If my friends are anything to go by, many physicians would rather do something else besides practice medicine. Most prefer to stay in the healthcare industry, of course, but the actual act of seeing patients is becoming less and less satisfying.

In a survey of MD Net Guide readers, physicians cite the following reasons for having become disenchanted with medicine:

• Rising liability insurance rates
• Malpractice litigation
• Increase in physician workload
• Erosion of compensation
• Loss of autonomy

More than half of those surveyed said that they have considered giving up their medical practice in the past five years. And while 66% would choose to become physicians again if they could start all over, 60% would not recommend a career in medicine to their own children.

Do you think being a physician is all it’s cracked up to be?

PRNewswire, November 9, 2005