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This salary ranking might be of interest to Soylentils contemplating careers in medicine:
Not all doctors take home the same amount of money. Orthopedists — doctors who treat bone and muscle problems — make the most on average. Pediatricians, or those who take care of children, earn the least. And white doctors take home significantly more than their equally qualified peers of color, regardless of specialty.
This data comes from the WebMD-owned medical resource Medscape, which crunches the numbers on self-reported annual income from more than 19,200 doctors across 27 specialties for its annual Physician Compensation Report.
Friends in residency programs have often aspired to Radiology as a high-pay, low-risk specialty, but YMMV.
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Here's How Much Money Doctors Actually Make
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What we see depends on mainly what we look for.
-- John Lubbock
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @12:17PM (1 child)
He would have been buried in windowless rooms all day long. That's a risk to his mental health that he couldn't take.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @12:19PM
The solution is VR. With VR you can be anywhere! During your lunch break.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @12:27PM (28 children)
If all these doctors aren't "getting rich" then who is playing Scrooge McDuck and rolling in the thousands of dollars I pay per year in co-pays, deductibles, out-of-pocket expenses, uncovered procedures & prescriptions, etc?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Friday April 07 2017, @12:41PM (10 children)
Everyone in the system is getting a cut.
The HR drone who helps you select a plan.
The receptionist who books the appointments.
The insurance specialist who sees how much your coverage will cover.
The medical biller who bills you and your insurance.
The negotiators who set the rates the insurance company will pay.
The nurse that checks your basic vitals and weight.
The doctor who you talk to for a few minutes.
The software developers who write the platform that tracks what happens and where your prescription goes.
The pharmacist who gets paid big bucks to count pills and put them in bottles.
The pharmacy technician who rings you up.
The scientists who create the new medicine.
The human trial coordinators and data crunchers.
The FDA to verify and approve medicine.
The Patent Office who gives a monopoly on even minor formulation changes.
The AMA that limits medical school enrollment to keep supply low, ensuring doctors' wages remain high.
The local planning boards and state insurance boards that limit where new hospitals and emergency rooms can be opened.
And that doesn't count the insurance companies themselves, the politicians, or the attorneys.
When was the last time you saw a list of prices anywhere in this system?
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MrGuy on Friday April 07 2017, @02:49PM (7 children)
You can follow the supply chain of any industry and see all the people who are involved, and all of whom make money off process. The fact that's it a long list of people does not imply that the industry is corrupt, nor does it imply the industry is inefficient.
I recall years ago seeing an apportionment of where the money you pay for a McDonald's hamburger goes. Very little is the price of the raw ingredients themselves. You're paying for the cashier, the cook, the landlord who owns the building, the various utilities companies who provide services to the building, the driver who delivers the ingredients, the gasoline in the trucks that move things about, the rancher who owns the ranch that supplies the beef, his veterinary staff, the FDA inspector who makes sure we don't all die from e.coli, the people who sell him the feed, etc., etc., etc.
The economy is an incredibly complex thing, and there are many, many people involved (and many, many people who get paid) from every piece of it. In that sense, health care is no different from any other complex product or service delivery.
You can argue that some portions of this pipeline are inefficient, or cost more than they should. But just counting the number of people who "get paid" and assuming that the volume of that list inherently implies inefficiency or graft is to ignore how modern supply chains work.
(Score: 3, Touché) by GungnirSniper on Friday April 07 2017, @02:56PM (6 children)
Yet McDonald's has a list of prices posted, does promotions to bring people in, and doesn't charge me three times the price if I don't have Platinum Hamburger Insurance.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 07 2017, @03:49PM (5 children)
Your McDonald's visit does not require the time of a highly trained professional with a lot of education debt. Someone who must review your record before coming to the exam room. Who must quickly asses and diagnose your problem. Quickly decide what action to take. Try to quickly decide if any of the drugs being heavily pushed by the pharmacy's drug pushers are appropriate treatment. Try to explain to patient why magical unicorn drugs they saw on TV are inappropriate, ineffective for this problem, without offending the patient into getting a 3rd, 4th, 5h opinion. Then time for documenting what just happened without using offensive language. Hope they don't get sued. Move on to the next scheduled patent and hope they are keeping up with the appointment schedule for today.
