Growing up, at least in my family, a "doctor" was the most prestigious thing you could aspire to be when you grew up... and then I grew up.
So, if you're a new reader you may not know this but I have a MASSIVE family. Like my dad is one of a double-digit number of siblings. My grandmother on my moms side has even more. And most of them went on to have 5 or 6 children.
A "small family-only party" for us still means hundreds of people.
Obviously with that many people, we have more than a few "Dr." Whoevers - and as a kid I sort of assumed the Doc Squad hung out in mutual respect of their doctory-ness.
Turns out there's totally a doctor pecking order!
Reddit user TheDandy9 asked:
Doctors of Reddit, what is the least respected type of medical doctor within the medical community?
And basically, years worth of family beef just got turned into a Reddit thread. lol.
Don't expect to come out of this article with any real answers, though. This is one of those fights that will never end - so it's best to just enjoy the show.
Boutiques
Progressive Insurance Reaction GIF by ProgressiveGiphy"My family doctor changed his practice so that you had to pay $1000 of dollars just to be in his practice, in addition to every visit. His thinking was his practice would be smaller and he could devote more time being proactive and preventative to those special patients."
"We left of course, but when I explained this to one of our specialists, they snorted in disgust and told us 'we call those boutique doctors.' "
"So a boutique doctor for those entitled who could afford it." - TimeTraveler3056
"Avoiding insurance companies is almost the singular reason to do concierge. Once you contract with an insurance company, they own you."
"They tell you how many patients to see, how you can treat them, what meds they can have. And on top of all that, you have to hire an entire staff to do your billing and fill out endless amounts of paperwork"
"AND you know the best part? That same insurance company will negotiate every reimbursement they pay to you and probably won't pay most of what it is billed."
"So more work, higher overhead, less time to spend with the patient and less reimbursement. Sounds like a great deal, right?"
"Doctors hate insurance companies as much as patients do." - Waderriffic
Not What You'd Expect
George Clooney Nod GIFGiphy"Actually from my experience it's not what you'd expect."
"A lot of specialists hate ER docs because they're jack of all trades so they don't have the in depth knowledge and also they 'create work' for everyone else (ask for consults a lot). It's super unfair. ER docs are just doing their job, treating what they can and getting help where needed. They're first step."
"Another one is orthopedic surgeons, they know a ton about bones and little about medicine outside of bones and are often the butt of jokes for always asking internal medicine to admit patients after procedures."
"From the general public, I'd say family practice often doesn't get much respect, and psych is often disparaged as a 'why the f*ck would you want to do that?' career despite having a LOT of perks for a medical career."
"Now granted, I'm just a medical student in pre-clinical years, so I may get to the hospital and be totally off lol" - rainbowlookingglass
It's Not The Field, It's The Doc
Mr Bean Thumbs Up GIFGiphy"Speaking as a person working in the medical field for 35 years, the amount of respect I have for the different physicians/different branches of medicine doesn't actually exist. See, it's not a particular branch of medicine that make a Doc great or a less respected. It is the personal character of the individual."
"I have and still do work with some docs that are brilliant, and other ones that I would not let treat my gerbil." - FreePainter9
"My mom was a surgical RN for over 40 years, 30 of which were in the same hospital. She respected the majority of doctors, nurses, various fields as a whole. Not once did she say one branch was better than another."
"However, when my brother, dad, herself or I needed any type of medical care or surgery, she would make sure who was never allowed near us due to reasons you stated; terrible character and a terrible person." - bitterherpes
Just For Insurance
overdue relapse records GIF by Red FangGiphy"When you're trying to get a test, procedure or drug covered by insurance, they sometimes go to clinician review, aka peer-to-peer. So some doctors work for an insurance company and reviews cases with other doctors."
"I'm not sure I can respect those guys. Does anyone ever become a doctor just so they can work for an insurance company?" - cerpintax33
"I don't think that's the end game for any doc, but these days it's the MCO's that dictate your practice and essentially your bottom line. It would be much easier to be the doc reviewing claims and approving or denying them for 200k a year than the struggling new doc trying to make a living and paying their student loan debt." - JohnBoy2978
A Parent's Perspective
Doctor GIFGiphy"My parents are doctors, I left that train a little late, but left it."
"They always said dermatologists are the least respected in terms of knowledge, complexity of field, and technical skill. In terms of just knowledge, many would say general surgeons."
"On the other hand, the most respected (in their opinion) in terms of intellect are general internists, gastroenterologists, nephrologists and endocrinologists. In terms of technical skill, plastic and brain/spinal surgeons and ERCP (therapeutic) capable gastroenterologists." - ahmadove
"Less" Is Not A Thing
Aretha Franklin GIF by Respect MovieGiphy"Depends if you're thinking surgery or non surgery. Probably family practice doctors I would guess may get less, but that's not really a thing."
"I don't think 'least respected' is the right way to put it. I don't think any medical doctors are less respected, but they each are sort of picked on in their own specialty."
