 for women, and 11.3 overall. There are about 535,000 male physicians in the U.S., and 234,000 female physicians, and 66,000 of unreported gender. So the expected number of suicides would be 113 rather than 300.
[deleted]
Re: How Being a Doctor Became the Most Miserable Profession
#5Suicide rates are about 17.7 per 100,000 for men and 4.5 per 100,000 for women, and 11.3 overall. There are about 535,000 male physicians in the U.S., and 234,000 female physicians, and 66,000 of unreported gender. So the expected number of suicides would be 113 rather than 300.
I like you. Isn't suicide also extremely rare among adults with more than a bachelor's?
Re: How Being a Doctor Became the Most Miserable Profession
#6Suicide rates are about 17.7 per 100,000 for men and 4.5 per 100,000 for women, and 11.3 overall. There are about 535,000 male physicians in the U.S., and 234,000 female physicians, and 66,000 of unreported gender. So the expected number of suicides would be 113 rather than 300.
I don't have a citation handy, but it's my understanding that doctors attempt suicide at a rate less than the general population but when they do make a suicide attempt they are more likely to succeed.
Re: How Being a Doctor Became the Most Miserable Profession
#7The biggest problem is just the AMA. They limit the number of doctors in America, so there are just too few. This drives up the salaries for the few doctors who live the tell the tale (but certainly don't want to go into primary care, when other more lucrative jobs are on offer), and drives up the hours for everyone.
Making it easier to become a doctor would improve things immediately (especially given the recent research that makes it clear that nurse practitioners do just fine).
Re: How Being a Doctor Became the Most Miserable Profession
#8Friendly warning, the article quotes Malcolm Gladwell uncritically.
Re: How Being a Doctor Became the Most Miserable Profession
#9[deleted]
Re: How Being a Doctor Became the Most Miserable Profession
#10There's no evidence that the profession causes doctors to commit suicide. It's not a stretch to hypothesize that people accepted to medical schools are self selecting for perfectionism and bipolar disorders.