John T said...
I've had 4 female doctors and about 20 male doctors in my lifetime. I Agee that women are much more through, spend more time and are more compassionate. I certainly would not choose a doctor based on gender, but have had excellent experiences with female doctors.
Maybe, but it can certainly go both ways. None of us, though she was fairly cute young thing, would want the female anesthesiologist who was recently in the news, who's insurance had to pay out 1/2 million due to the way she trashed her patient as soon he lost consciousness. How did he find out? He had his phone on record to get his post op instructions from his male gastroenterologist, and passed out with it still running. He woke up to quite a surprise. I bet she was very sweet and caring- much more than those mean old men would have been, during his pre-op evaluation. But as soon as he was out she stated to the crew how much she had desired to punch him in the face to make him man up, made derogatory comments about
his penis and other things about
him, and then went into a more general rant about
pain in the butt patients who get way to concerned and obsessed about
their ailments, way to wrapped up in themselves and their problems. BTW, his male gastro doctor and the rest of the staff overlooked and tolerated all of this. From my experience, I can not imagine a male anesthesia provider being tolerated if he made such derogatory and personal comments about
a female patient, particularly about
her genitalia. Nor should he be. In fact I know of one who was canned immediately when he made a joking comment about
a female patient's (a Mormon) "Holy" Underwear. He was requested to be this woman's provider, by her, as they were good friends and joked about
her underwear all the time when she was conscious. But the OR circulating nurse took it as offensive and sexual harassment, reported him and he was fired immediately. But I bet the above mentioned female anesthesiologist had been getting away with that behavior for a long time, her entire career.
On more personal observation. Having trained many female anesthesia providers, I'll just say it all varies with the individual. I once was supervising a female student during some GYN surgery. When the female patients- at the women's hospital(they have their own) where I worked- legs were put up into the stirrups, she(anesthesia student) started going on about
all of the things women had to go through in this world, and particularly in the world of medicine. Now keep in mind the young lady was routinely providing anesthesia care for men, women and children, including men in the situation of guys at HWPC. I agreed with her that there was much to sympathize with for poor sick human beings of both sexes. She literally wanted to debate me on that point, telling me that she didn't feel like men had to go through anything like women routinely did. I looked at her in amazement, considering that men undergoing all kinds of surgery were dependent on her merciful attitude.
I then asked her what she thought about
the men she put to sleep or gave a spinal to who were having their legs put up in stirrups so we could cut their prostates or testicles or penis or some of their intestines out, while a roomful of 18-22 year old female students watched it all, did she maybe think that might be as hard on them as it was for our female patients? She thought for a minute, and to her credit she said she had never really thought about
it that way and maybe I was right. So I hope she went forward with a more sympathetic and unbiased view towards all of her patients, not just the female. Maybe. Then again, I was her instructor so she might have just decided to tell me what she thought I wanted to hear.
So I would say, at least for me, don't judge based on either sex. And don't base it just on whether the female seems more pleasant than the male. Although I could go by that appearance and may well do it, it won't necessarily be that way in reality. Or, as it says in the linked to article:
"At the same time, I have worked with many men who display great empathy and care deeply about
their patients. I also know of female doctors who don't hold up to the traditional gender stereotypes and don't like to spend time listening. ".
As for competence, that is a different judgement to be made on which I don't think I will comment at the moment, maybe later.
Post Edited (BillyBob@388) : 7/3/2015 2:33:36 PM (GMT-6)