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Most Doctors Work While Sick, Despite Knowing It's Bad For Patients
An anonymous reader writes: A new survey published in JAMA Pediatrics found that 95% of doctors believe patients are put at risk when doctors work while sick. Despite that, 83% of respondents said they had "come to work with symptoms like diarrhea, fever and respiratory complaints during the previous year." The researchers doing the survey dug into the reasons for this: first of all, given the heavy workload of most doctors, it's very difficult to find others who can take up the slack when one is recovering from an illness. Beyond that, the profession is pervaded by a culture of working through the discomfort and pain of minor maladies. According to a commentary on the research, hospital policies don't help matters — they often incentivize long hours and don't encourage ill workers to leave the premises.
While it is true that there are doctors working while they themselves are not feeling well, you guys gotta understand that doctors have to face sick people ALL THE TIME, which means they have higher chance of getting infected with diseases, which means they have to spend more times feeling unwell
It is always so easy to criticize someone of doing something but why is it there is no mention of what makes that someone do that something in the first place?
They might. The current system does not necessarily give them incentive to _do_ what's best though. Still, modern medicine beats whatever is in second place by a long long way.
Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
Doctors are paid per service, they take the time off they don't get paid.
If they have a small practice then it is their whole staff that won't work that day so it is also 2 - 4 more people missing work. And those don't get paid nearly as well as the Doctor so they will really hurt.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I've worked as a physician with an IV in my arm during a bout of diarrhea and vomiting I caught from a patient (despite thorough hand washing). I've worked with pneumonia I caught from a patient. Its not always the physician passing the disease to the patient. In my experience it has been more likely for the physician to get what our patients have.
Whereupon you'll transmit it to another patient. Selection bias much?
I submit Parent as Poster Child for the problem.
I would rather work harder and longer hours today than have to take off a day myself (and possibly come in a day or two when I am recovering myself).
I know of NO ONE in my office that doesn't think people should stay home when we are sick.
Of course, it helps that I work for a law firm that is more concerned with obeying the law than most work places.
I think this is one aspect of poor management., Management sets the tone - do they complain etc. when you call in sick? If they don't, then people take off when they are sick.
It is truly a shame that hospital management is so penny-wise/pound foolish as not to insist on generous sick time.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
There's your problem right there. If you're sick, you're sick. You already feel bad, so beating yourself up for staying home is just giving in to this ridiculous work ethic. And that work ethic? It's nothing but crude mind control. We're told that we're supposed to have a special "ethic" that means if you're not suffering, you're not earning your pay. And if your job requires you to get a doctor's excuse to take a day off work, you need to give notice tomorrow and find another job.
The corporatists have done a number on your head. Resist it.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Pilots don't want to use checklists either, but they put up with it because the checklists are written by other pilots and not HR folk, administrators or medical students given a task because everyone else is too busy.
It is slowly happening in some areas (trauma medicine) because it's being done well and being rejected in others because it is not.
This is the work ethic that is pounded into residents and interns.
You MUST work, regardless of sleep deprivation, personal trauma, or contagious illness.
(That is why I became an engineer, rather than a doctor like my father and my grandfather.)
They study for long hours without adequate sleep so they can learn to teach their patients how to live healthy lives. Then they get abused in the residency programs and work for less than minimum wage for 80 -100 hours per week. Then they finally finish and start to practice and have to work long hours without bathroom breaks, food breaks, or just letting off steam. They're getting screwed by insurance companies and hospital administrators at every turn. I'm amazed anyone still wants to go to med school in this country.
From a pure, selfless ethics point of view, the question is: Will humanity be better off if I go into work today or not?
Some things that may be going through doctors' heads when they decide whether to call in sick or not:
If I am sick and go in, then there's an increased chance of:
* me infecting others, and all that that implies
* me making a mistake that is worse than not being there at all
* Others perceiving me as not knowing/not following "the rules," which may impact my future career, which may negatively impact the future of the patients you would have had but won't have.
If I am sick and stay home, there's an increased chance of:
* A patient of a co-worker getting inferior care because my co-worker was covering for you
* A patient of a co-worker getting inferior care because my co-worker was tired because he covered for me in an earlier shift
* Others perceiving me as "not pulling my weight" and "wimping out," which may impact my future career, which may negatively impact the future of the patients I would have had but won't have
Similar thought patterns probably apply to most people in most careers.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
You don't always get to make that choice and sometimes it's either surgery from some poor overworked bastard to keep you alive or not living through the misfortune. Some surgeons don't always get to have nice and neat schedules. Occasionally fate intervenes and there are a lot of people in need of help due to disaster or other terrible cause.
Fine. And, since chances are good that that surgeon will be the only one available in many parts of the world, you will die for lack of a life saving procedure.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
I haven't had much experience with Doctors fortunately, but the last few visits made me feel like they were the equivalent of 1st level helpdesk. Issues were either googled, or simply told to take some antibiotics and come back if it gets worse (ie the reboot). When you look at how much a modern economy spends on healthcare, I think there is room for a different health model which is a lot cheaper and more efficient.