While I begin to think the way the US pays for health care with health insurance is not working as it should, the issue of high costs is a separate issue than how those costs are paid.
That said, platinum hamburger insurance sounds good as long as the co-pay isn't too high.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Saturday April 08 2017, @12:33AM (3 children)
European doctors do all of that, typically with few if any assistants, only charge 20 to 40 bucks for the privilege ... and life expectancy is higher.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday April 10 2017, @02:08PM (2 children)
Do they see fewer patients?
Regardless of the answer, it is interesting that there might be doctors who do not feel it is beneath them, that they are too good, to do paperwork or check patient's vitals and other menial tasks.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday April 10 2017, @03:50PM (1 child)
I can't say how many patients they see, 3 to 5 an hour would be my guess in most cases, depending on speciality and case complexity.
For the ones I saw, the paperwork is typically limited to one single sheet (or its computer equivalent), essentially unchanged for 30 years. The doctor can do it while talking to you, because it's always the same.
The bigger groups (kids' orthodontist has 4 doctors) may have an assistant or two, but not the >8-for-4 that my Chicago paediatricians had.
Individual practises often have one person taking appointments for many far-apart doctors.
Throw in free med school, and medecine-is-not-perfect liability laws (i.e. insurance), and you don't end up spending 17% of GDP on health care...
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday April 10 2017, @05:01PM
Wow, what an idea!
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @03:56PM
Who must quickly asses and diagnose your problem
I prefer to be assed by amateurs.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Friday April 07 2017, @03:44PM (1 child)
"And that doesn't count the insurance companies themselves, the politicians, or the attorneys."
I think that is actually where most of the money we spend on health care goes.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @06:43PM
You forgot marketing. Pharmaceutical Companies Spent 19 Times More On Self-Promotion Than Basic Research: Report [huffingtonpost.com]
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @12:55PM (6 children)
First and foremost, the government requires emergency rooms to treat anybody who seeks help; traditionally, poor people don't buy health insurance (even now), and instead have just shown up at the emergency room, where they must be treated. The hospitals have eaten this cost, and pass it on to you, dear productive comrade—you are paying for these knuckleheads who spend their days getting their faces smashed during street fights over disputed "females" or new sneakers, and the like.
Worse, poor people head to the emergency room whenever they've got a cold, wasting gobs of highly expensive emergency resources.
Furthermore, poor facilities for people with mental illness means that a lot of hypochondriacs and schizophrenics, etc., show up at the ER daily, and hospitals must (by law) treat them.
That is where your money is going; the health care industry is highly socialized; unlike outwardly "socialist" countries, though, you're not just paying one giant lump-sum in taxes (you know, that "fee" for "civilization", as socialists like to call it); by having a [slightly] more direct association with the costs of health care, you are able to see that this one particular aspect of the socialized society is grossly expensive—especially when that system is neither truly capitalist nor socialist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @01:48PM
Ignore reality at your own peril.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @01:52PM (3 children)
> Obamacare has forced people to buy insurance plans that cover not only sick people, but also all kinds of new benefits (such as birth control). You are being forced to pay for poor baristas who just like a good weekly fuck with a stranger from the night club.
But this should reduce system costs! Pregnancy (and/or terminating it) is a lot more expensive that birth control.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @02:02PM
Nobody is arguing that it would be cheaper to let fools get pregnant.
The point is that this is where your money is going: Poor fools.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 07 2017, @04:01PM (1 child)
I don't like paying to prevent poor people from getting pregnant.
I like even less having to pay to terminate poor people's unwanted pregnancy.
