Who has a worse reputation? Doctors vs Lawyers...

Originally Posted by Spilotro

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There are good and bad in all crowds; how difficult of a concept is this to grasp?
This is beside the point. The thread asks which profession has a worse reputation. If you do a quick poll of your friends--even the lawyers--they'll tell you that lawyers are worse human beings than doctors. This is true at least in the US. Other countries with a less eat-what-you-kill mentality among lawyers might view them differently.

I am so tempted to post here.

I will not.

Originally Posted by gnatty8

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I am so tempted to post here.

I will not.

You just did.

The only thing worse than a doctor is a lawyer hahahahAHAHHAHAHHAhahaha

Originally Posted by texas_jack

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You've got to be kidding. Doctors are not going in the right direction but it's really no contest.

+1. No question doctors have done themselves no favors over the last 20 years but who is kidding who? Lawyers FTW.

Lawyers clearly have the worst reputation of all the professions. To a point this is deservedly so. Sadly, there are many lawyers who work in the public interest, sacrificing of themselves on a daily basis in order to protect the rights of those who society preys upon, and who would otherwise have no recourse or justice. These lawyers are underpaid, work long hours without support staff, with little thanks, and have to deal with clients who have the shittiest lives imagineable. This is challenging both emotionally and professionally, as all the same deadlines and legal work stresses apply. Yet as lawyers, they too are lampooned and lumped in with all the smarmy ones.

All of that aside, it's really interesting how lawyers get such a bum rap, when the vast majority of people have no idea what a lawyer actually does. I believe it is one of the most stressful professions. Moreover, everyone hates lawyers until they actually need one. Then they get the bill, and hate lawyers again.

As for doctors, my experience is that they care more about money than patients. And I suggest that makes them far worse than lawyers, as lawyers are expected to care about money, whereas doctors are expected, and swear an oath, to care about the patient. Doctors are the real bottom-feeders in society, and are coasting on an unwarranted reputation - a la Pierre Cardin et. al.

Originally Posted by Concordia

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There's nothing wrong with this, BTW. One of my father's mentors liked to say "what you do isn't what you're good at, it's what you are." He had one classmate with all the physical skills to be a great surgeon but who lacked the big ego and the love of making split-second decisions in the spotlight. This guy became a radiologist and was probably better at that than surgery.

There isn't anything wrong with it, you're right. If that's what they want to do then so be it. I love the idea of life as an anesthesiologist. There's not a whole lot to do once the patient is induced and asleep (the risk is in putting them down and waking them back up plus any medication interactions), there's very good money to be made, no call usually (if in a major hospital) so hours are good, etc., etc. However, I don't enjoy it and I'd rather do something I like (which is general practitioner) with its own particular shortcomings such as the shittier lifestyle and decreased pay.

I've had many people (like nurses) tell me I should be a surgeon. I guess that's based on my appearance as I'm tall, look athletic, etc. However, I actually don't care for blood a whole hell of a lot, lack the finesse that is sometimes required, and don't work all that well under stress so surgery and things like ER are out for me. And like your father's classmate, I don't have the ego/personality type for it. Not all surgeons do but, in my limited experience, most do.

Anyway, my point was that it seems strange to me that people would want to go into a field which traditionally is involved in caring for others and have an attitude of not even wanting to interact/talk to their patients. I've seen attendings say it e.g. "Why do you think I chose this field. Do you think I want to talk to my patients?" and I've had a friend (who is actually a very personable, likeable individual) say something like "Yeah, okay, it's time to go to sleep now" when referring to patients that are going to "annoy" him.

Who's worse: Hitler or Stalin?

Maybe I'm outside the norm here, but the more I know about lawyers, the more I respect them and the work they do.

I lost a measure of respect for doctors in general years ago (nothing personal here) when one doctor nearly put Mrs. Thomas in a casket and blamed everything but himself.

I am however on good terms with my podiatrist and dentist so I'm not completely anti-medicine.

According to my sister, social skills and doctor-patient relationship are taken into account (grade wise) much more than they used to be.

Originally Posted by Thomas

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I lost a measure of respect for doctors in general years ago (nothing personal here) when one doctor nearly put Mrs. Thomas in a casket and blamed everything but himself.

Not defending the doc here because that's wrong but my opinion is that a large part of that is fear of getting sued.

I've been told many times that the best thing for a doctor to do is admit that they made a mistake. I've also been told that doctors who talk to their patients, take time to explain things, etc. actually have very little chance of being sued even when they do admit to doing something wrong or not doing something beneficial. I don't have enough faith in humanity to believe that. Part of me wants to because docs are only human and can't be expected to be perfect all the time. The ambulance chasers on TV and my interaction with people over my life lead me to think otherwise.

