Cognitive Dissonance in the Medical Profession (opens in new tab)

The economics of the shift from productive labour (goods) to service industry is 50+ years deep and we're still afraid to talk openly about work, value, value adding, and hours.

Health economics is complicated. The primary barrier to more health professionals in most economies is government funding followed by restrictive practices in the industry certifying new entrants, not that the certification per se is wrong, it's the controls on rate of certification outcome which are the problem: doctors don't want dilution of income. The hours suck but the money is good.

They definitely need to work less, especially junior doctors and registrars in hospital. The hours are dangerously insane, life threatening for doctor and patient alike and it's no different in nursing: there's a reason nurses go locum and supply over contracted and it's bound up in stupid health economics.

(Not in medicine, I read this. Happy if people in the field correct me)

Agree. I think this is the result of scale. As organizations grow, the left hand stops knowing what the right hand is doing.Work becomes focussed on 'surviving and advancing within the workplace' rather than the original mission of the work itself. This results in two classes in every workplace, those who advance the mission of the organization and those who want to grow the organization and their place in it as a goal in itself.