Army surgeon general blames media for looming doctor shortage

[sabra]

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=38570


<snip>

The number of medical students accepting Army and Navy scholarships has fallen sharply over the last two years, in part because of the mayhem in Iraq as depicted in daily news reports, say service medical leaders.

A scholarship program that the Army surgeon general calls “our lifeblood, over time, for recruiting physicians” is failing to attract enough qualified applicants by wide margins, except in the Air Force.

Difficulties in recruiting the next generation of Army and Navy physicians and dentists have spurred the Senate to approve new authorities to increase dramatically medical bonuses and stipends.

...

Kiley and Arthur, in separate interviews, blamed some of their downturn on news and images out of Iraq. Young people, Kiley said, “look at this and say either ‘I don’t agree with our war’ or ‘I sure don’t want to be over there.’ So they see signing up for a scholarship as tantamount to enlisting and going right into combat. (In fact) it’s going to be anywhere from four to nine years before that would happen.”

:crazy:

[GodlessBiker]

1. Yes, doctor, treat the symptom not the infection. That makes sense.

[Avalux]

2. How about some accountablility?

Physicians take an oath to save lives. This war is immoral and illegal - that's the biggest reason they aren't signing up. There's a definite ethical dilemma going on here, and all this idiot can do is blame the media for telling the truth.

[Exultant Democracy]

8. Exactly, it isn't the media it is the war.

[blonndee]

3. WHAT news and images coming out of Iraq?

Most of the "news" on Iraq can't be found on teevee. The "media" is doing a despicable job of NOT covering the war.

What a maroon.

[bananas]

4. They keep telling us it's going to be a "Long War" that will last decades

"So they see signing up for a scholarship as tantamount to enlisting and going right into combat. (In fact) it’s going to be anywhere from four to nine years before that would happen.”

Yeah, but Rummy keeps saying this is a "long war" that will last decades. Med students don't want to sign up for decades of battle-field triage.

[napi21]

5. Yep! It's true. The media DOES show a little of what it's really like

and what you might have to encounter if you signup! And I'm sure that undrmines the glowing promises the military gives these young recruits BEFORE they sign on that line!

That's just too damn bad, isn't it? Gee, they might get a glimpse of reality!

[gratuitous]

6. What are they talking about?

Holy smokes, you'd think guys who'd risen to the rank of surgeon general would be a little smarter than this hokum. Or maybe they don't think their pool of potential combat doctors is very smart. Either way, I think this story is hardly going to persuade any medically-inclined types to join up.

What was the last line from "Bridge on the River Kwai"? Oh yeah. "Madness."

[yellowcanine]

7. Maybe they would also rather not get stuck at Walter Reed taking care

of kids their age and younger with half their limbs blown off. It is a bit disingenuous to only talk about the possibility of being sent into combat.

[rocktivity]

9. It may take 9 years before a doctor "would happen" to end up in Iraq

or Iran or Syria. But unless we unseat and punish the Bush monarch, it WOULD happen.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. Maybe he should blame the students for acting sensibly.

Not to mention morally.

[GeorgeGist]

11. "The truth hurts Dr. Kiley, suck it up."

-Marcus Welby, MD

[Proud Liberal Dem]

12. Good News? Where?

WHERE is this mythical "good" or "positive" coverage of Iraq that some people continuously insist exists? If it truly exists, why is NOBODY getting it out there where we can see it? For a press that seems to be consumed with a fear of being tarred as "liberal" or in any way "unsympathetic" to Bush/GOP, it is hard for me to imagine that the MSM is just "sitting" on a bunch of "positive" or "heart-warming" stories in favor of reporting the apalling conditions in Iraq and our involvement therein. Could it be possible that the situation in Iraq REALLY IS bad? I have never been tempted to sign up for the armed forces but I'd be even less inclined now more than ever with the possibility of being shipped off to Iraq to continue our illegal, unworkable, and "unwinnable" de-facto occupation.