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It is common for most people to not distinguish the difference between many
things. For example, many people may call someone Chinese when they are really
Japanese. Another thing that many people get confused on is doctors. Most people just
say they are going to the doctor not specifying what kind of doctor they are going to see.
It is not taken into consideration the fact that there are different kinds of doctors
specifying in different fields. Two examples of different types of doctors are Trauma
doctors and Family Practice doctors. Education, income, and lives are extremely different
between Family Practice Doctors and Trauma Doctors.
The first main difference between E.R. Doctors and Family Practice Doctors is
the type of education that they have to go through. Both doctors have to first go to four
years of regular college. During those first four years the future doctors have to take the
core, required classes, and other main classes that would be beneficial for any doctor. It is
possible to add other classes that would be beneficial. Some of the added classes are
physiology, psychology, human anatomy, and sociology. After the first four years of
regular college, the students have to take the MCAT, Medical College Admittance Test.
The MCAT is a standardized test that is required in order to get into Medical College. If
the student does not pass the MCAT then they can not get into Medical College. Students
are allowed to take the MCAS three times per calendar year.
When a student enters Medical school is when different kinds of doctors start to
focus on their specific fields. For Family Practice doctors, their first four years of
Medical school is focused on hard study. They start taking the main classes that will be
beneficial for their career, rather than just general all doctor courses. Then, after their first
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two years of Medical School they go on to more hands-on schooling. The next two years
of Medical School are focused on advanced courses from studies they have already taken,
and lab work. Although the doctors are not yet working in a clinic, they do lab work as
examples of what they will experience when in the clinic. After four years of Medical
school they will graduate and go on to start their internship in a doctor’s office. “This is a
time of supervised clinical training with a learning curve” (What’s it Like). As an intern
the future doctors are assigned to a doctor. The job of the intern is to follow their
assigned doctor around to watch what they do, and assist when needed. After Three years
of internship they start their residency at the clinic that they would be working at.
Residences, unlike interns, have a little more freedom. Even though they are more on
their own they are still carefully watched by other doctors. Residences are given patients
that they are to tend to. Because they are not full-blown doctors yet, doctors are required
to check up on their patients to make sure they are doing everything properly. Finally,
after two years of residency, they are now considered a Family Practice Doctor. As now a
fully capable doctor, they usually stay and work at the clinic they were a resident at,
unless called to a different clinic. As a Family Practice Doctor, they are given their own
patients and assigned their own nurse. Just like Family Practice the first two years of
medical school for a Trauma Doctor are also devoted to taking classes that are designed
specifically for their career. However, unlike Family Practice, E.R. Doctors have four
years after their first two that deal with advanced classes and labs. After about six years
of medical school Trauma Physicians then start their internship at a hospital. Like Family
Practice, they also follow doctors around to learn. An E.R. Doctor’s internship lasts two
years and then they become a resident. Trauma Residency lasts four years and is more
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independent than a Family Practice residency due to the difference between a hospital
setting and a doctor’s office. Finally after about twelve years of studying, watching, and
learning they are now considered a Trauma Doctor. Being a doctor is not only studying
hard and knowing the material. “It is important to be well-rounded and not just study all
the time” (Rowe, Bruce). There are many aspects of education between Family Practice
and Trauma that are the same, and many aspects that are different.
The second main difference between Family Practice and Trauma doctors is
salary. Not all medical physicians get paid the same amount. It depends on what type of
physician, and how many hours are worked. Just like most jobs the longer you work, the
higher your hourly wage raises. In Family medicine the starting pay per hour is twelve
dollars and twenty-four cents. Then when working from one to four years the pay raises
to twelve dollars and thirty cents. When working five to nine years the pay is fourteen
dollars and three cents. When working ten to nineteen years the pay raises to fifteen
dollars and twenty-eight cents. Finally after working as a Family Practice Doctor from
twenty plus years the hourly average rate is seventeen dollars and nine cents. This is not
saying that Family Practice Doctors may not earn more an hour; this is just the average of
all Family Practice doctors. Some Family Practice Doctors can earn up to thirty dollars an
hour. If doctors have more experience and more degrees they will earn more money. Not
only does an hourly rate change but it also depends on what city the doctor is working in
that determines how much an hour a doctor will receive. For example, doctors in
Indianapolis start an hour with twelve dollars and sixty-nine cents, but Family Physicians
working in Seattle can start at seventeen dollars and thirty cents an hour. Family Practice
Doctors can make an average of about a hundred and twenty thousand to a hundred and
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fifty thousand dollars a year. Again the year salary could also vary depending on how
much experience and if they own their own clinic or not. Some Family Practice Doctors
who own their own doctor’s office can earn around three hundred thousand dollars a year
or more.
