Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Why there aren't enough doctors

One thing that never seems to come up amidst all the celebrating female advances in education is the massive waste of educational resources that far too many of those female degrees now represent:
Female doctors put NHS under 'tremendous burden' because they get married, have children and want to work part-time. Health minister Anna Soubry warns of 'unintended consequences'. Tory MP Anne McIntosh: NHS is forced to train two part-time GPs. Up to 70 per cent of medical students are female, MPs are told.
The main reason there are no longer enough medical doctors across the West is the fact that female doctors work far fewer hours, on average, than the male doctors they have replaced.  Due to the strong female preference for part-time work, at least three doctors are now required to cover the patient base that two could before, even if one assumes that female doctors are more or less equivalent to male doctors.  So, if 70 percent of British medical students are now female, that means that a more serious shortfall of doctors is all but guaranteed.

And keep in mind that this sort of wasted education isn't even accounting for the degrees that are worthless on their face, which women also pursue in greater numbers than men.  Now, advanced female degrees do serve an important role in associative mating, but there has to be a better and more efficient way to ensure that intelligent male doctors meet and marry intelligent young women than forcing those young women to go through all the time, effort, and expense of medical school.

There is nothing wrong with female doctors. But in a society with too few doctors, one would think at least some thought should be given to focusing educational resources on those medical students who are expected to pursue a full-time career in medicine rather than a part-time one.

You can talk about the importance of sexual equality all you like, but I suspect your ideology is going to ring pretty hollow when you're dying on a cart in the emergency room, with no doctor available to see you because seven of the ten doctors working there are on flex-time.  It doesn't matter how capable a doctor is if she's just not there.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

What if you look at it the other way? Continue to promote more women into the medical field. What if 90% of medical students are female? Women are the nurturers and that's pretty much what you need to be a doctor. That and intelligence. Perhaps making medicine primarily female will allow them to focus their feminist imperative to pain points, such as reducing the cost of malpractice insurance. Drop a couple of million dollar lawsuits on them and they'll scream at the gov't to put a limit on lawsuit awards. That will reduce premiums and reduce the cost of healthcare. Maybe they'll shame the shit out of fat people to further lower healthcare.

Let men do research instead and blaze new trails in medicine while women practice what's already been established.

FeminizedWesternMale said...

Take it from this male doctor - we end up covering them in all of those "cracks" that just show up unexpectedly - which means seeing their patients on top of ours. Patients lose the time they would've had with their doctor, her patients get seen by doctors they don't know (minimizing the benefit of continuity), and ultimately, male docs burn out earlier. Ideology means we are told to just "suck it up," all of us!
Last female "partner" we hired, was pregnant when we interviewed her (imagine the PC harpies if we had inquired about that nugget) and went out on leave within the first six months for six(!) months - it takes >3 years to build a practice - so she ended up getting paid one year (salaries are front-loaded, then docs go to production), worked six months, and had ZERO patient base going into year two. She left after that second year, I we had to assume all of her patients (like before), and she set up shop across town - promptly repeating the whole process.
Nice gig to be a female doc.

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VryeDenker said...

This is from the same country that allows muslim nurses to enter the OR without washing their hands.

Unknown said...

"Women are the nurturers and that's pretty much what you need to be a doctor."

Being a doctor is not about "nurturing" in the slightest. It's about fixing what is wrong with you. Nurturing is what is done to babies.

The Observer said...

"Let men do research instead and blaze new trails in medicine while women practice what's already been established."

I think you missed Vox's point completely. Even if we discount Bob's addendum, it's that the women aren't even putting in the hours - they aren't even "practicing what's already been established".

NateM said...

Agreed, Bob. I'm my experience docs may come around once in a shift, see if the course is working, adjust accordingly and move on in under 5. To be fair their patient load demands it in a hospital setting.

WendyRaf said...

Couldn't those women have become PA's instead? Saved some time and effort or is it the title they really, really want?

Anonymous said...

There is one big thing wrong with this analysis.

You're implying if there were fewer female doctors, there would be more male doctors.

But if that is true, then the real problem is a bottleneck in medical school. If there is a shortage of doctors, then the supply of doctors needs to increase: medical schools need to increase the number of students they admit.

Of course, this is assuming that there are even more people who would be interested in becoming doctors, but can't because of limited space in medical schools. While that's probably true, in order to be effective, we need to steer talented people who apparently end up going into other fields into medicine, and not lower demands on quality.

Stickwick Stapers said...

Couldn't those women have become PA's instead? Saved some time and effort or is it the title they really, really want?

PhD here, not an MD, but this sort of thing happens in my field, as well. I have yet to meet one of these part-time women who didn't initially think she wanted the full-time career -- myself included. A female PTer will start off with big, hard-charging career plans in her first year of grad school. Then she'll get part-way through her doctorate and realize she'd rather have a family and not spend the 60+ hours a week she's already putting into grad school working outside the home. Most of these gals finish the degree, because they're already most of the way through when the realization hits. At that point, they often have a strategy in mind for making use of the degree, but not putting in the kind of hours a man would. The same thing probably happens with female PTers in med school.

