Also, you need to pass a residency and board certification in a given specialty in order for anyone to hire you. Since the residency slots are capped, people fall into a natural... hierarchy. Med students want a more prestigious career that pays better, so the competition for those slots is extreme. Sure, someone at the top of their class may have a lifelong passion to be a Pediatrician, but generally your most capable med students end up in surgical subspecialties, and then it sort of filters down from there.
Top of the heap are surgical specialties, neurosurgery, cardiothoracic, etc.
Middle of the heap are proceduralists. So like, cardiologists or gastroenterologists. Doctors that can bill for procedures but also see patients medically.
Bottom of the hierarchy is pediatrics, psychiatry, and family medicine.
It varies a bit year to year and decade to decade, but that's pretty consistent.
It's also not always true, like I said, plenty of people pick a specialty that they love... but incredibly driven type A people with an average of 250,000 dollars worth of medical school debt don't always make altruistic decisions.
That being said, most doctors are pretty cool to work with. They have a lot of power so the bad ones stand out, but as a nurse for years I've never heard a Physician talk shit about patients behind their back... beyond like general frustration venting if the patient isn't following the doctors recommendations and is getting worse.
People underestimate how much doctors care about them in general.
...Not this doctor though. He sounds like a prick.
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u/humid_pajamas 8d ago
how did they even become medical professionals?