What does a doctor do?
A doctor is a medical expert who diagnoses and treats illnesses and injuries, often specializing in particular areas. Their responsibilities revolve around conducting initial interviews and examinations, studying a patient's medical history and laboratory results, providing consultations and care advice, prescribing medication, and referring patients to specialists when necessary. They must also coordinate and maintain an active communication line with nurses, administrators, and technicians for a smooth workflow. Moreover, a doctor must educate patients about their health conditions, helping them understand their situation better.
Doctor responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real doctor resumes:
- Manage conditions including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, hypothyroidism, asthma, and GERD.
- Develop personalize treatment plans, rehabilitation plans, exercise plans, report of findings, nutritional plans and narrative reports.
- Perform patient x-rays, provide MRI consultations.
- Perform x-rays of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine.
- Hire, train, educate and monitor staff in HIPPA policies and procedures.
- Create, update, and maintain confidential patient EHRs in compliance with all HIPAA laws and regulations.
- Perform exercises, electrical stimulation, paraffin baths, hot and cold packs, traction, and ultrasound.
- Maintain accurate charts and follow HIPAA compliance, Medicare and other insurance regulations for filing claims and billing.
- Perform spinal traction and develop strengthening protocols for injuries.
- Exercise relate rehabilitation, nutrition consultation, and lifestyle wellness case management.
- Consult and refer patients to other department specialists and medical and community resources as necessary.
- Perform as connection between patients and physicians to tactfully determine matters exercising well-built communications and interpersonal skills.
- Provide overall quality prenatal health care, gynecological services, patient triage, refer patients with complications, provide patient education service
- Perform phlebotomy, process blood and cultures!
- Learned effective phlebotomy techniques, give vaccinations, perform pap smears, and breast examinations.
Doctor skills and personality traits
We calculated that 33% of Doctors are proficient in Patients, Customer Service, and Emergency Medicine. They’re also known for soft skills such as Leadership skills, Patience, and Physical stamina.
We break down the percentage of Doctors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 33%
Collaborated with clinical staff and specialty Physicians on multiple discipline treatments and coordinated care efforts with hospitalized patients.
- Customer Service, 12%
Provided exceptional customer service by conducting follow up calls after visits.
- Emergency Medicine, 5%
Served the population in Emergency Medicine Service Standards in shifts as one of the three physicians for one year
- Surgery, 5%
Monitored vitals during and after surgery via stethoscope and vitals monitor.
- DR, 4%
Followed pediatrician, Dr. Colon with the hopes of gaining valuable insight on the daily activities and routines of a physician.
- Cleanliness, 3%
Maintained cleanliness and presentation of patient common areas.
Most doctors use their skills in "patients," "customer service," and "emergency medicine" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential doctor responsibilities here:
Leadership skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a doctor to have is leadership skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "physicians who work in their own practice must manage a staff of other professionals." Doctors often use leadership skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "general surgery with dr. richard guttman at cleveland clinic wooster leadership"
Patience. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling doctor duties is patience. The role rewards competence in this skill because "physicians and surgeons may work for long periods with patients who need special attention." According to a doctor resume, here's how doctors can utilize patience in their job responsibilities: "demonstrated uncommon patience and compassion for patients. "
Physical stamina. doctors are also known for physical stamina, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to doctor responsibilities, because "physicians and surgeons should be comfortable lifting or turning disabled patients, or performing other physical tasks." A doctor resume example shows how physical stamina is used in the workplace: "performed physical medical histories and complete physical exams in order to diagnose patients under doctor supervision and guidance. "
Detail oriented. doctor responsibilities often require "detail oriented." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "patients must receive appropriate treatment and medications." This resume example shows what doctors do with detail oriented on a typical day: "result oriented sales professional with demonstrated customer service excellence, business acumen, and strategic planning ability. "
Dexterity. Another common skill required for doctor responsibilities is "dexterity." This skill comes up in the duties of doctors all the time, as "physicians and surgeons may work with very precise and sometimes sharp tools, and mistakes can have serious consequences." An excerpt from a real doctor resume shows how this skill is central to what a doctor does: "learned hands-on chiropractic treatment of patients. "
