When I Googled “How long does it take to become a doctor” I found that it takes an average of 14 years. I’ve decided that, within those 14 years, doctors develop big heads and become extremely full of themselves. They also seem to think that the world revolves around them and that no one has anything better to do than to sit in the waiting room or exam room and wait for the doctor to eventually get around to helping them.

I know a lot of students here at the University of New Haven are pre-med so I truly hope you read this and realize that patients have lives. Please remember this in ten years when you are opening a practice, which I really hope you all do. However, if you are going to be one of those doctors who puts too many appointments in the books for a given day and makes patients spend their days sitting in your waiting room wasting their time, then I don’t actually hope you open a practice, sorry, but there is just nothing god that comes from that.

There is no reason why when I go out of my way to be on time for my scheduled appointment I should then wait for 20 minutes in the waiting room, be moved to an exam room and then wait another half an hour before the doctor gets to me, only to have the doctor spend ten minutes with me. I understand the doctors might have something come up- so it can happen occasionally. But when you sit in a waiting room every time you go to a doctor, no matter what the specialty, then you get a little aggravated. It’s so inconsiderate. If you didn’t have time to fit a patient in, then you should have made the appointment for a different time, or at least given them a heads up that you had a busy morning and might be running behind.

Doctors do a lot of good in the world, they heal people, and they studied hard to do so. But a class on respect and human compassion might be helpful, because I see a lot of doctors and they seem to be a tad bit too arrogant for my taste. Why can’t they just think about how they used to feel when they waited for hours at the doctors? Why do they think it is okay to make others waste their entire day for one appointment as if they have nothing else to do. Not saying that all doctors are like this, but I’ve seen a lot, and a lot recently, and the majority left me waiting longer in the waiting room and exam rooms than I think they ever studied for exams.