Negative Connotations Of Surgeons

What is the first word that comes to mind when thinking about the negative connotations of surgeons? A New York Times poll reads that 85% of people say arrogance. Surgeons are often portrayed as these self-absorbed, arrogant animals that will do anything to get ahead. No matter their specialty, whether it is plastics, cardio, neurosurgery, or something else entirely, surgeons ultimately get an extremely bad wrap. Admittedly, it is no secret that medical school, and ultimately completing residency at a hospital, are extremely competitive ambitions. However, this simply means surgeons are driven, hard-working individuals that deserve the job they have earned, rather than cut-throat, self-absorbed psychopaths. According to Dr. Katie Hughes, “a
Many people misconstrue the word ignorance to mean something derogatory, yet it simply means being uneducated about a subject. Many individuals who put surgeons within this stereotype of arrogance and self-absorption, are simply uneducated as to what being a surgeon entails. Whether a person is seeking to become a surgeon and is currently within the schooling process, or a person is already a surgeon, they are under an immense amount of stress and undergo a strenuous schedule. A student in the process of becoming a surgeon is constantly studying, performing clinicals, or practicing important methods of surgery. The process can be extremely tiring, and is extremely time consuming. The studying alone takes away a large chunk of a student’s time, as any person who is or has once been a student should know. An individual who has completed college and is in or past the residency stage must continue to practice perfecting their craft, because there is no room for mistakes when performing surgery on an actual person. This causes fatigue and stress. Also, surgeons are mostly on-call, which means they could have been performing surgery at all hours of the night. This ultimately causes extreme fatigue as
Television shows and movies constantly portray surgeons with the stereotypical arrogant, cut-throat persona. There are several examples of this. The critically acclaimed, thirteen-season aired, “Grey’s Anatomy” written by Shonda Rhymes is notorious for creating the arrogant self-absorbed, cut throat, borderline-crazy surgeon. Dr. Preston Burke, Dr. Derek Shephard, Dr. Mark Sloan, Dr, Cristina Yang, and many others fall under this category within the show. Dr. Cristina Yang is among the worst, as her character portrays an overly-competitive, cut throat surgeon that is known for having little compassion for her patients. This does not correlate with the Ferguson Career Guidance Center’s description of tasks that surgeons must perform, which states that surgeons “must be compassionate and reassuring not only to the patients, but to the frightened family members as well.” (TCC Database). Similarly, televisions news stations do no justice to the surgeon’s reputation either. When googling “arrogant surgeons” the first results to pop up are news stories regarding poorly behaved surgeons. However, when googling “nice surgeons”, there are no news stories regarding surgeons who perform well, but instead articles and blogs popped up regarding arrogant surgeons. The news enjoys negative publicity, yet is slow to acknowledge the acts of valor surgeons