Since Trauma Physicians and Family Practice Physicians are two different types
of doctors they will earn a different amount of money. Since there are different areas of a
hospital to work in the hourly wages in a hospital will vary. Working in the emergency
room itself a doctor starts off with twenty seven dollars and fourteen cents. If a doctor
works in the intensive care unit of the hospital they earn twenty eight dollars and five
cents an hour. If a doctor works in the pediatric wing of the hospital they would earn
twenty six dollars and ninety-four cents an hour. Although all these doctors may work in
the hospital they are not all considered Trauma Physicians so their wages will be
different. Just like any other doctor the hourly wages will raise when you start working a
certain amount of years. Working one to four years a Trauma Doctor will receive twenty
three dollars and seventy cents. Then working five to nine years they will earn twenty
seven dollars and sixteen cents. Working ten to nineteen years they will earn twenty nine
dollars and seventy-one cents. Finally working twenty or more years Trauma Physicians
would earn thirty one dollars and forty-eight cents. “The median expected salary for a
typical physician-emergency room in the United States is $226,957.00” (Salary Wizard).
It is common knowledge that bigger cities that have more accidents will cause hospital
doctors to work more hours making more money than smaller city’s hospitals. But what
is not as common is that different types of hospitals have different hourly wages. For
instance, at a General Hospital physician will make twenty six dollars and eighty-six
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cents while a Trauma Physician working in a military hospital will make twenty nine
dollars and sixteen cents an hour. A Trauma physicians could make an average of a
hundred and fifty to two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars a year, depending on
there actual job requirements. The wages and salary of different doctors vary determining
their type of jobs.
The last major difference between the two doctors, and probably the biggest
difference, is their lives in general. The first aspect of their lives is their different job
descriptions. A Family Practice Doctor’s job is to treat non-emergencies. “Family
Practice is the medical specialty which provides continuing and comprehensive health
care for the individual and family” (Experience). A Family Practice Doctor is usually the
primary doctor of a whole family. “Family and general practitioners typically have a base
of regular long-term patients” (Occupational Outlook). This is the doctor that someone
would go to for check-ups, and minor aches and pains. Family Physicians can care for
anyone from infants to senior citizens. They are certified to deal with pregnant women
throughout their whole pregnancy and are even qualified to deliver the child. “Family
medicine doctors are unique because they treat people of all ages-from newborns to those
in their golden years” (Modney). Family Practice Doctors mainly diagnose problems, do
routine check-ups, deal with recoveries, prescribe medications, order lab work to be done,
and refer patients to specialists. An Emergency Room Doctor’s job description is to do all
the things that Family Practice doctors do and even more. Some things that the Trauma
Physicians deal with that Family Practice Physicians do not usually are, severe breaks,
extensive bleeding and all those things that would fall under the category of urgent and
needs to be dealt with immediately. Because of the different job descriptions it causes the
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two doctors to have completely different schedules. Family Practice Doctors have set
hours. The hours of a Family Doctor are usually nine to five on weekdays and vary rare
hours on weekends. The schedules in general are vary flexible since the doctors have
only a certain amount of patience and not very critical situations to deal with. The only
times that Family Practice Doctors have more hours is when one of their patience are in
the hospital. If a usual patient of a family doctor is in the hospital then, at the patient’s
request, the doctor goes to the hospital and takes care of the patient instead of the doctor
at the hospital. In the case of this happening the hours for a Family Practice Doctor go up
but still give the doctor plenty of free time. The result of having flexible hours, and a
sufficient amount of free time, Family Practice doctors don’t miss important events. For
example, doctors with families do not have to worry about missing their children’s games
or rehearsal or other things like that because they can work around that. Even though they
do have lots of free time, they still sacrifice some time with their families. After their
clinic hours they have lots of paper work which may have them getting home at a later
hour. If they get home late and go to work early then they do not have a lot of time to
spend with their spouse and children which can sometimes be difficult to deal with, “It is
hard sometimes, but we make it work” (Rowe, Julie). Unlike Family Practice Doctors,
Trauma Doctors have a lot more hectic hours. Family Physicians work in a quiet slow
paced clinic, but Trauma Physicians work in a way more fast paced environment. Instead
of seeing the same patients, E.R. Doctors see hundreds of different people everyday with
different injuries. “Emergency medicine is a specialty of medicine that focuses on the
diagnosis and treatment of acute illness and injuries that require immediate medical
attention.” (Emergency Medicine). Trauma Doctors may have set hours for the day but it
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is never certain. Even though the hours may be from nine to five they are always on call.
