The wussification of today’s medical students has repercussions:
Dr. Reed said the specialty is simply less appealing to today’s medical graduates. “It’s long hours and a difficult job,” he said.He said it was becoming more difficult precisely because of the inroads made by interventional cardiologists and other specialties. The cases they treat are what would have been the simpler surgeries. The surgical caseload now tends to be more complicated and carry the most risk, he said.
Medical graduates are aware of that, and “they don’t want that stress,” Dr. Reed said.
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Let’s take this one step at a time. Who needs bypasses? The elderly. Who pays for the elderly? Increasingly, Medicare. Why would you want to join a program knowing that you’re locked in to a patient population that will pay less and less for more work? That, and the field is being poached by other MDs, meaning that you may no longer be needed for any but the msot marginal cases.
Throw in an 8 year residency, and appeal drops fairly quickly. Most want to be out and earning sooner than that. The thought of, “I’ll be HOW old when this finishes?” flashes through all med students minds.
Lifestyle? Not so much. It’s a surgeon lifestyle in any case. You’ll work like a dog, and go through a wife or two. Generally accepted as a cost of career choice.
Wussification? Sorry, I see it as a rational response to market forces. If you’re not going to get compensated for those 8 years, it’s pretty clear you have an incentive to look elsewhere. Why kill yourself for a specialty that’s going to use you, abuse you, and strand you with skills deteriorating in value?
Wussification? For desiring some sort of sanity and work-life balance? For wanting to actually see my kids grow up? I would say YOUR generation of physicians were the wusses for not having the gumption to stand up to insane working hours and tyrannical attendings.
I’m not sacrificing my family and sanity to the altar of medicine just because “thats the way its always been done”
I would call it smartification.
I am also of the “old guard.”
That said, as the quality of life, respect, and income for surgeons drop, it’s harder to make more of them (CT or other kinds).
Add in our ridiculous insurance system, hospital politics and uncertainty about the future and it gets even harder.
Students do what they see. Who met a happy CT surgery fellow in med school? I guess about 92 people last year - that’s how many applied for CT surgery fellowship.
Never saw one single solitary happy CT fellow. Not one.
CT anesthesia was not much better.
Despite quite high pay, it is clear it’s not worth it.
There was a time when I was a lot closer to OR’s and CT surgery. No longer.
My time was before so much angioplasty and such. We were starting to see the open procedures getting tougher and tougher. More multivessel disease and stuff the medical guys wouldn’t touch.
As tough as the life was for those guys back in the day, it must be a whole lot worse now.
There are a variety of differences between the doctors of today and the doctors of tomorrow, stemming, I think, from the way medical students are chosen during the admissions process. I expanded on this a bit on my blog.
I think the “wussification” argument stems from the old-school way of thought. It’s a typical response exemplifying a display of power and ego seen with many of the old-school surgeon types.
It’s not about being a wuss, it’s about making smart decisions that positively impact your life financially. Training costs time, and time is money. Additionally, the opportunity costs of practicing a high-demand specialty such as CT surgery are massive. Today’s medical students realize this, and it’s about time.
I’d be willing to bet that more of these CT surgeons (or any surgeon for that matter) wish they would’ve stepped up earlier and called medicine’s bluff. That would make them a wuss though, right?
They should probably tell that to their dermatology colleagues. Oh wait, they can’t — the derm guys are too busy out on the golf course.