I like even less to pay to feed and care for their children because the poor parents either can't or won't take adequate care of them.
Given the choice, I would greatly prefer paying for birth control for people who cannot afford it. I think the small cost is a gigantic savings to society. Letting poor people breed like rabbits results in more, um, poorly educated voters.
Another thought: if there weren't so many people in poverty, there might not be a drug problem. Example: I only occasionally use narcotic pain killers without getting addicted because I'm not poor and have a great life. Even on days when I make a decision to take the drugs. If people weren't so poor, they might have other better distractions than breeding like rabbits, and they could afford their own birth control. The key takeaway is that poverty is a large cause of problems in our society. If we could find the political will to fix that I bet we would fix a lot of other problems without realizing.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @08:46PM
I don't believe that poverty is a large cause of problems in our society; rather, I believe the problems in our society are what cause poverty.
That's why welfare programs do not work, even in countries where the vast majority of people approve of such problems.
To borrow a line, "It's not the poverty, stupid."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @04:10PM
what kind of bitchy little rat modded you a troll? is there not a disagree mod? i'm sure there is. this bitch just wants to rat. i hope someone in your daily life beats you to death for being the little weasel you are.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday April 07 2017, @01:40PM (4 children)
Doctors are getting rich. They're pulling down $200k to $300k per year.
Doctors would be even richer, but most don't bother with little things like listing prices, frugality, penny pinching, accounting, and budgeting. Why should they? They have money to burn. Frugality is for poor people. One of the top non-answers I get when I ask how much some medical service or product costs is "don't worry about it, insurance will cover it."
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @01:45PM
That's why there are "in-network" and "out-of-network" doctors. That's why a flu shot costs $112 without insurance, but $12 with insurance (paid entirely by the insurance company); insurance doesn't pay the exorbitant costs that you think it does.
Through governmental meddling, the insurance system has become a specialized payment and welfare network for the health care industry.
(Score: 3, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday April 07 2017, @08:34PM (2 children)
Yeah. You really don't have a clue what you're talking about. It's that simple.
So. Why you're being told things like that:
A) When you walk into the office for a first visit, there are five levels of classification for how much the charge for your services will be. Five. And while there are general principles, there are NOT any absolute "hard and fast" rules as to what requires something to be coded at Level 2, say, versus Level 3. There are guidelines - number of pertinent body systems reviewed, overall length spent in face time with the patient, whether a major decision (like "I'm going to cut you") is made.
That's five different dollar amounts, ranging from $100 to about $350. Would you like to be told seeing us will cost you $350 every time? Of course not, especially when it ain't true.
B) Once the physician settles on a course of treatment for you, if it involves your return, testing, or a procedure.... Where it goes from there depends on what is found when. Let's say you're getting a surgery, as it is the simplest case to say: The physician has an idea of what procedure he's doing, but has lots of options to consider during the procedure. It may be possible that you have five or six possible codes that would be billed out on you. Maybe one will be billed. Maybe six different ones. The point is: Rarely does your physician know in its entirety the sum total of things he'll have to do before he's completed the last stitch and dictated the note. And he sure as hell doesn't keep fifty different reimbursement schedules for each of those procedures in his head.
C) Medical coding. It's huge. It's vast. Many doctors have some clue, some have things like "superbills" with services listed. But no physician can know ALL the possible procedure codes and diagnosis codes. It is why there are highly trained specialists called Coders, who interpret what the physician has done and translate it to the codes that will actually be billed.
D) Doctors do NOT have money to burn. The insurance companies see to it that they're paid the absolute minimum, collectively, that they can possibly have and not say Screw You to a group of patients. There is CONSTANT, and unending, pressure to find new ways to do more in the office with less people. And that doesn't even begin to cover the enormous expense that is Electronic Medical Records. Hint: EMR companies typically take a good 25-33% of that salary per year in maintenance and support costs, let alone costs for the system proper.