Organizational skills. While "organizational skills" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to doctor responsibilities. Much of what a doctor does relies on this skill, seeing as "good recordkeeping and other organizational skills are critical in both medical and business settings." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of doctors: "practice management related: developed and implemented organizational policies, procedures, methods and standards for the medical practice. "
The three companies that hire the most doctors are:
- All Medical Personnel18 doctors jobs
- First Cash Financial Services11 doctors jobs
- Heartland Dental11 doctors jobs
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Compare different doctors
Doctor vs. Resident physician
A Resident Physician participates in a program of graduate medical education and training in a specialized area of medicine. They work with other members of the healthcare team to provide direct medical care to patients.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a doctor are more likely to require skills like "customer service," "surgery," "dr," and "strong work ethic." On the other hand, a job as a resident physician requires skills like "family medicine," "ob," "medical education," and "psychiatry." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Resident physicians tend to make the most money working in the health care industry, where they earn an average salary of $71,876. In contrast, doctors make the biggest average salary, $178,767, in the health care industry.On average, resident physicians reach similar levels of education than doctors. Resident physicians are 0.3% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 16.9% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Doctor vs. Resident physician in radiology
A resident physician in radiology provides comprehensive education, training, and experience in all areas of diagnostic imaging, including plain film radiography, angiography, and interventional procedures, computed tomography, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, mammography, nuclear radiology, physics, radiobiology, and radiation protection. They also work to create an intellectual environment that encourages residents to continue active learning and continuing medical education following completion of the program.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real doctor resumes. While doctor responsibilities can utilize skills like "patients," "customer service," "emergency medicine," and "dr," resident physician in radiologies use skills like "ct scan," "ir," "interventional," and "nuclear medicine."
Resident physician in radiologies may earn a lower salary than doctors, but resident physician in radiologies earn the most pay in the health care industry with an average salary of $191,016. On the other hand, doctors receive higher pay in the health care industry, where they earn an average salary of $178,767.In general, resident physician in radiologies achieve similar levels of education than doctors. They're 1.7% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 16.9% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for doctors in the next 3-5 years?
Supriyo Bandyopadhyay
Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University
Doctor vs. Emergency medicine specialist
Emergency medicine specialists are healthcare professionals who are responsible for treating patients with immediate care in emergency rooms or trauma centers. These specialists are required to possess skills in advanced cardiac life support, trauma care, and management of other life-threatening conditions. They must lead a team of other medical professionals during situations that are intense and stressful while making a split second lifesaving diagnosis on their patients. Emergency medicine specialists must also maintain accurate medical records to understand the medical history of their patients.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, doctors are more likely to have skills like "customer service," "surgery," "dr," and "strong work ethic." But a emergency medicine specialist is more likely to have skills like "critical care," "acls," "im," and "epic."
Emergency medicine specialists earn the highest salary when working in the professional industry, where they receive an average salary of $162,827. Comparatively, doctors have the highest earning potential in the health care industry, with an average salary of $178,767.emergency medicine specialists typically earn higher educational levels compared to doctors. Specifically, they're 23.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 23.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Doctor vs. Physician
Physicians' general responsibility is to check, diagnose, and treat a patient's condition to improve their overall wellness. A physician could be General Practitioners or Specialist Physicians, wherein General Practitioners are physicians who provide regular checkups for patients depending on their needs and refer them to a Specialist Physicians who are more skilled in a particular field of expertise for a thorough diagnosis. Physicians monitor a patient's medical history and ensure follow-up checkups to observe if the condition of a patient is changing over time. A physician may refer a patient to other health professionals for further examination as needed.
Types of doctor
Updated January 8, 2025