They may not be on first call everyday but they have to be aware that they may be called
in to work anytime on any day. If some huge accident happens and they are short handed,
they will be called in, and it may be at two o’clock in the morning. Since the hours are
not set in stone, Trauma Doctors have a harder time juggling their family lives. Trauma
Doctors sacrifice more of their time than any other Physician does. A Trauma Doctor
may have to leave a child’s birthday or another special event because they are called into
work. Because of their demanding schedule free time is very slim for Trauma doctors.
“Moreover, some physicians contend that medical school and residency encourages
workaholism at the expense of physician’s personal lives” (Tetrault). The free time that
they do have is spent mostly for sleep, since they are lacking sufficient sleep for the most
part.
Another thing about the doctor’s lives that makes them different is the physical
and mental tolls that they go through. It is true that they both may go through similar
sufferings but they are not at the same level of affliction. First of all, both doctors go
through physical pain like sickness. Since Family Practice doctors don’t usually deal with
serious sick patience they are usually not at risk for catching something severe. However,
they could get sick with things like the flu, and pneumonia. Even though pneumonia is
thought to be very dangerous, it will be under control if caught soon enough. Other than
the occasional cold Family Practice Doctors are not at risk like Trauma doctors are. Since
Trauma doctors deal with a larger variety of situations they have a larger chance at
catching something more serious. Not only can they catch very dangerous diseases, it
also has happened that doctors get stabbed by infectious needles holding diseases like
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aids and hepatitis. Even though things like these are rare, they still do happen. Something
less serious, but more common that doctors face is exhaustion. Working long hours,
seven days a week, it gets tiring. Trauma doctors are on their feet for most of their time
and do not get the right amount of sleep that they need. Family Practice doctors
occasionally may get exhausted but since they have less hours and have times that they
could sit down it is a lot less than E.R. doctors.
Along with physical pains, doctors also face mental tolls. The first mental
toll that doctors face is when they are interns. As interns they are pushed harder than
others and sometimes pushed to their limits. Interns are pushed so hard so they have a
better chance at dealing with situations as they become a full doctor. Even though it is for
the best, some interns cannot hack it and the stress is too much causing some to quit
becoming a doctor. Both doctors also face worry. They worry about what they could do
to help their patient. Although, when Family Practice Doctors may worry when they can
not figure out a patient’s condition and how to handle it, they send the patient to the
hospital. Since Family Practice doctors are close to their patients, even though they don’t
have to worry about how to treat a certain condition, they worry about their patient’s
health and if they will be ok or not. Trauma doctors face more worry and more deaths
than Family Practice doctors do. There are many diseases and situations that Trauma
doctors rack their brains trying to figure out how to deal with it. This causes things like
stress and worry just like Family Practice doctors but to a higher extent. Although it is
seen a lot, it is still difficult to deal with deaths of patients that doctors try so hard to save.
On the other hand, since Trauma Doctors face death more often, they are somewhat use
to it and they have a better way of coping. Trauma doctors realize that death is going to
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happen, and letting it get to them could in the end effect their job and their performance.
”Death is a way of life; as trauma doctors you need to be able to separate your work with
your personal life” (Williams). Coping with mental situations like death is a way of life
for doctors.
There are many different types of doctors with different, education, salaries, and
lives. Not all doctors are the same. Specializing in a certain field determines the type of
doctor that they will become. Just like with many other things, people should do a better
job at distinguishing the difference between doctors and what they do. Someone would
not go to a radiologist if they have bronchitis, perfect example of the importance of
understanding the different things that doctors do and who they care for. However, even
though there are many different doctors they all have one goal; use their skills to care for
patients the best they can.