Medical Students Avoid Internal Medicine As A Specialty

[Zeno Swijtink]

What is the solution? Giving nurse-practitioners more responsibilities? - Zeno

*****

Medical Students Avoid Internal Medicine As A Specialty (https://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Medical_Students_Avoid_Internal_Medicine_as_a_Career_Specialty_24016.html)
By Anna Boyd
16:30, September 10th 2008

Internal medicine appears to be the last option of medical students when it comes to choose medicine as a career specialty according to a survey published in the September 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The findings were first presented at the Society of General Internal Medicine’s annual meeting in April being accompanied by a research letter about the salaries of the nation’s doctors.

The survey made on 1,177 respondents at 11 US medical schools shockingly revealed that only 2 percent of them planned to pursue careers in general internal medicine. Back in 1990, a similar survey revealed that 9 percent of those interviewed would choose internal medicine.

“It’s getting increasingly difficult to find a (family medicine) doctor especially in rural areas. It’s a tenuous situation as students look to careers that are financially rewarding because they have a lot of debt and they’re looking away from primary care,” Dr. Mark H. Ebell, the study’s author and a primary care doctor at the University of Georgia, said.

For example, medical students owe a median of $140,000 in student loan when they graduate.

There are many reasons for which medical students look away from primary care, starting with the long hours they have to work and the low pay they get for what they work. Many medical students are simply turned off by the amount of paperwork general internists have to deal with, a situation that doesn’t offer them a chance to a personal life. Many students today seek careers that offer them the chance to balance their work life with their personal life. And the thought of dealing with elderly patients with complicated diseases is another thing these medical students consider when choosing internal medicine.
“Students were dissuaded from internal medicine by their experiences with elderly and chronically ill patients. Other studies have shown that students' attitudes about caring for elderly and chronically ill patients decline during training,” the researchers wrote.

The new survey estimates that the US will have 200,000 fewer doctors overall than it needs by 2020, while the number of older Americans is expected to nearly double between 2005 and 2030. This translates into a crisis, which could put the US medical system and people’s lives respectively in danger.

“The United States is confronting a potential crisis in health care for older adults. Unfortunately, students were discouraged by the challenge of caring for the types of patients in internal medicine,” Dr. Karen Hauer of the University of California, San Francisco, who was involved in the study, said.

The American College of Physicians has supported the same idea since 2006 when it reported that the nation’s primary care system is “at grave risk of collapse.

© 2007 - 2008 - eFluxMedia

[Hot Compost]

i think one of the most radical acts a person could do these days is to set up practice as a General Practitioner, and to do it the way it's done in Canada - $35 for an office visit.

i saw a doctor in Vancouver and he did everything - broken bones, pre-natal care, prescriptions for thyroid & painkillers.

in American health care, those activities are broken up, and the patient gets shuttled around like a hot potato. the clinic bills $120 for each short appointment. it's like a scam where the goal is to generate as many appointments as possible, without actually fixing any problems.

my experience is that medical care in Canada is 1/5 the cost & 1/10 the stress of American medical care.

i know a lifeguard who is planning a career in Naturo-pathy. i don't want to tell her what to do, but her goal is to "help people".

one of the most effective ways i can think of to help people in America is to offer them affordable medical care & one-stop shopping. kind of the way medical care was in the United States in the '60's.

i did the numbers for the doctor's practice in Canada and he was still grossing $200K+ a year, minus the office rent & one employee.

this is related to offshore manufacturing and the re-localization movements. in order to re-localize, manufacturers have to be able to afford real health care for their employees.

[Vet-To-Pet]

When you think about it, that's how we're taught to practice veterinary medicine in vet school---as general practitioners. But as each year passes, there's MORE & more information to learn in a limited number of years. One can't possibly learn everything there is to know about dogs, cats, pigs, horses, goats, cattle, birds, and so on---it's impossible. More & more veterinarians are having to decide what species they'll treat, as well as what specialty area they'll focus on---orthopedics? internal medicine? cardiology? behavior problems? radiology? surgery (non-elective)? Well, I don't know if the humans in Canada are 'made' any simpler than the ones in our country, but I don't know how one MD could possibly know ALL there is to know about EVERY medical problem possible in men, women, babies, the elderly, not to mention eyes, disabilities, unusual diseases, etc, etc, etc. One almost HAS to go into a certain specilized field in order to know what you're doing well enough to not make mistakes or overlook a problem. We all know that the attorneys will be on them like white on rice (whatever the hell that means...), waiting to sue them for malpractice, when it's actually more likely "Not able to know EVERYthing practice". It's a conundrum, for certain. This country needs better, affordable health care for everyone---but MDs have to pay WADS of money for malpractice insurance, so that increases their fees (veterinarians also carry liability insurance now----people want litigation if anything goes wrong, even if there was no way to foresee it or avoid it). I'm tired of thinking all day about sick animals, calling clients to check on their pets, trying to remain 'pleasant' when an irate client wants to know why we have to charge for the lab fees before the labwork is done (because WE have to pay the lab before the work is done). So, to bed...
Vet-To-Pet/Paula




i think one of the most radical acts a person could do these days is to set up practice as a General Practitioner, and to do it the way it's done in Canada - $35 for an office visit.

i saw a doctor in Vancouver and he did everything - broken bones, pre-natal care, prescriptions for thyroid & painkillers.

in American health care, those activities are broken up, and the patient gets shuttled around like a hot potato. the clinic bills $120 for each short appointment. it's like a scam where the goal is to generate as many appointments as possible, without actually fixing any problems.

my experience is that medical care in Canada is 1/5 the cost & 1/10 the stress of American medical care.

i know a lifeguard who is planning a career in Naturo-pathy. i don't want to tell her what to do, but her goal is to "help people".

one of the most effective ways i can think of to help people in America is to offer them affordable medical care & one-stop shopping. kind of the way medical care was in the United States in the '60's.

i did the numbers for the doctor's practice in Canada and he was still grossing $200K+ a year, minus the office rent & one employee.

this is related to offshore manufacturing and the re-localization movements. in order to re-localize, manufacturers have to be able to afford real health care for their employees.