Don’t tell me you’ve never done this: deliberately avoid revealing that you are doctor. Whether it is like White Coat Investor, who rightfully thinks that he may get a better deal if the sales person doesn’t know he’s a doctor, or it is awkward at a dinner party after a crowd just made a series of doctor jokes (not suspecting that there is a doctor in their mist.)
I’ve deliberately concealed the fact that I was a doctor while shopping for houses.
So here you go, I think these job titles are ring true to much of what we do. Technically, we are not lying when we saying, “I am a __________” from choices below. I’m sure you’ve come up with more creative and funny alternate job title for practicing medicine.
Ø Customer satisfaction specialist
More and more nowadays, especially with the health care provider ratings all over the internet, patient satisfaction is paramount to compliance, health outcomes of patients, and ratings and corresponding reimbursement for doctors.
Ø Teacher
Doctor means teacher in Latin. We teach ourselves, each other, and our patients’ day in and out. We are in the business of life-long learning, and teaching.
Ø Solutions Specialist
We diagnose problems, and then propose solutions. We solve problems all days. We love the challenge of identifying and solving problems.
Ø Secretary
The amount of paperwork required by insurance company is ever-increasing, eating up 1/6 of doctor’s time. We can pretty much call ourselves paperwork junkies by slang.
Ø Indentured servant
Medical students today have 3 choices, pay medical student loans for 25 years on IDR (income driven repayment) and receive taxable forgiveness for the remainder, for 10 years on IDR (income driven repayment) while working PSLF-eligible job and receive tax-free forgiveness for the remainder, or refinance to a lower interest rate and pay it off aggressively.
Regardless of which way they chose, it’s a lot of money before the debt is paid off or forgiven. When 5k per month of income go towards paying off student loans, or 10k+ monthly if one’s more aggressive, it does approximate indentured servitude.
If you like this article, you might enjoy other DWM articles on Personal Finance, Investing, Retirement, Practice Management, & Lifestyle.