I don't know what I'm going to do in the future when I'm in that situation and make a mistake (it will happen at some point or the other). The good part of me will want to own up to it. The practical part of me will be scared to. I don't know you Thomas. You may have been okay with the doctor admitting he screwed up and left it at that (while looking for another doc in the future) but many people would look at that as their "big chance" to make some cash from the "rich, uncaring doctor".

Med school starts in undergrad here and there are definitely some people I know studying medicine who I wouldn't want operating on me. Fortunately the one girl I'm thinking of the most wants to do sports medicine, so the stakes shouldn't be too high.

At the end of the day, they're both just people with jobs like everybody else. As far as perception goes, though, I think people tend to assume more positive things about doctors, namely that they're somewhat all knowing, unless they have a bad experience in which case they tend to hate them. Lawyers, on the other hand, people tend to assume are somewhat evil unless they have a good experience with them (i.e., an attorney wins or saves them a lot of money.)

Obviously both assumptions are equally false.

Originally Posted by Jumbie

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Not defending the doc here because that's wrong but my opinion is that a large part of that is fear of getting sued.

I've been told many times that the best thing for a doctor to do is admit that they made a mistake. I've also been told that doctors who talk to their patients, take time to explain things, etc. actually have very little chance of being sued even when they do admit to doing something wrong or not doing something beneficial. I don't have enough faith in humanity to believe that. Part of me wants to because docs are only human and can't be expected to be perfect all the time. The ambulance chasers on TV and my interaction with people over my life lead me to think otherwise.

I don't know what I'm going to do in the future when I'm in that situation and make a mistake (it will happen at some point or the other). The good part of me will want to own up to it. The practical part of me will be scared to. I don't know you Thomas. You may have been okay with the doctor admitting he screwed up and left it at that (while looking for another doc in the future) but many people would look at that as their "big chance" to make some cash from the "rich, uncaring doctor".

I understand your point of view and sympathize with the Damoclean sword that hangs over every doctor's head. In truth it was a major issue for Mrs. Thomas, and one she is just now starting to mentally get over (this was 12 years ago). IMHO things would have resolved a lot faster had the doctors not been so tight-lipped - even today it's hard to get a definitive answer, and when she got her records from that procedure to forward to another doctor (for an un-related procedure), parts of the records were redacted - which only adds to our suspicion and unease.

Even then it's not occurred to us that it would be proper or decent to leverage this into a jackpot, but I'm sure there's a lawyer at an insurance company who is telling everyone to deny everything, simply to mitigate their (quite real) exposure. Not to say that any one party is to blame, but it seems so standoff-ish at times that real trust is hard to develop.

Not really on-topic, somewhere along the way we seem to have developed the mindset that we should be immune to circumstances and be made whole even when life dings us here and there. I think it's unhealthy to expect every single wrong or unfortunate happenstance to be redressed. Relationships crumble when people keep scores of wrongs done to them.

Originally Posted by DarkNWorn

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Is the cosmetic surgeon the medical profession's equivalent for the ambulance chaser?

Interesting thought. I think they are certainly seen as "fluff" by many people, except when their expertise helps modify a deformity, either natural or from calamity. They certainly are paid better than most physicians, but that is from the importance society places on big boobs, etc.

Originally Posted by 83glt

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Lawyers clearly have the worst reputation of all the professions. To a point this is deservedly so. Sadly, there are many lawyers who work in the public interest, sacrificing of themselves on a daily basis in order to protect the rights of those who society preys upon, and who would otherwise have no recourse or justice. These lawyers are underpaid, work long hours without support staff, with little thanks, and have to deal with clients who have the shittiest lives imagineable. This is challenging both emotionally and professionally, as all the same deadlines and legal work stresses apply. Yet as lawyers, they too are lampooned and lumped in with all the smarmy ones.

All of that aside, it's really interesting how lawyers get such a bum rap, when the vast majority of people have no idea what a lawyer actually does. I believe it is one of the most stressful professions. Moreover, everyone hates lawyers until they actually need one. Then they get the bill, and hate lawyers again.

As for doctors, my experience is that they care more about money than patients. And I suggest that makes them far worse than lawyers, as lawyers are expected to care about money, whereas doctors are expected, and swear an oath, to care about the patient. Doctors are the real bottom-feeders in society, and are coasting on an unwarranted reputation - a la Pierre Cardin et. al.

Your comments show...you are in law school.

This is not even close, lawyers by a mile. A fair fight might be lawyer v. Morlock. Or maybe compare lawyers and tape worms.

Yours,
J. Q. Morlock, Esq.

p.s. please do not take offense as some of my closest friend are parasitic.