Ponder: Little opportunity for thinking and learning

“The practice of medicine today is radically different from that of 20 to 30 years ago.  Shorter hospital stays require protocol-driven procedural care ‘with little opportunity for thinking and learning,’ according to a JAMA editorial accompanying the review.  Added pressure comes from online ratings of doctor performance, and direct-to-consumer advertising cases ‘patients to demand medications for conditions they sometimes do not even have,’ the editorial said.

There is also a huge disconnect between medical school and what happens in the first years of residency, Mata said.  New doctors are ‘spending 40 to 50 percent of their time on the computer’ doing secretarial work,’ he said.  Very little time is spent at the bedside. ‘It’s not rewarding.’”

Lena H. Sun.  “New Doctors at Increased Risk for Depression.”  The Washington Post 9 Dec. 2015, A3