Re:The darker side of being a doctor
by smallmancontrov on Saturday April 13, 2024 @11:55PM
(#40028516)
Yep, and it'll get worse before it gets better. The boomer wave will (continue to) hit faster than we can grow the system. The best time to fix it was a decade ago when everyone saw it coming, but the second best time is now.
“…doctor roles (e.g. anesthesia)…” Anesthesia has primarily been a nursing role, and it’s been this way since the American civil war. Physicians didn’t really want any part of it early on as it wasn’t very prestigious or lucrative. Nurse anesthetists have historically provided and continue to provide the vast majority of anesthetics, in the US at least.
And of course, residents super overworked. I think it speaks for itself that making medicine 2x - 3x more people per year would help the problem. Yes, there's a "sweet spot" where quality of doctors would drop, but there's also a sweet spot where services rendered drop due to overwork, and we're on the far side of that one