We'd love to have someone hired to meet with you personally, spend fifteen minutes with you, and outline all the possible costs and reimbursements with you. We can't afford that.
E) Finally, insurance itself. It does NO good to you to be told, "Yeah, I'm going to charge you $500 for that," if you're not also told, "But you'll only have to pay $200 of that, period." It ain't the Doctors who came up with ten thousand insurance plans with different reimbursement rates... And, by the way, the amounts that the insurance companies pay out are not public because the INSURANCE COMPANIES demand that their reimbursement schedules are confidential information which cannot be shared with the public.
It's also complex because if we tell you, "The charge is $500 but you should pay about $100 of that," and you're then billed $101.50, you will scream and complain about how we told you it would be $100 and therefore you don't owe a penny more than that. We can't AFFORD to tell you what you'll end up paying. And that doesn't cover the times when you have a special snowflake of a provider panel and while we're "in network" with the insurance company *you* are not covered for seeing *our* provider. These stories happen ALL the time.
Your insurance company should know what you'll have to pay. They know YOUR contract, they know OUR contract. They know EVERY penny we've ever billed that insurance and what they pay out in analogous situations. But THEY won't tell you either, will they....
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday April 07 2017, @10:31PM
On the contrary, you don't need to be an expert to see that there is a lot of gouging, recklessness, and outright dishonesty in medical billing in the US. "You don't know what you're talking about" is exactly the kind of useless criticism I'd expect from medical people who know very well that their billing practices will not withstand scrutiny. I have personally experienced and witnessed enough of medical billing to know it's full of unethical practices.
It's all too common for hospital emergency rooms to charge not a mere 10% above cost, or even just 2x cost, but over 100x. $307 is what this one place charged me for a 1L bag of saline solution, which Medicare says is worth less than $2. I received 3 bags, and where it got really weird was the insurance rate was wildly different for each bag, being $151, $64, and $27 respectively. Over and over I asked the hospital and the health insurer to explain the billing, convinced it had to be a mistake, and they could not. They had all kinds of justifications and reasons that were incorrect, and moreover, were unacceptable. There was of course the usual one that they have to charge more to make up for all those deadbeats who don't pay their medical bills. Yeah, right, pretty much every business has to deal with losses from theft and spoilage, yet they don't jack the prices up over 100x to compensate. One rep thought the different prices had to do with the day of the week, and that care was more expensive on the weekend. No, wrong. The $151 bag was on a Thursday, and the $64 bag was on a Saturday. Another rep thought it reflected the cost of drugs that were added to the saline solution. Wrong again. All drugs are separate line items. Yet another rep asserted that the prices on the line items in the bill were meaningless and that the real prices are set in a secret contract between the insurer and the hospital, and that neither he nor I would be allowed to see this contract. Wrong again. Two other reps couldn't understand the difference either, had no explanation, and tried to set the price of all 3 bags to $27 each, only to have the computer system reject the changes.
Now, with such laughably incompetent understanding of the bill, by those whose job it is to understand it, why shouldn't anyone suspect the situation is ripe for waste and fraud, and in fact is deliberately overcomplicated to better hide fraud and discourage inquiry? I persisted and finally learned what I think is the correct reason. The price of everything depends on the level of care the emergency assigns patients, which ranges from 1, minor, to 5, need help immediately to avoid death. The 3 different prices for the 3 bags are the level 4, level 3, and level 1 prices respectively. There's an additional wrinkle. For level 4 and 5, the hospital is not supposed to charge separately for a bag of saline. That is included in the facility fee as it is understood that at that level of severity, saline will be needed. In any case, I see no good reason for such a complicated system. Maybe that one rep who said the prices were meaningless was right, for the wrong reasons.
I spoke with one of the hospital's higher ups in their billing department, and he lied. He played stupid, pretended he didn't know what a Chargemaster is. He gave me the usual bull about the hospital being forced to charge high prices to compensate for losses elsewhere. He was one of the most dishonest persons I have ever spoken with.
