They definitely deserve it

I definitely believe that the reason why many doctors receive such a great deal of respect is due to the years of training it took to receive an MD. It takes 8 years of schooling alone to become a doctor and that does not include all the extra clubs, sports, tutoring, fraternities/sororities, volunteering, etc. they had to be involved with in order to "stand-out" from the others. Becoming a doctor requires a great deal of sacrifice and many people are aware of this which is why so many people avoid it. Not many people are able to study for hours, work long shifts, be on call, miss out on family events, or postpone vacations and be okay with it, which is why it's rare it find people who would like to live the life of a doctor. 

It's very hard for many people to trust others. Whether it's trusting someone to keep a secret, trusting they'll complete a task you ask of them, or trusting them to be someone you can depend on, it's always difficult for people to learn who they can and cannot trust. And yet, people trust doctors with their lives all the time, and very easily I should add. The second someone breaks an arm, they rush themselves to an emergency room to see an individual that they probably never met before and trust that they will fix their arm. However, someone hears an interesting piece of gossip and suddenly slows down and really thinks about who they can trust with this minor secret. I believe people are aware of this irony. They know that although they may get a doctor who doesn't really care about his/her patients, they will still fix their broken arm, heal their sickness, or even save their life.

Furthermore, I think that although nurses, physicians assistants, and public health professionals are respected, they are not respect nearly as much as doctors. This, I believe, does involve the amount of training that a doctor receives. People believe that the more education or training someone has, the more qualified they are, and the smarter they are so they would rather listen to a doctor than a nurse. Without offending anybody, I definitely think that if I was placed in a situation where a doctor, a physicians assistant, and a public health professional were all giving me different advice, I would listen to the doctor. I just think they would know better. And lastly, I definitely think that the high status is deserved because even if someone is a crooked doctor, they still went through 4 years of undergrad, 4 years of medical school, and how many extra years of training to get that MD.