Stereotypical Doctors

Written by: Madison Elliott

Everybody has their presumed thoughts about how all doctors speak, act, and think of themselves. As many people assume, all doctors think that they are better than everyone else and they think that they know everything, all doctors are rich and care about the money that they are making rather than the patient that they are treating. But do these actually hold true for real doctors? Well, of course, there are some people that are the epitome of their stereotype, and the same goes for doctors as well, but a stereotype is just that and not all, usually most people of the group are not that at all. And the same goes for doctors. They are there to help their patients and care for them, and be knowledgeable about the case because the patients are not. I don’t know about anyone else, but all of my doctors are pretty much the opposite of what people assume doctors to be like.

To get more specific, a lot of people see surgeons as the people who just want to come in, cut (because that is best part about being a surgeon), and then get out of there to go play golf with their other surgeon friends, having zero communication with the patient and leaving that part up to their nurses and/or interns. However, in most cases, this does not actually happen. A relatable example of this, because I know a lot of people have seen it, is in “Grey’s Anatomy”. Dr. Grey, McDreamy, and all of the other surgeons in the show always take the time for each patient they have to talk to them and they often get emotional about them when something goes wrong or when something really good happens. Although this may just be a TV show, it is an accurate representation of doctors and/or surgeons in real life.

There are many different kinds of stereotypes that doctors face in the workplace. Some examples of these include media stereotypes and gender stereotypes. In the media, doctors can be seen “as [striding] down hospital corridors with a team of frightened trainees behind” them (Do the Classic Specialty Stereotypes Still Hold True for Today’s Doctors?). As for gender stereotypes, it is common that women are undermined in the workplace, and the same goes for women doctors. People often just assume that they are nurses even when they are the main doctor or even a surgeon.

In the article that I read, there were a few common stereotypes listed. I found them pretty humorous, especially the one about anesthesiologists because that is what I am going to be. “Seems to have inhaled too much gas and spends a lot of time doing crosswords and sudokus” (Do the Classic Specialty Stereotypes Still Hold True for Today’s Doctors?).

Source:

http://careers.bmj.com/careers/advice/view-article.html?id=20015762