The Medical Divide

The talk about America vs Germany and the ensuing discussion got me to thinking about the further "divisions" that we have... Coming from Texas, I know that Texans feel a special pride in the South, that northerners feel superior to southerners, etc, etc....But what about the great medical divide?



Have you noticed that in medicine this same kind of splitting happens? For us, it was most prominent during residency between the surgeons and the internists.....there were some near bloody battles that happened over who was smarter, better, most capable....Post-training, these things tend to even out...but has anyone else noticed how many of the fields seem to be compartmentalized by the other competing specialties?



Kris
Time is a Dressmaker, Specializing in Alterations!

Tisk, Tisk, Tisk, Kristen! We Texans don't have pride in the South! We ARE our own country!!! Those Southerners and Westerners could never be as great as we are!



Jennifer

Oh, and Northerners - those yankees are just carpet-baggers! (My mother is sooooo upset that her grandkids are all about to move to Boston for four years because she is convinced they are all going to come back sounding like Kennedys! )



OK, sorry so off topic from the point of your post....

You're right, there seems to be some competition for greatness between different medical specialties.



Jennifer

That's too funny, Jennifer!!!



Kris
Time is a Dressmaker, Specializing in Alterations!

[DCJenn]

O- Lord- get me outta Texas and back to East Coast where you can have an interesting and civil discussion and NOT have to sugar-coat everything to avoid insulting people. (I haven't quite mastered that yet!!)



but anyway- there are definitely some issues that are unique to the medical field. For example- because of my type of funding, I am REQUIRED to keep an RN on staff as a 'nurse consultant' but am able to use my LVNs as my lead nursing staff. My nurse consultant hasn't set foot in any of my homes in years, doesn't sign off on any orders, and has nothing but praise for my nurses. My LVNs are on-call 24/7, go to the hospitals, call in the med orders, etc. but still aren't 'good enough' to be the sole nurses required. They're both going to school to get their RNs but I really wish these talented and dedicated women would be recognized by the powers that be.



My husband just told me that a newish to the hosptal peds surgeon has essentially alienated the entire peds dept and actually made some of the nurses and the residents cry. Apparently he is just incredibly full of himself. But one of the colonels had a 'forceful' discussion with him after the entire ward was dumbstruck with his behavior.



Oh well, I'm sure it happens in all professional fields- right?



Jenn

I think you're right. Really, I guess we all want to justify our lives and our choices and of course we are going to support the things that we feel passionately about.....I know that that same problem came up in grad school....the war between the chem depts. and the bio depts...who was better, smarter, had better publications, etc. Then there was the whole thing between the PhD students and the MS students. I once had a conversation for 15 minutes with a prof who abruptly stopped our conversation when he found out that I was "just" an MS student. He actually said to me that he didn't consider a masters degree in science to be a graduate degree! (Interestingly, he was also a german immigrant ) Ha...the kicker to that story is that I became friends with his wife without either of us realizing it and when she had us over for dinner, he and I just sort of were shocked to be in a social situation together....



I guess whatever our choices are we want to feel that they are right?



Kris....




Time is a Dressmaker, Specializing in Alterations!

[Phoebe]

Interesting topic. I can't comment on Texas because I have never been there. But I can certainly see a medical divide among specialties and subspecialties. Working in the NICU, my husband has dealt with most of the peds specialties and he says that each group thinks that they are right in their judgements, opinions and give orders accordingly with each specialty taking a precedence over the next.



My husband had a run in with a peds cardiologist who insulted residents, staff and anyone in his way repeatedly. After being demeaned by this attending several times and even in front of a nurse at a baby's bedside, spoke up to him. The attending was dumbfounded when my husband told him off. My husband thought he might get fired after that, but the everyone revered him for standing up to this man, especially because he started being so nice to everyone. I think there are better ways my husband could have handled the situation, but it certainly made this man see how he treated people.



Jennifer

Hi--

I just posted my introduction but can't help adding two cents in here because I"ve been fascinated to see the way medical school has indoctrinated my husband and his fellow students into the beliefs about the different specialties. As far as I can tell, for medical students the stereotyping and classifying of the different specialties has everything to do with trying to find your path. If these paths weren't characterized as so different from each other, how would you find one that was right for you?



As for the different power in different roles and the way people treat each other, I work on the non-clinical side of a community health clinic in an urban setting and it's interesting to see that in different situations different people have power. The doctors have status in the limited scope of their departments, but not very much in the overall scheme of things. When it comes to setting policy and goals, or making strategic decisions for the staff or the organization as a whole, they are almost invisible and unheard. I'm not sure this is the best thing, but it does balance it out a bit.



Kate