About junior year into medical school I also realized I didn’t like anything. Oh, if you asked me what specialties I didn’t want to do I’d have spit out my answers like pediatrics and Ob/Gyn in a millisecond. Had you asked me what I was interested in though, I probably would have just given you a blank stare.

Anyways, last year I tried to escape my plight by applying for EM but I didn’t match. So after sitting out a year I find out I’m now set to begin medicine come July. But you want to know the problem? I hated my medicine core and sub-internship. I expect things to be exponentially worse in residency. I often thought about quitting during 4th year of medical school but I’m one of the 50% you mentioned in one of your other posts. I’m too old and owe too much money.

I guess it’s time for me to get the Paxil and Zoloft ready. I hope lots of undecided pre-meds see your site before they take the plunge because it really is very difficult to turn the ship around.

Michelle Obama makes more than most PCPs affiliated with the hospital.

I hear a lot of complaining yet there seems to be much more organization, complaints, and demonstrations about the fact that gay marriages were defeated in several states than I have heard about the poor compensation of PCPs vs. the high compensation of specialists. In Israel doctors have gone on strike. Perhaps it is time for PCPs to go on strike so that their compensation is more equitable than it is. If PCPs went on strike nationwide until they were promised a higher percentage of the physician compensation “pie” then maybe we’ll have a better health care system.

"Being taken for grant hurts most of all . . . I just did not expect to be treated so poorly by the people I am trying so hard to care for."

It's a lesson I learned young and the hard way. But here's the thing: In order to change anything, doctors are going to have to stop being afraid of speaking their minds/sharing their experiences, and start signing their names.

Anon, 6:31, all the talk about "fee for service" would be amusing if it were not so misguided. With entire generations feeling "entitled" to medical care for their children that they cannot afford anyway, your concept (of making parents bear the cost of care) would not work for Pediatricians – many of who rely on Medicaid patients for a large portion of their income.

And Medicaid as a safety net isn't going anywhere. So there's really no way to make the dent that would change behavior.

As things stand, we Peds may not be "a dime a dozen", but our services are clearly not be worth much in the public's eyes (no matter how much the politicians pontificate & pander about children being our future).

Over the last year, I've watched Pediatrics colleagues lose their practices and their homes. It's just wrong. And no one is doing anything to stop this rape/de-valuing of the profession.

Meanwhile, the businessmen of medicine (who have treated many of us so badly) continue to skim off the top and laugh all the way to the bank.

I personally don't think that part is going to get ANY better with a former hospital administrator in the White House.

My office staff and I work very hard all week long trying to take care of people. Being taken for grant hurts most of all. I knew I was not going to make alot of money in family practice, I also knew I was going to put up with bureaucracy, be it from medicare or HMO’s.

I just did not expect to be treated so poorly by the people I am trying so hard to care for.

Signed, a disillusioned family practitioner