"Ortho surgeons are known for being big dumb jocks because they don't do a lot of what people would consider 'real medicine,' but they aren't less respected by any means. Family medicine is the least desirable because they don't have a specialty and see a little bit of everything. Desirable - not respected. They all get respect." - P-A-seaaaaaa
I Get The Annoyance
Stressed Season 3 GIF by Parks and RecreationGiphy"Family doc here."
"God, it sure seems like we get sh*t on a lot! I mean, I can get the annoyance with some specialists when they get consults, because some family docs are lazy and just pass the buck (type 2 diabetic? Meh, consult to endocrine.)"
"Some either don't know, or care to do the work up necessary to prep for consult (sending to rheum with a vague complaint like arthralgia and not so much as an ANA), and some don't communicate appropriately in their documents what the consult is for (Assessment: Nausea. Plan: Consult to GI.)"
"Those things all bother the hell out of me when I see other family docs doing it, so I can't imagine how upset the specialists must feel."
"However, we have a LOT of goddamn things to juggle and hats to wear, and the specialists have the benefit of saying 'talk to your PCP' whenever it's a topic outside their scope." - Ssutanjoe
Definitely Doing Something Shady
British Tech GIF by Namaste CarGiphy"Physician here. Out of actual medical doctors (MD/DO), I think we all pretty much hate the ones who are taking advantage of people."
"The pill pushers - pain management physicians, whose practice consists of a desk and an prescription pad, charging $300 per visit, and handing out monthly prescriptions for 180 dilaudid tablets like candy."
"The other ones are some providers who have what are known as 'risk contracts,' which are basically managed care plans where they are given an allotment of money for each patient in the plan, and the less they spend the more is left over for them to keep."
"These plans are supposedly promote responsible medical spending, but mostly promote greedy doctors doing everything they can to do the absolute bare minimum for their patients. If your specialty is Family Practice but you drive a Bentley, you are definitely doing something shady." - sailphish
Human Soup
David Boreanaz Forensics GIF by BonesGiphy"Nobody's mentioned the doctors who deal with the dead - those the doctors couldn't save."
"Pathologists. Nobody wants to think about them, but they're doctors all the same."
"My husband had worked with a few, and while they still get paid well, they definitely don't get paid like doctors who work on the living. I think they (and their assistants) should he paid triple during decomp season. Human soup season." - HappyHummingbird42
In School...
Doctor Goodbye GIF by One ChicagoGiphy"I'm a 3rd year medical student in the US. In my opinion, the least respected doctors are primary care."
"Hear me out. Family medicine and pediatrics are objectively the least competitive residencies to obtain. In general, the more competitive medical students pursue high paying, exciting fields."
"While many top students may still choose family med, I personally think that doctors in competitive specialties will always have a small downward gaze upon those who chose primary care."
"It's not blatant, but I think it exists. Family med and pediatric doctors probably get the least amount of credit and deserve much, much more." - HighYieldOrSTFU
"In medical school, the least desired specialty was psychiatry. Obviously, there are some very bright and helpful shrinks. But the saying in medical school is that you go into psychiatry to find out what is wrong with you." - ThrowawayRAcallister
Welp, it was nice talking trash about people who have done way more work than most of us ever will, wasn't it? lol.
"What's the most mysterious thing happened in your life that you can't find any explanation for?"
Mom Acting Weird
"My mum is a type 1 diabetic, has been since she was 11 years of age."
"When me and my little brother were very young, I was about 7 and he was 5 , I came into my mum's room to find she was acting extremely strange."
"She looked almost drunk, and wasn’t really responsive."
"I went to pick up her insulin needles to see if she would react to that and she didn’t."
"So I panicked and phoned my Nan who told me to put the phone down and dial 999."
"For some reason I was so frightened and confused I didn’t, and sent my little brother outside to get help while I tried to get my mum to respond to me."
"My brother came back in crying saying he couldn’t find anyone and then about five minuets later this woman just walked into my mum's bedroom, called me by my name, and my brothers, said she knew my mum and help is coming, she was calm, soft-spoken and had a warm feeling about her."
"I didn’t recognize this woman and neither did my brother."
"Shortly after the ambulance arrived and got my mum's sugar levels back up."
"And when I went to find the woman, she was gone."
"Like literally gone."
"When my mum came round I explained to her about this mysterious woman and what she looked like."
"And my mum had absolutely no idea who she was, and we never saw her again."
"If she didn’t help us my mum would have died eventually."
"Still gives me shivers now."- leeshouse90
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire Neon Rated GIF by NEONGiphyPsychic, or lucky?
"When I was around 18 a friend and I were traveling in Europe."
"We were walking along a pleasant, quiet street in Rome one day and saw an elderly homeless man sitting on the street."
"He said to us if he could guess our date of birth could we give him some money?"
"Of course we said ok."
"He did it! "
"He told us both our correct dates of birth!"
