AtALoss

There is a massive shortage in physicians in the United States. Look at the wait times, the office visit appointment times and how poorly Americans are doing health-wise despite claiming that we have the best healthcare system in the world (we don’t). The better question is: Why aren’t more students in the US seeing a career in medicine and wanting to become a doctor? Here’s my 2 cents: First off how many are smart enough to get into medical school? Not many. Out of them that qualify, how many of them wants to go to school for 14 years AFTER high school. Even fewer. You essentially have to give up all your 20s and most of 30s before you can ‘start’ your career. Meanwhile all of your friends that didn’t choose medicine are 6-10 years into their career and already established. Retirement accounts have a nice lump sum growing, family started, first home purchased and minimal/paid off school debt. On the other hand, medical students will be in $300-500k in debt that they haven’t even begun to pay it down in their mid-30s. Enjoy paying $2-4k a month for then next 10-15 years ‘just’ for education. That’s not for your mortgage, your car, insurance, etc Finally when you graduate from residency and/or fellowship, you get the privilege to be told to see 25-50 patients a day. 5-15 minutes per patient. Enough today hi and then quickly diagnose their issue likely missing plenty of things because the clock is ticking. Don’t forget about the 5-10 minutes per patient that you have to spend on notes. Once you finish your plan and recommendations for the patient, you get to ‘fight’ with the patient’s insurance company to cover said recommendations. Fun. The good news? You get to do it all over again tomorrow! You do this for 50-70 hours a week, barely seeing your family, having the time for exercise and enjoying the fruits of your labor. By the age of 45, still tens of thousands in debt, exhausted and barely being able to stay up to date on all the advancements in medicine you’re burned out. The medical education system is broken and I don’t know if there’s an easy fix. Maybe it’s AI. Hope you enjoy talking to an emotionless computer or robot. In the meantime, appreciate the doctors while they’re still here and willing to help. Before long there won’t be many of us left.

Holy shit North Texas you have a MASSIVE Visa problem. It has only been 4 years, the place is unrecognizable.

1367 US medical students did not get a US residency spot. 6733 international, non-US medical students got a US residency spot.

They avoid using Roundup because of glyphosate and instead share their homemade weed-killing formula.