Everyone hates everyone else

I've noticed that, unfortunately, every field of medicine seems to really hate every other field of medicine. In addition to the hatred comes the stereotypes. Pediatricians and family med doctors are stupid, surgeons are callous douchebags, anesthesiologists are lazy, neurologists are useless, psychiatrists are crazy. And really, these stereotypes (like all stereotypes) are based upon an observation that then gets built upon. Pediatricians and family med doctors have some of the lowest board score averages. Surgeons do very quick exams and often are unreachable in the OR (which other specialties don't seem to understand). Everyone has looked over at an anesthesiologist at some point to see them on their phone or reading a book. The list goes on.

I'm not going to say I disagree or agree with the stereotypes. It is, however, detrimental to patient care when specialties bicker with one another or can't work together because one of them has a superiority complex. It also makes for a negative experience when everyone is always talking about how they hate someone else.

You know what? We are all the best. We are some of the smartest individuals in the nation. Yet for some reason, doctors still feel the need to define themselves as best, others as worst, and create a hierarchy within the medical field. It's annoying. It's like being back in high school again. You get sucked in so easily. You feel insecure because you aren't the best anymore like you were in college. Your potential field of medicine is being made fun of. So you make fun of other fields. Or you have someone standing in front of you who thinks they are so much better than you (and says it).

You hear the familiar statements. "Of course he did a CT when it wasn't necessary, he's an ER doc." "These pediatricians are incompetent." "Radiologists are so lazy." "Don't call the neurologist, there is no point." "Of course surgery won't come see him, they can't be bothered." "Don't become an anesthesiologist, they don't help anyone."

My personal favorite was when the pediatrician said, "That website is idiotic. It doesn't give any information at all and it's written in 4th grade english. That site is made for family medicine docs, not us." Uhhhh, you guys are both primary care and reaalllyyy similar. How can you guys hate each other?

My friends and I had an interesting discussion once. There must be ONE field that everyone sort of respects and leaves alone. I thought maybe cardiology. My friend thought hem/onc.

Thoughts?