Anonymous said...

... even if one assumes that female doctors are more or less equivalent to male doctors.

But how could they be? If any skilled professional practices his/her profession half as much, how would anyone expect equivalent results?

Silent Chim said...

I have been trying to find a way to contact Vox directly and would like to discuss a personal experience related to this subject. Any ideas on how people contact him?

Anonymous said...

His email address is clearly posted on his other site, Voxday.blogspot.com

--Hale

Natalie said...

Also, consider the feminist parents of these female doctors. My sister learned very quickly to nix any doctor talk around my mom (she'd had thoughts of going into pediatric oncology) because our mom would latch onto that and try to make my sister feel that being "only" a nurse was a waste of her time and talents. Today my sister is engaged to be married and gets super excited about all the babies she gets to see because she didn't let our mom (a homeschooling SAHM of all people!) shame her into doing something more "advanced."

Tommy and Mommy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
subject by design said...



This exposes one of the issues I have with fellow home educating parents. I noticed it over at Vox on the home school thread the other day. Parents home educate in order for their children to obtain a superior and often accelerated academic experience, and then send them off to college, including their daughters. Today's parents and their offspring are short sighted. They don't plan for long term success, only short term/mid term success and status by plotting a course for their daughters that includes obtaining advanced degrees.
June 11, 2013 at 12:36 PM

Natalie said...

To be fair, our mom is rather crazy. I think she was looking for some sort of fulfillment that kids didn't bring (because kids really don't just let you stay in your comfy bubble and avoid everything that hurts you) and ended up glamorizing her own previous career in hindsight. My sister (by the grace of God) values family and has said that her kids can go to trade school for all she cares so long as they're good at what they do and work hard.

The CronoLink said...

Clearly this was designed by the all-knowing/powerful/deceiving Patriarchy so that one day when women took their rightful place they would fall into the trap but the solution is to keep going forward!

mmaier2112 said...

They don't plan for long term success, only short term/mid term success and status by plotting a course for their daughters that includes obtaining advanced degrees.

I believe in a court of law, this is referred to as "assuming facts not in evidence".

Rotten said...

It's not as bad as what Vox says, but half of all women doctors no longer work full time within 10 years of graduating.

Affirmative action for women who want to enter Med School is an all time stupid policy.

Another factor is that the AMA has lobbied to keep residencies artificially low, which serves to inflate doctor pay, but doesn't do anything for patients.

subject by design said...

"I believe in a court of law, this is referred to as "assuming facts not in evidence". "

I am not assuming anything, I'm talking about people I actually know or those who admit they send their daughters to college and gloat over their academic achievements. What facts am I assuming?

redlegben said...

I have had several discussions with the feminist types that scream for more womyn in medical/STEM fields. The vast majority are utilitarian at heart as well. When you point out the easily demonstrable fact that womyn spend less time practicing medicine after their degree is complete compared to men, they get silent. It is an easily recognizable misallocation of resources. The only reasonable defense of the typical feminist at that point is to force the womyn to work more, which I have heard from several of them. The solution always lies with more regulations and less liberty. Womyn hate liberty, they love fascism.

Anonymous said...

jaymans said...

There is one big thing wrong with this analysis.

You're implying if there were fewer female doctors, there would be more male doctors.

But if that is true, then the real problem is a bottleneck in medical school. If there is a shortage of doctors, then the supply of doctors needs to increase: medical schools need to increase the number of students they admit.


I'd say that this actually proves the point. These days, colleges are encouraged to get more females in the doors, and I am quite sure that they are willing to be lax in their requirements or shelve any number of men in the name of 'diversity' or fairness. We see it in every field.

Nate said...

I suppose I'm supposed to snowflake here... considering I'm married to a female doctor.

Truth is... she deliberately went out and found a "full time" job... meaning she provides full time coverage... but really only ends up working about 30 hours a week.

Did it deliberate.

Family first.

Always.

Nate said...

Also...

Its not about colleges recruiting more female doctors.

Its the fact that the system is setup to favor females all the way through. Thus at the highest levels... and there aren't many higher levels than medical school... its going to be highly female.

mmaier2112 said...

"What facts am I assuming?"

It appeared to me from reading your words that:

1)you are assuming that the particular folks you know are representative of the whole.

2) you know their minds well enough to assume they are actually BEING short-sighted instead of making informed decisions. Just because they brag on their kids kicking butt in college doesn't mean anyone involved is short-sighted. It might be simple parental pride in their kids doing well.

I would guess that many home-schooled kids do not actually go to college and if they do, they do not do so "normally". Being "out of the Matrix" is nice, but there are still real-world hoops we have to jump through just to get by.

Finally: college age is adult age. Were I a parent, I would dearly hope my kid was prepared to make adult decisions at 18 and that they were ready to bear the consequences of their actions. So if they wanted to go to college, that's their choice. I'll do my best to make sure their eyes are open but it's got to be THEIR life at some point.

Anonymous said...

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Deborah Alessi

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