¶ … Commercialization of the Medical Profession
One of the problems with the field of medicine is that when it operates as a market-based business, severe imbalances of care and treatment inevitably arise. According to the New York Times, there has been a rapid spike in doctors desiring to specialize and a rapid downturn in the number of doctors willing to become general practitioners. This is a reflection both of economic and personal forces. Specialists make more money and work more predictable hours than physicians in high-need fields such as general practice or pediatrics. From a self-interested, market-based perspective, the decisions of young doctors simply 'make sense.' However, when allowing the market to simply run its course, the...
Also, the 'best and the brightest' tend to be attracted to specialist fields, despite the fact that general practice is the point of entry of most consumers into
healthcare.
In fields such as dermatology and radiology, "doctors can enjoy both more control over their time and a relatively hefty paycheck. According to the American Medical Association, a dermatologist averages $221,000 annually for 45.5 hours of work per week. That's more lucrative -- and less time-consuming -- than internal medicine or pediatrics, where doctors earn around $135,000 and spend more than 50 hours a week at work" (Richtel 2004: 342). From a pragmatic stance, particularly for a doctor with a
family and hefty student loans, it is difficult to condemn him or her for not choosing the noble pursuits of general practice, where the financial rewards are less and the beeper must always be turned on.
However, Kuehn (2012) suggests the possibility that other influences may affect doctors' choices of specialties. The presence of female faculty in the…
