15 "Dark Secrets" About The Medical Field That The Public Really Needs To Know, Straight From Doctors And Nurses
Liz Richardson
Sun, February 8, 2026 at 12:30 AM UTC
12 min read
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We recently wrote a post where medical professionals revealed "dark secrets" about what it's like to work in their field, and it was gut-wrenching. In the comments, fellow doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers shared behind-the-scenes experiences, shocking stories, and challenges of their jobs, and I'm honestly speechless. Here's what they had to say:
1. "I'm an RN in the ICU. The number of assaults on medical staff is increasing. Management will do nothing about it. I was attacked by a family member in the ICU. He felt it was my fault that his 88-year-old grandmother was dying. My manager blamed me, asking, 'What could you have done differently to avoid this?' They didn't even ban the family member from the hospital."
"I was discouraged from pressing charges as it would not be good for my career."
—Anonymous, 60
2. "As a new grad nurse, it's heartbreaking to accept the reality that greater focus is being placed on the 'numbers' and what looks good corporately instead of a focus on the time needed to give patients/residents quality care. I work in wound care in geriatrics, and the increasing number of charging requirements reduces the time we actually have to treat the residents. I've already told my parents that if need be, there is no way I would leave their care solely to a facility."
—Anonymous, 35, Alabama
3. "I'm a retired pharmacist. A woman in her 40s was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. The family couldn't afford health insurance. This is a small rural hospital. The hospital administrator went around to the ER and nurses, telling them they better not let her get admitted because they didn't have insurance."
—Anonymous, 67, Iowa
4. "I recently retired from radiology, doing CT scans and X-rays. Both use radiation to create the images, and technologists are supposed to keep the patient's radiation exposure as low as possible. In fact, we're required to sign pledges to do so yearly. However, WE don't order these exams on patients; their doctor, PA, NP, or RN orders them. But the ordering providers AREN'T tasked with keeping patients' radiation exposure low. These providers don't always know which imaging exam would be best for the patient's condition — they don't get much training in ordering imaging. Sometimes, if unnecessary exams are ordered or the wrong exam is ordered, we can talk the provider into changing it…or get a radiologist to change it. But, often, we're told just to do what's ordered."
"And in today's world of patient satisfaction scores and malpractice lawsuits, providers often cave in to the demands of patients and/or their family members. I can't tell you how many babies' and toddlers' heads I've scanned because of a minor fall and over-anxious parents bringing them to the ER — and despite no marks on their head and no symptoms of any kind, the parents INSIST on a CT scan, even if the provider says it's not necessary. And the provider says, 'Just do it. The parents want it.'
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CT scans involve far more radiation than X-rays. (I was told by a radiologist that one chest CT is roughly equivalent to 50–70 chest X-rays, depending on scan settings.) And CTs have only been around since the 1970s, so no one knows the long-term effects of all that radiation exposure. Plus, it's being increasingly used. Of course, it's absolutely essential for diagnosing and monitoring many illnesses. But high doses of radiation exposure can cause cancer! So, using it indiscriminately, overusing it, or using it just to appease patients and their families is irresponsible. And the ones ordering its use aren't being held responsible for that."
—Anonymous
5. "My wife has been a nurse for 43 years. She is an outspoken advocate for patient care over making money, which has led to her being terminated from two hospitals. She will never back down from advocating for patient care!!!"
6. "I work as a surgical technologist in surgery. I make sure all the instruments and supplies are gathered for the case, and I also assist during it. Critical supplies are constantly on back order, and we don't know until it's time for the case. Most of the time, we have to use an inferior replacement that the doctor hates, or it doesn't work as well, and the doctor has to fix whatever the inferior supplier caused. Or, the hospital decided to change what supplies we use to cheaper ones just to save money, while the patient is getting charged at least three times what the supply costs."
—Anonymous, 36, Virginia
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7. "One of the most shocking things I encountered was the reality of academic medicine. After my fellowship training, I went into it idealistically, thinking that we would be beyond the fray of caring only about the bottom line — that was for the private practice people. Boy, was I wrong. Academic medicine turned out to be much worse than private practice because they used the veil of their academic status to cover up their greed. Most of the patients are cared for by residents or fellows, and almost never see the attending physician; that person may not even be involved in the surgery that the patient went for, under the impression that they were going to the surgeon with the big name."
"Eventually, I left, although I was there for almost a decade. What I took from that is that I would never seek care at an academic hospital, and I would definitely never go to someone who is a department head, because that's usually the person interested in politics and is typically a terrible surgeon. I subsequently joined a private practice, and it was refreshing to see that they actually talked about the ethics of medicine and were directly involved in patient care, unlike what I had seen in academics."
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—Anonymous, 56, Utah
8. "Patients are ruder than I’ve ever seen them in 45 years. It’s not Burger King. You don't get to show up after 'doing your research' and tell us your diagnosis and what drugs and treatments you will and won’t accept. We don't know how to expedite your billing, we aren’t out to 'make a buck' off you, and once and for all, anybody who wants to sell you supplements for $80 a month to circumvent Big Pharma is laughing all the way to the bank."
