Perhaps doctors make just a bit too much money
 

Just heard from a neurologist that her Christmas bonus was $70,000. Even she thought that it was slightly excessive.

I keep hearing otherwise about how doctors are barely making anything now a days.

What caliber of neurologist you think receives a $5000 Christmas bonus?

I suppose doctors in the US make a bit less than they do over here, but according to Forbes, the medical field still offers the 9 best-paid jobs in the US, with CEOs holding the 10th position.

So I wouldn't exactly say that doctors are barely making anything.

I rather have a doctor treat me, who knows what they are doing and making a huge bonus in the process:thumbsup

yeah yeah you are mainstream yeah yeah you are a doctor who gives a fuck man ...? there must be a mainstream medical board out there?

$70k bonus for a neurologist is nothing, dude. I wouldn't be surprised if many of them get much more depending on what their base is. You have to take into consideration how important it is for their employers to retain them. Employers are so incredibly competitive to acquire and keep the most qualified employees, and hospitals in particular want to keep the reputation of being top medical facilities.

well, they study for ages plus it's a lot of responsibility...

Specialists aren't the only hospital employees, though. A large part of this money would be better spent investing in nurses and residents, who are underpaid but still bear a lot of responsibility.

If they got a 70k bonus I am sure they are worth every penny. What kind of a communist are you anyway?

They aren't the only employees, but they're arguably the most important. You don't go to specific hospitals because of the nursing staff, you go because of the specialists. Some patients fly across the US or the world to be seen by certain specialists.

You will never convince him that people with real skills should make more than the support staff. :2 cents:

wtf how is it excessive?

were you the guy when google started to make cash you probably said "pffff it's just another search engine i dont get it"

I just realized this wasn't so much a conversation about the value of doctors, but a discussion about western values and capitalism versus communism.

He's a communist.

That's an interesting misconception, actually.

By far the most important doctors are GPs - who happen to be underpaid. A good GP will generally save many, many more lives than a good specialist. ER doctors would probably come in in second place when talking about importance, and they are underpaid as well.

About 95% of all cases never make it to a specialist and get handled entirely by a GP. One of the most important jobs of the GP is to spot early on whether there is a reason to send someone on for testing or further treatment - and that's the job which saves most lives.

For example, whether you die from cancer or not is generally not determined by the skill of your oncologist, but by how early it is detected. Your GP is the one who has to weigh your symptoms against a hundred thousand different possible causes and come up with a list of the most likely suspects. And he has, on average, about 10 minutes to do that for each patient.

By the time you reach the specialist, much of the prognosis will already have been determined. The difference in outcome between a good and a great specialist (there aren't many bad specialists), at that point, usually isn't all that big anymore.

Now, when you look at preventable deaths in the hospital, nurses and residents actually do have a huge effect on that. Lots of people die simply because a change in status is spotted just a bit too late, or is misinterpreted. In many cases, a nurse or resident will have to be the one who has to spot the change, and a resident is typically the one who has to decide whether or not the change in status is reason to take further action (such as involving a specialist).

That's not to say that specialists don't do great work, because they definitely do. But compared to them, nurses, GPs and residents just don't get enough of the credit.

Registered Nurses make 70 grand a year....... what do you expect.