How many medical schools have you attended that you can make such an authoritative sounding statement? None of the medical schools I have known nor the one which I attended told us to refer to each other as "doctor" during the second year. Most of us were pretty damned shy of ever referring to *ourselves* as doctor at any time during medical school, even during clinicals during which most of my patients would call me "doctor." I have always addressed my colleagues by either first or last name and continue to do so today.
The "boot camp" reference is true to a sorts, in that part of the point of medical school is merely the building of knowledge but also the instillation of common values that western medicine holds dearly, so that they are continued in future generations of physicians--things like treating your colleagues with respect, preserving patient confidentiality, primum non nocere, etc.
The title is an honorary of sorts, much like "sir" or "mister," but one largely peculiar to our profession. It's one borne of tradition, and one that I think patients prefer. Maybe you don't like it, but I honestly feel that most patients don't want to be examined, to be poked and prodded, to reveal all sorts of personal secrets to by somebody they refer to as "Bob" or "Jacky." Maybe I'm wrong, but such has been my experience.
Damn, that's a troll if I've ever heard one. Being and M.D. is more than just memorization, though the first two years of training are largely memorization. Clinical thinking is not just memorization any more than programming is merely memorizing a few algorithms and syntax. As for the comment about no original work, each new patient is a completely new ballgame, a completely new and original job for me. True, the practice of medicine is not pure science, but it's not held out to be such. It's science applied, much like engineering. 90% of M.D.'s intolerably arrogant swine? Given the same logic, I could use your post as proof that 90%/. posters are intolerably arrogant swine. Just as in any field, medicine has it's share of jerks, but most of the people are normal decent folks. One could just as easily get the opinion that/.'ers (and technies) in general are arrogant swine by reading some of the posts on here, and it would be just as biased an opinion as yours seems to be. As for being less interesting and less use than carpentry, I would beg to differ. I find it fascinating, and I think you'd find it pretty damned useful if you suddenly started having severe chest pain today.
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How many medical schools have you attended that you can make such an authoritative sounding statement? None of the medical schools I have known nor the one which I attended told us to refer to each other as "doctor" during the second year. Most of us were pretty damned shy of ever referring to *ourselves* as doctor at any time during medical school, even during clinicals during which most of my patients would call me "doctor." I have always addressed my colleagues by either first or last name and continue to do so today.
The "boot camp" reference is true to a sorts, in that part of the point of medical school is merely the building of knowledge but also the instillation of common values that western medicine holds dearly, so that they are continued in future generations of physicians--things like treating your colleagues with respect, preserving patient confidentiality, primum non nocere, etc.
The title is an honorary of sorts, much like "sir" or "mister," but one largely peculiar to our profession. It's one borne of tradition, and one that I think patients prefer. Maybe you don't like it, but I honestly feel that most patients don't want to be examined, to be poked and prodded, to reveal all sorts of personal secrets to by somebody they refer to as "Bob" or "Jacky." Maybe I'm wrong, but such has been my experience.
-=greg=-
Damn, that's a troll if I've ever heard one. Being and M.D. is more than just memorization, though the first two years of training are largely memorization. Clinical thinking is not just memorization any more than programming is merely memorizing a few algorithms and syntax. As for the comment about no original work, each new patient is a completely new ballgame, a completely new and original job for me. True, the practice of medicine is not pure science, but it's not held out to be such. It's science applied, much like engineering. 90% of M.D.'s intolerably arrogant swine? Given the same logic, I could use your post as proof that 90% /. posters are intolerably arrogant swine. Just as in any field, medicine has it's share of jerks, but most of the people are normal decent folks. One could just as easily get the opinion that /.'ers (and technies) in general are arrogant swine by reading some of the posts on here, and it would be just as biased an opinion as yours seems to be. As for being less interesting and less use than carpentry, I would beg to differ. I find it fascinating, and I think you'd find it pretty damned useful if you suddenly started having severe chest pain today.