Regulations to protect those in training. Not always abided but its certainly not as crazy as it used to be. Although, it’s still rough.
The problem is not the training. It’s after your training is completed that I think ruins people. You’re told make it through/tough it out in med school and residency and life will get better and you’ll be making a lot of money. You see the light at the end of the tunnel, but what you don’t see the clothesline at the end of the tunnel that is government/insurance/hospital administrators that you run full speed into.
The truth is is that healthcare is getting ruined by decreased wages, increased scrutiny, being told by a healthcare administrator to see more patients while patients are mad at you for not spending enough time with them. Having a needed medication, procedure denied by the insurance and then having to write a letter or do a peer to peer with the insurance company on behalf of your patient trying to do what’s best for them. All of this extra work you do for free. The list goes on and on. Most doctors will tell young people to go into a different career. If I had spent the 7 years working as hard as I did in med school and residency in something like engineering or some business I’d most likely be making a heck of a lot more money than I ever will as a doctor.
Doctor’s are not in charge and have very little autonomy and burnout is a real thing but then we feel guilty for being burned out because quite frankly, patient’s need us.