Do you sometimes feel that the doctor you are speaking to is not smarter than you

[Anonymous]

I am frustrated when doctors give you a prescription that you don't need. They do this so that they can justify collecting the fee.

[Anonymous]

I love that our family practice doctor doesn't pretend to know everything. My daughter had a really weird skin rash in high school that just would not go away. He pulled out his ipad and went to the Mayo website. I've seen doctors who act like they know everything about everything. I would much rather have one who admits that he doesn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am frustrated when doctors give you a prescription that you don't need. They do this so that they can justify collecting the fee.

No, it's because you'd be complaining on anonymous forums, or worse, if they didn't give you a pill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. It's very frustrating when she is ignorant about a topic I have researched extensively.

+1. I agree.

[Anonymous]

Doctors are human too! I switched OB/GYN practices because of holier-than-thou doctors who were actually quite ignorant.

On the hand, I've had rather good experiences as well. DH is a doctor who would be glad to hear his patients views. But then he doesn't see patients anymore (he would probably spend more than an hour with each of them and get kicked out of his practice).

My children's old pediatrician was in the same mold. He would listen, observe and talk for an hour with each patient. Waiting for appointments was excruciating but worth it for the serious or mysterious illnesses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. It's very frustrating when she is ignorant about a topic I have researched extensively.

+1. I agree.

I'm sure the frustration is on both sides. You probably don't know half as much as you think you do.

[Anonymous]

OP, you should not be seeing a doctor then.

[Anonymous]

Mostly I feel that they are not as research-minded as my mom, who is an awesome doctor. Sorry to say, most MDs are not really scientists, IYKWIM.

[Anonymous]

OP. this thread is not a joke, thanks to all of you who responded and the ones whose DH and mom spend or would like to spend that time looking at the patient as a whole.
I have been to specialists, top rates doctors (by the way I am very leery of the top 100 Washington docs etc lists) who don't know their own field.
Or those who have the god complex.
Yes, I don't go to docs that often but I still need to...for getting them to order tests. I get some tests online but it gets expensive without insurance. After getting screwed with unnecessary medication, I healed several of my conditions.
Lotsa examples where the different specialists screwed up (did meet a couple of truly good, caring diagnosticians) or didn't know basics of their own profession or wanted to do procedures that were completely unnecessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would you assume they are smarter than you? I don't. I only assume they know much more than I do about medicine, but not smarter per se.

+1. I am sure I am smarter than the vast majority of doctors (and people generally) but I didn't go to med school and know nothing about the practice of medicine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP. this thread is not a joke, thanks to all of you who responded and the ones whose DH and mom spend or would like to spend that time looking at the patient as a whole.
I have been to specialists, top rates doctors (by the way I am very leery of the top 100 Washington docs etc lists) who don't know their own field.
Or those who have the god complex.
Yes, I don't go to docs that often but I still need to...for getting them to order tests. I get some tests online but it gets expensive without insurance. After getting screwed with unnecessary medication, I healed several of my conditions.
Lotsa examples where the different specialists screwed up (did meet a couple of truly good, caring diagnosticians) or didn't know basics of their own profession or wanted to do procedures that were completely unnecessary.

Let me guess .... you are a customer of of 23 and me ...

[Anonymous]

Occasionally, I just plain old don't care about a particular complaint. Some patients think that every symptom they have is life threatening and want an answer for everything. Unfortunate, I have to much too do and many sick patients to see. I don't care about minor things and most people can see a PCP for it.


This attitude is why you should consider another field. I can understand that minor symptoms don't warrant the same level of scrutiny as more worrisome ones. Obviously. In my view, however, a large part of practicing medicine is educating patients about what they should be concerned about and what they can ignore. If your patients already knew all the answers, they could just come in to have you sign the script. I don't expect my doctor to run down every path over what may be causing my symptom, but I would hope that they "care" it is bothering me.

[Anonymous]

It's frustrating when I know there's a routine procedure the Dr is required to do by the hospital that is actually not necessary and not recommended by their professional association. It's almost impossible to have a real conversation about the issue because the Dr has to kept his/her job but I just wish we could have an off-the-record side chat in which we both acknowledge this is BS and shouldn't be happening.

When the Dr parrots on as if he actually agrees with the hospital policy, despite the research showing its poor outcomes for patients, I feel like we're not on the same team and the whole field of medicine has lost its integrity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes I'll have patients who mention a disease I have never heard of. Usually I ask them to explain it to me. It helps if nurses mention the disease on the triage form so I can quickly look it up prior to entering the patient room. It's really impossible to keep up with every single disease or the latest research (unless it's in my field).

Occasionally, I just plain old don't care about a particular complaint. Some patients think that every symptom they have is life threatening and want an answer for everything. Unfortunate, I have to much too do and many sick patients to see. I don't care about minor things and most people can see a PCP for it.

I doubt this is actually a doctor. Nobody with half a brain would post this.

[Anonymous]

You may need to reassess the type of doctor you see. My family has always used an internist rather than a pediatrician because he is well versed in the entire body, rather than a stage or area. I absolutely adore mine and have had him since I was born. I am dreading the day he will retire.