Comment

Comment by stephencanon

Residency at an ER isn't necessary for someone to become a pediatrician. Pediatricians do a pediatric residency. You seem to be very, very confused.

> Why have you elevated some bottleneck guild requirement into a general license to write prescriptions? Or sign-off on an STD test? Or allow patients to get blood tests? Or to inform them of said test results?

Literally everything you listed here can be done by a mid-level (i.e. non-MD), and commonly is (though the scope of prescriptions they can write is limited by states, IIRC).

> by reducing the argument to this level you are only suggesting you have no adequate response to the actual problem

I have no idea what you're talking about; I posted a minor factual correction to someone else that has nothing to do with this point. Again, you seem to be very, very confused.

----

In your edit you say:

> I would actually think that "residency" is a poor way of measuring competence in that field as well

Residency is not a tool for measuring competence. It is the means by which that competence is acquired[1]. You demonstrate competence by passing the written and oral boards in your specialty.

> "residency" hasn't been necessary for almost any of the medical care I have received.

May this continue to be true. If everyone were so lucky, the medical system would be much, much simpler.

[1] Foreign doctors who may already be competent are required to go through residency in the US as well; there probably should be a way to short-circuit that and allow them to demonstrate competence.

Discussion

Live from the official Hacker News API

A modern reader for Hacker News · SvelteKit + Skeleton