—Anonymous
9. "I worked as a critical care nurse in a very busy cardiac unit in the Bay Area. Part of our job was to be assigned to go to departments where studies were being done, such as Interventional Radiology, if a very ill patient needed an RN to observe him during the procedure. I got called to take over for the patient's RN so she could go to lunch. The wife was standing in the doorway as I arrived. The wife told me that the previous nurse had ignored the patient's complaint of banging his leg on the side of the bed as they positioned him for the procedure. I asked her to show me before the procedure began, and she pointed to the middle of his shin. There was no redness or swelling; the skin was not broken or discolored. We proceeded with the procedure, and I brought him back to his room. Nothing more was said about it by the wife or the patient."
"After putting him back to bed, I completed my charting and entered a progress note for the doctor to see when he next looked at the chart. There was no need to call the doctor, as nothing was damaged. I filled out a new skin flow sheet, noting the complaint and exactly where it occurred. I even included a Polaroid photograph of the skin with the measuring tape included in the photo. At the end of the shift, I reported the 'incident' to the next shift and notified the supervisor.
Several months later, I got called in to the hospital nursing manager's office to meet with a representative of the State Board of Registered Nursing. What do you know, it was about that man's leg! She started interrogating me. I asked for my union representative to come in. In the meantime, I did show her the charting that I had done, including the skin flow sheet.
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Wouldn't you know, nobody else on the floor charted anything else during the duration of his stay! The BRN rep was trying to get me to say that I had neglected this patient, but by the end of the session, after showing her all of the charting (she never read the chart before that meeting!), she actually asked me if I would consider taking a job with the BRN as an investigator! I said thank you very much, but the State can't afford me, and I left."
—Anonymous, 72, California
10. "My mother was a nurse; she'd take me to work, so I learned healthcare early when I was 10 years old. I helped her with patient care on weekends. I became a nurse and worked for over 40 years in hospitals, hospice, clinics, HMOs, clinical research, and home care. I gave my patients the same care I'd give family. My last position was a nurse in IT. Nurses are used, abused, put down, and constantly reprimanded. It's pitiful that large corporate hospitals are only about giving you more duties and how to do more with less money."
"Patients are neglected. It's totally disgusting that we are treated so poorly. It's devastating to see what we've become."
—Anonymous
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11. "Spending 20 years in healthcare taught me the lengths insurance, pharmaceutical, and medical companies will go to protect the brand and the money corruptly earned. These three work together to keep patients just sick enough to keep making money and just treated enough to keep patients coming back for more. In medical school, we do not have one course for nutrition or another for natural remedies. Not one. We are taught to push chemical medications and that natural remedies are irrelevant and inferior. We get into serious trouble if we go 'off book.' Also, insurance is the boil on the a$$ of any practicing healthcare professional because it dictates everything you do for your patients. Got government insurance? You're getting the best care. Got Medicaid? You're getting the bare minimum. Insurance was somehow given the authority to question and deny anything and everything healthcare providers."
"Do not get me started on 'peer-to-peer consultations.' A sick, sick joke. One time, I found myself on the phone with a girl who admitted she had a high school diploma and zero college, and was trying to tell me how to treat my patient. She was in no position to participate in a peer-to-peer consult with a board-certified, licensed medical provider. It's terrifying to know the behind-the-scenes truths of what goes on in healthcare. Also, it feels very defeating when your heart's desire is to help people."
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—Anonymous
12. "I've worked in healthcare for over 20 years, and for the past 15, as a healthcare data analyst. The data doesn't lie: hospitals, employers, and insurers all have one goal — to make care cheaper and make more money. There is ONE solution: single-payer healthcare. Ask any healthcare professional, and they will tell you the same thing. The only reason we don't have it? Greed. Greedy insurance companies, greedy politicians, and greedy PACs."
—Anonymous, 57
13. "I worked for over 40 years as an RN in hospitals and hospice. The doctors in a hospital setting wouldn't be the ones saving patients' lives; it was the nurses. There were no doctors around after they did rounds. The nurse was the last line of safety for a patient. We did NOT blindly follow doctors' orders because doctors can make mistakes and potentially kill a patient. People, administrators, and doctors, quit abusing nurses."
—Anonymous, 70, New Hampshire
14. "I work in medical staff services. Most people have no idea what we do, but our job is incredibly important. We make sure your physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, and other medical staff providers are educated, trained, licensed, boarded, and competent to perform the procedures requested on their privilege form."
"We also check for malpractice cases, legal issues, and previous work history. You would be shocked at the things we see. Shocked!"
—Anonymous, 56, Oklahoma
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And finally...
15. "I did a month-long rotation at the ED in a children's hospital run by a for-profit healthcare company. When I was there, one of the attending doctors told me that nurses were constantly bringing up the issue of understaffing. Babies were straight-up coding and dying in the ER because there wasn't enough staff to check on them appropriately. When the attending tried to discuss this with representatives of the company, they literally said to her face that they would rather pay off lawsuits FOR DEAD BABIES than hire more staff. They. Do. Not. Care. Most evil sh*t I've ever heard in my life."
—Anonymous, 26, Michigan
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Medical professionals, what are some other "dark secrets" about your job that more people should know? Tell us in the comments, or if you prefer to remain anonymous, you can use the form below.
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