Do Women or Men Make the Best Doctors?

[AMCoffeePMWine]

This study from Canada is very interesting. Asking if the reason for better outcomes is because current doctors coming out of Med school have more up to date skills.

www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20210719/do-women-or-men-make-the-best-doctors?ecd=soc_tw_210721_cons_news_doctorstudy&linkId=100000056171192

All the technical skill and knowledge in the world are of reduced value if you can’t communicate well enough with your patients to complete a comprehensive assessment.

And we don’t count the patients - frequently middle aged women - dismissed as being tired all the time when they have a serious underlying condition.

So called life saving surgery isn’t life saving for the people who don’t get it because a GP or clerking Dr don’t listen to them.

As an adult, I've only been in hospital when I've had a baby so my experience is limited.

Female doctor who performed the sweep asked me why I was crying. Before I had chance to answer, a midwife told her it was probably the shock of the days events and being told my baby would die if I didn't have an EMCS in the middle of the night.

Male anesthetist who sat behind my head stroking my hair and telling me how brave and amazing I was - amazing.

I don't often see a GP but I've seen male and female ones for mental and women's health and they've both been brilliant.

Male and female GPs/hospital doctors for both my children - no complaints of either.

I did have a male GP many years ago who didn't make my referral for a termination because he didn't agree with it but, other than that, I've not found there to be much difference.

Oh, only doctors I met who I felt prejudiced against for being a young (24) single parent were female and I was treated so badly in hospital with my 15 month old that another patient's dad complained about it. I know because they told me complaints had been made about me by the other patients. Another woman heard and told me that it was her husband who had complained and the complaint had been about their treatment of me.

I didn't say brilliant, perfect @NiceGerbil. And of course communication and skill is the ideal, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter how well a doctor can communicate if they arent performing or doing the appropriate investigations.

And no I didn't say communication was being priotised in teaching leading to botched surgeries.

What I did say was that actual surgical or diagnostic skill is more important than communication when it comes to medical care. Thats not to say you shouldn't have good communication skills or empathy but that I don't think these are the be all and end all of delivering medical care

@VanGuff

I do agree though that patients are much more open to disclosing to female doctors

I cant tell you how many times patients will look to me, or my female colleagues over our male colleagues on ward rounds. How many will wait for the consultant to leave the room before disclosing something to me. I'm no more empathetic than my male colleagues but I think a lot of patients will automatically assume the woman is kinder and nicer, and so will disclose more personal information.

I think there is something to this, and I have a theory about this. I think that for many people, at a very deep level, it comes down to a feeling related to being mothered. They feel a sense of safety. It's not just in medicine but across a lot of different areas of life, when there is really no personal knowledge to make a decision about who to talk to.

'WoohooIAmGoingToAGig
Male anesthetist who sat behind my head stroking my hair and telling me how brave and amazing I was - amazing.'

Yay!

Imo anaesthetists are just lovely!

I've met so many HCPs over the years and EVERY anaesthetist I have been involved with has been kind, gentle, caring and just awesome.

Love to all the anaesthetists out there!

Van Guff that is a totally different set of views to the ones you gave previously.

Of course anyone can read the posts and come to their own conclusions.

As a point of interest the reply to me where you referred to me in the 3rd person even though I was on the to thread was... Telling.

@NiceGerbil its really not

Everyone can read your posts.

Just going off my own experiences - Female

A very rough internal of a male gyne doctor. There was nurse present but I felt violated. It still pops in to my mind now and again

Male surgeon telling me in a nonchalant way that my tubes were withered and needed taking out. He waved his hand casually over my abdomen as he as saying it. I was just coming round after the GE

Male doctor giving me a horrible internal to the point I climbed up the bed. I was bleeding heavily and was in severe pain after being sent to the hospital by a female GP for suspected ectopic pregnancy. He said I was probably miscarrying and told the nurse to get me some paracetamol and left the room. the nurse came back with paracetamol and handed them to me whilst I was crouched on the floor in pain and left. Then my Fallopian tube ruptured and crawled in to the corridor and shouted help. A female doctor ran to me and helped me on the bed and gave me two shots of morphine before I was took in to theatre in to theatre. I remember her tearing a strip of him when he shown back up. She was waiting for me when I woke up.