Doctors are Wary of Millennial Doctors Niche Practices

As the millennial generation begins to graduate they bring new ideas of how doctors interact with patients, each other and their schedules. First and foremost, millennials are known to be tech savvy and EHR will be the most profound change to patient care in the future. Doctors will greet patients with smartphones, tablets or laptops in hand, and will almost never pick up a paper and pencil. Millennials look forward to the free flow of information in this manner. As soon as EHR are made commonplace and compatibility issues become scarce, doctors will be able to care for patients in teams. Dr. Sadi Raza is optimistic that this will relieve stress for doctors, both in the care of the patient and in their workweek. There has been a growing trend of doctors working fewer hours and in teams, which is a result of a large increase of doctors being employed by hospitals as opposed to entering private practice.

However, some doctors believe that although the lifestyle of doctors can improve, it will be at the expense of the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Rick Snyder, a cardiologist from the baby boomer generation, compared this to aerial combat in Vietnam. As pilots became more reliant on technology in the cockpit, their dog-fighting skills suffered as a result. His opinion furthers, saying that millennials are not going to be as diligent in their work because they will be working less. In his generation of residents, they boasted their high divorce rates and painstakingly long shifts in hospitals.

Amy Ho, a recent graduate, has a message for the conservative baby boomer generation. She says, “Regardless, there's one thing that I think holds true for every generation… everyone is there to try and take care of you. Everyone is there because they want to take care of patients."