
When This War Is Over, Many of Us Will Leave Medicine - TakakiTohno
https://elemental.medium.com/when-this-war-is-over-many-of-us-will-leave-medicine-86a274b5a627
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PeterStuer
The system is failing. Hard.

It has been for decades. Society was robbed for profits while sly politicians
from all sides and parties got voted in because they always found someone else
to blame while serving their corporate masters.

Now science, already under attack where not co-opted when it stood in the way
of more profits, sold it's soul by keeping quiet while bogus about PPE and
'social distancing' got and is peddled to the public.

Will something rise from the ashes? For now our 'rulers' seem hell bent on
doubling and tripling down on the same course that got us here in the first
place.

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tinus_hn
I have never understood why people in healthcare accept 12 hour or longer
shifts in normal times. Now it’s coming back to haunt them. If normally they
would have worked 8 hour shifts there would be more workers and now, in an
emergency, there would be room to expand.

~~~
tdeck
Every time I talk to someone familiar with medical residency here in the US I
hear something knew that shocks me. For those not familiar, residency is
basically a multi-year apprenticeship after medical school that you need to do
in order to complete your medical training. The federal government pays
institutions about $140k (iirc) to train residents, in return the residents
get around $60k and do a ton of the day-to-day doctoring work in a hospital. A
few years ago a law was passed that they could "only" work 80 hours a week,
but I've heard from multiple people that everyone works more than that and
just lies on their time sheet. In order to get a residency you have to fly
around to 20-40 different institutions at your own expense and interview,
during which you will be asked illegal questions about your relationship
status, plans to have children, etc... that your medical school has prepared
you for in advance. My sense is that the whole thing is a series of hazing
rituals that aspiring doctors feel like they've got to endure, but there's
also a huge guilt component to it. Hospitals and other institutions don't have
enough residents to do the work that needs to be done at 80 hours per person,
and most people go into the field to help people, so they just make the
sacrifice over and over. I think it's exploitive and shitty and other
countries probably have a better system.

~~~
monkeydreams
I believe that medicine is one of the last guild systems, protected by law,
and encumbered by all the rites and burdens thereof. The young acolytes are
exploited by the old masters in return for an education which all claim cannot
be delivered through any other mechanism (and actively preventing all attempts
to try). The young must constantly prove themselves worthy of medicine, and
the promise of future earnings and social standing (along with all the
benefits of mastery within the system), and a guild master can lay any number
of traps in the path of a prospective but unpopular aspirant in order to trip
them up and toss them out.

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chrisbennet
I thought I'd read that medical errors happen more often when doctors switch
over than when (even very tired) doctors work longer.