That's hardly all. There was another occasion in which my mother had a broken ankle. She was getting around fine with a walker, but the hospital pressured her to take a wheelchair anyway. In fact, the doctors discouraged the use of the wheelchair, as exercising her leg muscles was vital to a swifter recovery. They thrust a form at her that said she would pay for the wheelchair if health insurance refused to do so. I told them, over and over, that a friend had a wheelchair that we could borrow if needed, and I was ignored at first, then treated to a standard scare tactic. Said they couldn't guarantee her treatment if we didn't get their wheelchair. Well, Mom is a total sucker for that one, and I knew I was beaten. I asked what the wheelchair cost, and no one could tell me, supposedly no one knew. Got the old "don't worry, it's covered" line.
US medicine gouges the public, and most people know it. Daraprim. EpiPen. Big Pharma trying to scare people away from Canadian pharmacies, and even persuading our government to confiscate prescription drugs at the border.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @12:11AM
While I appreciate the time you took to explain the doctor's side of the system (or maybe you are part of the doctor or hospital office staff), this really annoyed me:
> highly trained specialists called Coders, who interpret what the physician has done and translate it to the codes that will actually be billed.
They may be highly trained, but nearly every hospital bill I've seen has wrong codes on it (specifically when looking at my aging parents' bills). When we've had the energy to follow up we can sometimes get these removed. But more often we get the pat line, "Don't worry, that code is taken care of by your insurance." Which means more cost for everyone--but we only can chase this fraud so far personally.
I've been lucky, haven't been an inpatient since 1984 when I had a minor motorcycle accident and was transported to the local ER. Eventually I was seen by a sharp young intern who was OK (although later I found out my X-rays had not been read correctly--common with recent injuries). When I got the bill it was from the surgeon that he was interning for. I asked for the report and they produced a signed statement from the surgeon who described a conversation with me -- which was completely fabricated. Total BS from that doctor's office. I think I sent them a check made out in the name of the intern...
(Score: 4, Informative) by isostatic on Friday April 07 2017, @03:33PM (4 children)
Cost of healthcare per year per head OECD 2015 figures.
USA: $9451
Germany: $5267
Canada: $4608
France: $4407
Japan: $4150
UK: $4003
Italy: $3272
WHO 2014 figures
USA: $9403
Germany: $5182
Canada: $4641
France: $4508
Japan: $3727
UK: $3377
Italy: $3239
The USA spends 17% of its GDP on health care. Everyone else spends between 10% and 12%.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Friday April 07 2017, @05:46PM
Rev up those GMOs and that HFCS! There's a country that is clearly undernourished!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @06:46PM (1 child)
Capitalist medicine! USA USA USA
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @08:52PM
In fact, those aspects of health care that resemble a free market are super cheap and safe: LASIK surgery is the prime example.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @12:22PM
How much do the non-US spend on lawyers and malpractice insurance, compared to the US jackpot lottery (don't win often but when you do its huge) civil system?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @01:48PM (12 children)
My wife works as a Physician Assistant. Doctors are doing just fine. I only skimmed the article, so maybe I missed it but... Every doctor that I encounter has about 3 months of vacation time and "works" less than 40 hours a week. My wife just shakes her head when the radiologist takes 5 minutes to read an image, reads it wrong, misses important stuff, then bills $750 to do it. Medicine is rotten to the core.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @01:59PM (9 children)
[American] Doctors are some of the hardest working people on the planet; it's in their culture, which probably hails from the military of yore.
When doctors are training, they have traditionally been put on brutal 24-hour shifts, though new rules limited that. Just recently, it was reported [soylentnews.org] that this limitation would be lifted, allowing first-year doctors to work up to 28 hours straight.
When doctors are practicing, they not only face the constant threat of lawsuits for malpractice, but must also fulfill CME (continuing medical education) requirements. That is on top of essentially running a business (or paying someone to run that business).