"Never met him before and never saw him again."- robertodurian
Some Unfinished Work, Maybe?
"I was at my mother in law's flat in Hungary."
"Fyi I don't speak Hungarian, so I couldn't be aware of any of this."
"I tend to go to bed later that my wife, and for the first couple of nights, I had trouble falling asleep because around midnight I could hear the neighbor upstairs."
"It's an old block of flats made under the communist era, walls are incredibly thin."
"Walk in high heels, which was very annoying."
"I could also hear little objects fall on the floor, and I told my wife it sounded like the plastic buttons you have on some clothes."
"She looked at me funny and told me her niece hated to sleep in that room because she was scared by the noises coming from upstairs."
"I said that was a bit exaggerated, and I thought it was until my wife told me the flat upstairs had been empty for the past at least 4 years."
"Neighbor died years before that, and guess what?"
"She was a tailor, always nicely dressed and wearing high heels."- mimzou
High Heels Shoes GIF by Real Housewives Of CheshireGiphyGone Without A Trace
"When I was a kid, I participated in Big Brothers Big Sisters, which if you don't know what that is it's pretty much just a mentorship program in the US."
"I basically just hung out with this dude Chris for a couple hours a week."
"We'd go to the movies, out to eat, he'd help me with my homework, that kinda thing."
"One day, he tells me that he's going to Baltimore for a couple weeks and when I should expect him back."
"The day rolls around and I give him a call to see if he's back yet."
"A man whose voice I didn't recognize answered and I asked if Chris was there."
"He said no."
"I asked him when Chris would be back just kinda thinking it was someone staying at his house or watching his dogs or something."
"But he said that I had the wrong number, that he and his wife had lived there for years, and there was never a Chris there."
"I double checked in the phonebook to see if it was the right number which it was because I had it circled."
"I was confused so I just said sorry and hung up, and I never heard from Chris ever again."- theautomemoriesdoll
A Clever Distraction?
"When I was 10 or so I was staying at my grandma's over the summer break and we were having breakfast."
"We barely started eating when the phone rang."
"She left the dining room and I followed her thinking that maybe they were my parents calling."
"When we returned most of the food was gone."
"She asked me if I ate while she was on the phone and I said 'no'."
"There was no one else home and there were no pets."
"My grandma just shook it off saying we might have eaten more than she remembered but I am absolutely positive that I had at most two bites of my toast by the time the phone rang."- queenliz2fr
Hungry Good Morning GIF by HBO MaxGiphyMystery Benefactor
"Every month around the 5th I get a letter with exactly 23 dollars."
"No note, no return address."
"I’ve asked family, relatives, friends, the two past occupants of this apartment."
"Nobody knows anything about it."
"It is not addressed to me, but to my unique postal address."
"The total is now exactly 1886, I have just stashed it all in a box."
"I do not want to spend it in case it is cursed."- Puzzleheaded_Ad928
A Comforting Sign
"My grandmother always loved roses and had them growing in her back yard."
"She died in a December and when we were gathered at her house for the funeral my father happened to look out the back window and saw a bright red rose had blossomed."
"It stood out brightly against the snow."
"He brought it in and put it in a vase on the kitchen table."
"We all left for the funeral and when we came back the rose was on the living room floor."
"No one had been in the house while we were gone."
"My father is the most hard-headed person alive but he was convinced it was his mothers way of telling him she was all right."- regular6drunk7
Mystery Portal?
"We have a built in wardrobe in our bedroom."
"About a month ago our cat had managed to get herself inside and I must have closed the door."
"I heard her meowing and I opened the door and she jumped out and walked off."
"Silly cat."
"I closed the wardrobe door."
"Less than five minutes later I hear a meow in the wardrobe, I open the door and to my surprise, our cat jumps out again and walks off."
"My partner and I were both stunned as there is no way into the wardrobe with the doors closed."
"Neither of us have any idea how this happened."- TorthOrc
Cat Jumping GIFGiphyLost Time
"I had just picked up a coworker from her house heading to work.'
"We are just talking and chatting, "how'd your weekend go" type of stuff."
"We are maybe 5 miles away from her house, when all of a sudden, we realize we are in town pulling into works parking lot."
"We both kinda look at each other not sure what happened."
"We had gone near 20 miles in a blink of an eye."
"And what cemented this experience as something that I actually happened, and not just simply losing track of time, IS THE TIME!"
"It should have taken us almost half an hour to get to work."
"Instead the time from when I picked her up was 2:30."
"And the time when we got to the building was 2:40."
"There is no way in HELL!"
"We couldn't have gotten there that fast."
"From that point on we both called that experience the time when we Jumped, like from the movie Jumper."
"I have no explanation why."
"I'll also state, I don't believe in the paranormal or supernatural."
"So this experience is one of those things that makes me question my own sanity."- belac4862
car dark GIFGiphyThere must be an explanation for these circumstances...
Even if it's not an explanation that will make any sense, otherworldly or not.