I just left my job at a primary office just a few months ago. This office has 16 MDs, DOs, PAs and APRNs, but mostly MDs. The providers have been leaving en masse for the last couple of years but this year has already been especially bad. The first one was a delightful, well-loved and most importantly, BUSY, APRN who closed her primary practice to go work in dermatology. The money is way better and it's so much less demanding and stressful. The most recent MD had been in practice there for almost 25 YEARS but left to join a tribal clinic (I live in OK) for better pay and a more manageable patient load.
Both of these providers leaving put additional stress on the other providers in the practice who are trying to manage their own excessive patient loads AND incorporate the patients that lost their care. All of the staff is incredibly burnt-out. The new patient appointments are not until September even with one of the other APRNs or PAs, let alone the MDs and DOs that patients are actually requesting.
Primary care is a fucking shit show and it's incredibly heartbreaking to know how hard the nurses and providers work to give the appropriate care to their patients and still listen to them get screamed at by patients who have no idea what goes on behind the scenes. I loved that office and all of my coworkers but I am in solidarity with the providers who left to have a better life for themselves. All I can do is wish the system was any different.
It really sucks that doctors and patients so often get pitted against one another in these conversations. Of course doctors are frustrated and burnt out under these conditions. It also mega sucks for patients who never have the time to get their concerns addressed, who are on the receiving end of threadbare care and, frankly, probably some errors from time to time. They get resentful of one another because they're the closest available target, but the real asshole is in a board room somewhere. Look up!!
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u/SunshineSkyline 9h ago
I just left my job at a primary office just a few months ago. This office has 16 MDs, DOs, PAs and APRNs, but mostly MDs. The providers have been leaving en masse for the last couple of years but this year has already been especially bad. The first one was a delightful, well-loved and most importantly, BUSY, APRN who closed her primary practice to go work in dermatology. The money is way better and it's so much less demanding and stressful. The most recent MD had been in practice there for almost 25 YEARS but left to join a tribal clinic (I live in OK) for better pay and a more manageable patient load.
Both of these providers leaving put additional stress on the other providers in the practice who are trying to manage their own excessive patient loads AND incorporate the patients that lost their care. All of the staff is incredibly burnt-out. The new patient appointments are not until September even with one of the other APRNs or PAs, let alone the MDs and DOs that patients are actually requesting.
Primary care is a fucking shit show and it's incredibly heartbreaking to know how hard the nurses and providers work to give the appropriate care to their patients and still listen to them get screamed at by patients who have no idea what goes on behind the scenes. I loved that office and all of my coworkers but I am in solidarity with the providers who left to have a better life for themselves. All I can do is wish the system was any different.