Being a doctor is not simple stuff.
Let me tell you, these doctors look down upon nurses and physician "assistants", who generally come from low-quality backgrounds with little education beyond their vocational training, and who display a startling degree of the Dunning–Kruger effect [soylentnews.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @02:34PM
You have just reconfirmed my belief that most doctors are autocratic assholes.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday April 07 2017, @06:17PM
I've seen that show too, it's okay. Too dramatic for me though.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @08:45PM (2 children)
Always put https:// in your hyperlink; if you don't, your link will likely turn into useless junk.
Always put https://domain.com in your hyperlink; if you don't, your link will likely turn into useless junk.
Additionally, stuff like utm_term= is almost always junk.
In some cases, it is tracking data.
If the URL works without that junk, strip it off before posting the link.
When you get to the Preview page (required for ACs anyway), hover over the link and see if it's what you intended.
Dunning-Kruger effect [wikipedia.org]
First-year doctors will be allowed to work 24-hour shifts starting in July [2017] [washingtonpost.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @08:54PM (1 child)
This system is junk. It's awful for discussion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @12:16AM
Sez you. I can't look a Reddit pages for more than a few minutes before I get annoyed. My nice calm VT100 green on black here is wonderful. Different strokes for different folks--and it's time you learned some tolerance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @08:55PM (3 children)
Let me tell you, these doctors look down upon nurses and physician "assistants", who generally come from low-quality backgrounds with little education beyond their vocational training, and who display a startling degree of the Dunning–Kruger effect.
You care to cite any sources for that diarrhea that you just spewed. I know, I know, doctors are the only delicate geniuses that understand medicine.
Registered Nurse is a 4-year program
Physician Assistant is a Masters Program + rotations
Nurse Practitioner is a Masters Program + rotations
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @09:09PM (2 children)
4 years of bachelors degree with medical requirements.
+ 4 years of medical school.
+ 5–7 years of residency
maybe +1 year special focus.
Bish, please.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @09:36PM
Never let reality get in the way of a doctor's ego.
1.) All the programs are bachelors with medical requirements.
2.) Alright, medical school is two years longer than a Masters program. Got me there!
3.) Residency is the where the practitioner has their decisions reviewed by a supervising doctor. This is what a PA does for their career. You seem to think that only a doctor will continue to learn from this arrangement.
3.1) I think you're over inflating typical state residency requirements.
Whatever, I don't argue with fools. Onlookers might not be able to tell the difference.
(Score: 2) by EQ on Saturday April 08 2017, @01:20PM
who generally come from low-quality backgrounds with little education beyond their vocational training
Thats bullshit and you know it. It may have been that way back in the "diploma" days, but not now. RN anymore requires a bachelors, including clinical training. in addition to getting accepted at the college, you need to complete prerequisites in science/math (biology, chemistry, statistics) as well as the academic core. The you have to meet the prerequisites including microbiology, anatomy and physiology, pharmacology, pathophysiology, and developmental psychology. After that you have to pass the NET or TEAS or other pre-nursing exam. Then after all that, entrance is very competitive due to a shortage of instructors.
Ask anyone that's been through the BSN programs - they are held to be one of the more stressful/difficult degree programs out there. Then there are the infamous RN exams - It’s no longer good enough to just be correct; your answers need to be the "most correct", and are often "select all that apply". So you not only need to know the right answers, you need to know all other answers and how to apply them, and most importantly, you have to know the rationale for as answer to determine if it is the most applicable (most correct). This is because a lot of medical interventions and courses of treatment are situational. Example:
The nurse obtains a diet history from a pregnant 16-year-old girl. The girl tells the nurse that her typical daily diet includes cereal and milk for breakfast, pizza and soda for lunch, and a cheeseburger, milk shake, fries, and salad for dinner. Which of the following is the MOST accurate nursing diagnosis based on this data?
