Hi
actually I think with proper attention to veracity and detail you can become quite well versed and thus if you understand the materials and meanings rather an expert in any specific field if you wish to (
this is what any student who follows a course for a lengthy period does in a PhD or Masters).
But I'm glad that I'll at least be an "expert" (as much as a non-physician can be) when the time comes. Being informed helps me cope with the uncertainty.
In Australia the term for a
physician is General Practitioner (and assumes the practice of medicine). I think its fair to say, as a generalisation, that these people are experts in nothing but are "Generalists". Few have any specialised experience; in say titrating a dose of a medication, beyond perhaps starting you low on something (say, hypertension medication) and then suggesting you go higher when your BP is on the rise again.
Almost none of the Journal Articles on the topics of such specialised things as the construction of heart valves, the merits or otherwise of their specific construction materials or indeed anticoagulation. For instance Jeff Harrison who is the author of
this piece is a Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacy and I'm pretty sure not a Doctor or Medicine and perhaps doesn't have a PhD (making him entitled in an academic context to use Dr in his name) but has instead a Masters (perhaps a proper one by research not the spoon fed ones of today). If you read that article (which I would encourage) it may bring you to a point where you see why most Doctors are confused about management of warfarin and find it "complicated".
There is a "general public" problem where people see "Doctors" as somehow Gods when in fact much more like a first tier "help desk" they often know barely more about it than you and the rest is all "granted" by you in assumptions (you being the 3rd person infinitive here, more like the use of "
han" in Finnish).
Indeed most people (non medical) make huge mistaken assumptions (and like birds, you can identify them easily by their calls) (interrupted by a shrill "
you're not a doctor, you're not a doctor, you're not a doctor" of the Channel Billed Idiot) that the authors of papers are Surgeons or Doctors (and they may be but aren't always).
Surgeons and Doctors on the other hand readily turn to specialists (
who aren't Doctors or Surgeons) in the specific fields when reading up on the literature or consulting experts, yet the Channel Billed Idiot will instead cry "
you're not a doctor, you're not a doctor, you're not a doctor" (Tis the song of the Jubjub! The proof is complete, If only I've stated it thrice.")
So I encourage you to read and to discuss things here because we are availed by a number of experts here (although the Blank Faced Idiot will call "
none of us here are doctors" which is patently false because some of us here clearly are which clarifies the level of idiot they are).
Onward and upward
Best Wishes
PS: being worried or anxious is in my view a symptom of inaction and not knowing what to do. Inaction implies knowing what to do but not doing it. This is something you imply you do in your above post and its a life habit I recommend you work strongly at eradicating.
Knowledge is power, power brings confidence (if you don't subvert it with imposter syndrome), knowledge and power brings wisdom (eventually, probably).
