What is the mean IQ of health care workers? To get a sufficiently large sample (GSS, no immigrants), I included the following jobs: physicians, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists other health diagnosing practitioners, registered nurses, pharmacists, dietitians, physical therapists, speech therapists, and other therapists.
For the whole group, I get a mean of 104.8. Not good. For occupations with at least 10 survey respondents:
Mean IQ
Physicians 114.5
Dentists 108.4
Registered nurses 104.6
Pharmacists 108.2
Dieticians 90.9
Physical therapists 110.6
Speech therapists 104.6
Other therapists 109.4
All of these numbers are discouraging. Don't take advice from a dietician.
What about race? We can only look at the overall mean for all healthcare providers. For whites, it's 105.9; for blacks, 96.1; and for other races, it's 99.2. A little bit scary.
And gender? 109.9 for men, and 103.5 for women.

I'm an RN. IQ (using GRE proxy)is >120. I'm fairly bright, but not exceptionally so among my peers. I wonder where the dull nurses and doctors are working. It isn't in my mid-sized hospital. Perhaps I simply overestimate my peers.
ReplyDeleteHow White/Black/Brown is your crew?
ReplyDeleteNurses, > half white, a good chunk of the remainder is Filipino, a handful of others. 20% male. Few Blacks but those we have are solid.
DeleteDoctors, about half white, most of the remainder Indian/Paki, with scattered others from just about anywhere, Korea, Chile, Poland, Ghana etc.
My opinions of their skill levels don't relate to their ethnicity at all. I'd let the doc from Ghana cut me open, but not a certain one from Europe. Most of the Indians are great, others not so. It seems more a question of diligence than intelligence from my perspective.
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