1. Altered nutrition: more than body requirements related to high-fat intake
2. Knowledge deficit: nutrition in pregnancy
3. Altered nutrition: less than body requirements related to increased nutritional demands of pregnancy
4. Risk for injury: fetal malnutrition related to poor maternal diet
Did you get that one?
Plus you have to pass state/national board exams (NCLEX), background checks, drug tests and even financial checks after you get your degree in order to qualify to get your state RN license. Add to that, many hospitals are going to an internship/residency type programs for new nurses, until they have enough experience to be trusted in clinical judgement in their specialty area, especially surgery, critical care, psych, and pediatrics. Any more, a Masters is becoming the standard for senior RN positions at top facilities, and some specialty Nurse Practitioner fields are becoming PhD for certification, such as the Certified RN Anesthetist where a Doctorate (DNP) is becoming the "gold standard" along with with board certification.
Add to that you have to recertify your license every 2 years, and must take educational course to fill the required CNE (Continuing Nursing Education) rules as determined by the ANA and ste state Board Of Nursing.
Hardly "low quality backgrounds".
(Score: 2) by chewbacon on Friday April 07 2017, @09:12PM
Let me widen your scope here. I work closely with cardiologists that can work 60+ hours a week. These are mostly the interventional types. They get about 5-6 weeks vacation a year which they get in quarterly increments and if they don't use it, they lose it. They do make some nice coin for all their hard work.
(Score: 2) by mmcmonster on Friday April 07 2017, @10:36PM
I'm sorry you've dealt with those physicians.
Most physicians I know (and as a physician, I know a lot of them) take 4-6 weeks of vacation time a year. The ones that take more than that are in "lifestyle practices" which encourage low patient volumes and lots of vacation time. The physicians in these practices are either nearing retirement (or effectively in a "soft" retirement, working just 3-4 hours a day or 2-3 days a week) or can't handle the stress of a real job.
With the changes in medical education over the past decade or so, more physicians are choosing lifestyle practices, by the way. They pay is not nearly as good, but it's steady work and quite low stress compared to a regular job as a physician in a medical office or hospital.
As for radiologists, I wouldn't worry too much about them. They'll be extinct within a decade. First of all, it's easy to outsource diagnostic radiology services to just about anywhere in the country. The only reason it has to stay in the country has to do with medicare reimbursement laws. Second of all, it's just a matter of time before the entire field of diagnostic radiology can be done by IBM's Watson.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @01:50PM (4 children)
I read tfa but didn't see anywhere if the reported earnings numbers were before or after expenses, that is, gross earnings or net earnings. With the 900# gorilla likely being malpractice insurance. Anyone?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @02:47PM (2 children)
Agree. Malpractice insurance is the reason healthcare is fucked up. If the entire medical profession got rid of the malpractice suits and trolling malpractice attorneys costs would go down. Secondarily the drug makers are the next biggest problem with price gouging. Thirdly is the insurance industry charging as much as they can for profit reasons only.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by GungnirSniper on Friday April 07 2017, @02:59PM
1990s talk radio would like their talking points back.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @06:03PM
Two different takes on malpractice insurance -- WSJ 2009 (this version is less paywalled than the source),
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/epstein-how-other-countries-judge-malpractice [uchicago.edu]
And 2010 from doctors side,
http://epmonthly.com/blog/malpractice-systems-in-other-countries/ [epmonthly.com]
Very big differences in approach around the world. Some US states already have limits in place, others are free-for-all for the ambulance chasers.
I'd still like to know if the doctor survey is before or after expenses like this.
(Score: 2) by chewbacon on Friday April 07 2017, @09:15PM
I'd say that's net earnings after expenses. Some hospitals require them to pay their own malpractice insurance (which is a great idea) and pay their own midlevels (who don't work for cheap).
(Score: 1) by Weasley on Saturday April 08 2017, @05:17AM (1 child)
I'd rather know how much hospitals and drug manufactures are making vs their expenses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @08:02PM
They're making a killing.