re: Most overpaid professions

quote:

---

what to give a damn patient with a viral URI that's gone on for 6 days.

---

Well you can spend 15 minutes explaining to them it's a virus that has to run it's course and have a patient complain and frick up your Press Ganey scores or just give them a Z-pack and move on.

quote:

---

I'm doing some rural primary care right now. Holy shite, they don't teach people how to do this in school. I am significantly more comfortable picking antibiotics, fluids, other drugs, vent settings, etc on an AIDS patient with a chest infiltrate on x Ray who gets admitted to the ICU after being intubated than what to give a damn patient with a viral URI that's gone on for 6 days.

---

We get to do that plus all the inpt stuff we mentioned. Out of necessity, a good rural doc has to be a pretty damn good cardiologist, pulmonologist, neurologist, dermatologist, internest, pediatrician etc. When you don't have any sig specialist within 2 hours, you either have to know your shite or let people die. I've c-sectioned twins, managed multiple vent pt's in the ICU, put in a chest tube, and rounded on multiple ICU and floor pts all before heading to clinic. Don't have the energy for that shite anymore though.

H/R "professionals"

don't know what they make but they are overpaid if it is anything over $15/hr

quote:

---

H/R "professionals"

don't know what they make but they are overpaid if it is anything over $15/hr

---

yeah.. try doubling that half of em make more than the people they bore to death with orientation packets.

quote:

---

STEMI walks through those ER doors? Chopper + prayer?

---

We have a cardiac team now. Until about 7 years ago, it was thrombolytic's, oyxygen, nitro etc. Transfer if stable. Only 2 helicopters in state available for adults to us until a few years ago. Not to mention trauma and no surgeon available. Got two options, let'em die or do your best. Although I quit ob, endoscopy and inpt a few years ago, I used to do ALL my hospital care with minimal specialist back up (and often times even critical pt's couldn't be transferred due to lack of accepting facilities), obstetrics, colonoscopies and EGD's-in acute and outpt setting, ER, all my vent management since we had no pulmonologists, had to read emergent CT's(head to toe, pediatric and adult-gotta know that anatomy) in days before they could be read online by out of town radiologist, Xray, central lines, PICC lines, etc. We had general surgery and occasional ortho that would come out. Ophthm/ENT/maxillofacial surgery/GI would not come out during or after hours except under rare circumstances to avoid losing hospital priviledges. So, those of us that gave a shite were forced to learn and do things that you would not see primary care doing anywhere else. Of course the specialist would get pissed when we started cutting into their easy outpt business, but like I told them,"If I'm good enough to do it at 2am on a Saturday night on an uninsured alcoholic with numerous comorbid conditions, I'm good enough to do it during regular office hours on a private insured uncomplicated pt". And we had to do our own intubations and anesthesia in emergent situations due to no available staff after hours. The list goes on and on. And yes, there were a few times I had to look it up (before more stuff was available online and we didn't have internet access in ER or wifi->10 yrs ago fyi. ) and wing it. Younger doc's can't imagine the shite we had to do just a few years ago in rural areas. I'm only 41 btw.

So to the haters, I earn my keep. And most docs do. You don't just pay for what we do. You pay for what we can do in emergent situations when you really need it. Don't agree? Follow one of us around awhile. Now there are some lazy, shitbag doctors out there just as in any field. But the majority earn what they make. Like I said earlier, the reimbursement in medicine is fricking retarded. I can make astronomically more in an hour or two of doing botox and facial fillers than I can working a full day of clinic seeing only highly complicated privately insured patients. I know doc's making $100k/yr that are grossly overpaid and I know doc's making >$1million that are grossly underpaid. All in all, the best, most caring docs make the least because of how the system works. Some are good businessmen and do well, but generally the best ones are too busy "taking care of business" to worry about actual business.

quote:

---

the Urgent Care prick that gives out Z-Pack like Halloween candy makes $180k is ridiculous.

---

They wish.

quote:

---

Most overpaid professions

---

quote:

---

Waiters

---

Does not compute. I wonder how many waiter have resumes?

Plant operators especially at my job. Them mother frickers know exactly how much OT they have to work to maximize their earnings before Uncle Sam screws them.

Its actors by a mile. Athletes and musicians have some talent that they've honed for years, but the great majority of actors offer nothing but good looks. There are obviously some exceptions to this.

quote:

---

Athletes--there is no dispute.

---

Disagree. Simply because they are the best in the world at what they do and based on the amount of money they generate

quote:

---

considering their pay isn't linked to performance, and sports fans are going to pay regardless of who's wearing the uniform, I'd tend to say so

---

Disagree