I fear you may have a slightly biased view of doctors vic. i can assure you they work damn hard, under immense strees. if you imagine that a ward nurse has perhaps 5 or 6 patients under their care and a doctor might have 30 or so. so for each nurse their patient is their only priority the doctor might have a few sickies who all need looking after simultaneously. i have been on busy firms where there have been 40 or 50 patients that one or two juniors are looking after. they are often scattered throughout the hospital to compound matters. if you throw in that they might be on take or on the crash team then it makes it easier to understand why they might not always be around and why the might want a bit of slack when it comes to being bleeped about putting venflons in or writing mrs smith up for her maintenance fluids. coi - final year medic