Well, I would hardly call it a "problem." There's a reason why doctors are held in such high esteem. When growing up, at least for me, the mothers would always yearn that their son become either a doctor or a lawyer. As far as legitimate professions (yes, even lawyers) these were considered the cream of the crop. Of the two, doctors were always number one. Why? Because in a lot, if not most, professions you can fake it. I don't mean that you don't have to be smart to be a lawyer but you don't have to be REAL smart. To be a doctor and go through everything they have to go through: all the schooling and education, the internship and actual practice -- not everyone can do even if it's their dream. My job title is classified as BS Engineering. I really don't know what the BS stands for but it sounds about right for what I actually do. I can take a high school kid that has gone through first year Calculus and in 3-6 months he can easily do my job. And he can forget everything he learned in Calculus class in the process. I just added that requirement just so I can be assure he has some reasoning skills. I've read cases where people have faked being a lawyer. I don't think you can fake being a surgeon. I guess it's possible not to have a degree but you still have to have the smarts and the skills.
Anyway, I think I get it. This board is a good outlet. A lot of characters here: gh15, Alex23, Basile, Goodrum, Sev, TA, JNN... no where else can you find this.
Pellius- I honestly 100% believe that MOST college-educated people could make it through medical school, residency and so on, if they made up their mind to do it. What makes medical school difficult isn't the concepts. There is no complex crazy ass math, or super hardcore physics in medical school... Those cats that understand that stuff are the real geniuses... To make it through medical school you need a few things- A great memory, and the ability to digest a LOT of information in a short amount of time and spit it back out. Medical school to me was often like trying to drink water out of a fire hose. So much information to digest in such a short period of time. Lastly, you need THICK SKIN to survive the hierarchy and abuse thru-out your training, especially in surgery. It's tough, no doubt, but there are plenty of other jobs that take a different kind of intelligence, that I believe should be respected just as much if not more. For example- I can read the FAWK out of a CT scan of the abdomen. I am very very good at it. I've been doing it for 10+ years. But I couldn't even FATHOM what it takes to have the intelligence to DESIGN the CT scan machine. Know what I mean?
Yes, we deal with life and death every day, and there is no joking around about that. If I'm not completely focused in the OR, i can cut the wrong thing and kill someone very very easily or cause them a LOT of pain and suffering. Even ordering simple things like IV fluids, or replacing electrolytes - if I order the wrong stuff, I can really fuck someone up.