Sick of your career?

[Alan]

I'm always amazed at what olks have to put themselves through in the medical profession.

It doesn't seem to be detrimental to longevity according to this article last year Why Accountants Live Longer

Middle-class professionals such as doctors and accountants are outliving builders and cleaners by as much as eight years, according to official figures.

People from all social classes are living longer, data from the Office for National Statistics showed yesterday, but variations in the age at which people are dying indicate Government measures to reduce the gap between rich and poor have failed.


The study looked at people from five social classes in 1972-76 and 2002-05.

Skilled workers have had a greater increase in life expectancy at birth and at the age of 65 than those in manual occupations, the researchers found.

Men in professional occupations can expect to live to 80, almost eight years longer than those in unskilled jobs, whose life expectancy is 72.7.

Professional women have a life expectancy at birth of 85.1 years, compared with 78.1 for manual workers.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Sooo - the way to teach people to become physicians and healers - is to be stupid and make them do long hours and get them sick first

It's a bit better now than in the 70s, but only because there are rules and limit that are enforced, sort of. Still, a bad culture in that regard.

Back then, it was almost an initiation rite. Of course the nights and weekends are necessary to some extent, but the fatigue was crushing.

A dark secret no one talks about is that house officers provide almost free or "slave labor." Staffing hospitals with full-fledged attendings costs much, much more.

It's one of the reasons that the smartest kids are going into dermatology, radiology, and other fields with better lifestyles. Used to be the hard core specialties that were the most competitive: surgery, internal medicine, and pediatrics.

 

[Moemg]

I have to say I enjoyed my job until the last few months before I retired and then I was just burned out . I felt it was not fair to my co-workers , Doctors and patients to continue so I retired . I was ready mentally and financially to call it quits . I was 59.

 

[unclemick]

Hmmm - one of the guys at the doughnut shop - is an erst while trucker who 'retires' every summer depending on what the grandkids are up to.

Now they are so hooked up gps. electronically and otherwise they make it hard to sneak around the driving time limits - even if they wanted to drive the long hours of 'the good old days.'

heh heh heh -