<p>This is a quote from my college pre-med advisor, who took it, I believe from the national association of medical students,</p>
<pre><code> The "normal" doctor goes to work and comes home. He treats someone and sends them a bill. What medical schools want is someone who is willing to change things. They want someone who is willing to volunteer at low-cost or free clinics. They want someone who might consider working as a primary care physician in a needy area because of an underlying desire to contribute to the well-being of his or her fellow man. In all reality here, if you aren't interested in helping others just for the sake of doing it, you might be in the wrong field... but either way, by helping others, you're only helping yourself.
</code></pre>
<p>I know all college pre-meds say they want to help humanity and the poor, are going to go work at a free clinic, and don't care about income or anything, but let's be serious. Don't medical schools really see through this. I personally know so many premeds who are really into medicine for the money and volunteer only so they can look good.</p>
<p>As for me, I want to be a doctor just so I can be the "normal doctor" described in the above section. Sure, I'd be willing to donate my time once a month at the free clinic, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life working for charity. I believe someone who works, comes home, and gets paid commensurate to their work makes a very positive contribution to society. Is that so wrong?</p>
<p>I know firsthand (my mom is a physician) that medicine is hard work, and it's hard to raise a family on the income you get from the charities that run the free clinic, or if you've given five years of your life at a clinic in Africa. Honestly, I am attracted to medicine because it provides a stable and good income. I don't want to get rich. I just want to ensure a good life for my own family when the time comes, so my children can someday have the same opportunities I had.</p>
<p>My point: why lie to medical schools that you want to dedicate your life to charity? Don't they appreciate honesty?</p>
<p>I don’t really think med schools expect their future doctors to “not make money”. They know that it takes money to run a practice…employees to pay, office rent to pay, utilitites to pay, malpractice to pay…it goes on and on.</p>
<p>I also might add that being a premed is a ton of work, and I can only imagine that being a med student is considerably more work than that, and being a resident is considerably more work than that. For me, it’s possible to put up with all the work and stress of being a (thus far successful) premed (future med student is what I prefer now, haha!!!) because I believe I’m genuinely drawn to so many aspects of health care and truly want to be a physician. The money and the glory and the notoriety and the fill in the blanks are just a nice perk, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Personally, if I wanted to ensure financial security for myself and my kids…I’d just marry someone rich!</p>
<p>^ I once heard the prestigious factor of a physician job might drive many into this career path. Another often-mentioned factor is the job security.</p>
<p>I wonder how many doctors are really like Mother Teresa.</p>
<p>Your right, not many and that’s okay to an extent.
I think the only thing that is scary is the number of pre-meds who simply want to become a doctor because of familial precedent/pressure and/or the notoriety and prestige associated with it. I know a lot here that hardly like any of their science courses (or science at all), but are bent on being something like a surgeon or pediatrician because they want to “help people”. It would be nice if they understood that there were other ways to “help” people in a big way that would allow one to earn a secure income. I respect a lot of people with high science GPAs that decided to do something is say public health than many of the pre-meds here. Many still believe that there science classes are irrelevant because they don’t merely emphasize medical applications (as in what is done in a hospital). So then most of the science courses end up geared toward them and away from those who want to learn more advanced material that may be emphasized in academia/research. Conversely, when a course does integrate a lot of this, they suddenly feel that the course is too difficult. They basically want major pre-med courses to primarily emphasize material on the MCAT. Nothing more, nothing less. As in literally, some students believe in, classes like organic, gen. chem, gen. bio, gen. physics, that: “If it is not on the MCAT, we should not be exposed to it.” This explains, in part, why many of the most talented professors are avoided vigorously (which in Emory’s case, may explain the med admit percentage as these profs are indeed more rigorous than the others, and the pre-meds know this).<br>
Before coming into college, I actually expected most pre-meds to essentially be aspiring scientists who truly were interested in “medicine” and "healthcare"as opposed to being interested in being a doctor. Unfortunately, but so many have met this expectation. Luckily, rather they actually like what they are doing or not, they will be trained so that they are indeed good at it (I imagine this is possible, those with will-power can become solid/decent at something they don’t really like). Kind of an “ends justifies the means” type thing. Whatever floats their boat. I’m pretty good at science, but I know I like to learn and that I wouldn’t put someone else’s life directly in my hands (I am too klutzy to even consider it, plus the idea of actually creating medicinal products is awesome to me). In that respect, I was honest with myself. Can’t say the same for many others. More power to them though.
All I can say is, I can generally pick those out those with deeper reasons than them being good at science (many here hardly test this theory and choose easiest profs. possible at every chance) and consequently wanting to help people and make money simultaneously. We all have a strength that would ideally allow us to make money and help people. Get real. This shouldn’t limit your options to a single profession.</p>
<p>No one expects you to be Mother Teresa, but medicine is a life of service to others. Its about being late for dinner or missing your kids soccer game because a worried patient needs you to call them at the end of the day about a test result. They are talking about volunteering at the free clinic AFTER you have already worked all day, not every day, but maybe a couple of times a month. Being a primary care physician means you will make more than 95% of the rest of society but probably half of what a radiologist or dermatologist will make for what will be more work. You will be rewarded for it in terms of money and respect, but make no mistake, you will have to earn it through very difficult work. Those difficulties aren’t just the hours, its the emotional toll of dealing with sick and sometimes dying people.</p>
<p>Its much too hard and long to suffer through unless you really want to do medicine, not just make money. If you want money, go to business school and become an investment banker (but don’t expect much respect!). Make sure that medicine is what you want BEFORE you get in to it, I have seen many unhappy medical students and residents who haven’t thought this through and are now in too deep (in terms of time and tuition) to feel that they can back out!</p>
This appears to be the “life plan” of most of my daughter’s friends. Unfortunately, I fear there may not be quite enough rich guys around to satisfy the demand!</p>
<p>Like the song says: “God bless the child who’s got (her) own.”</p>
<p>So, we help people only if we help poor, the others do not count? I am a person too, I want to get help when I get sick. Can I be included in “helping people”? I also could never understand why helping sick in Arfica is more important than helping sick here in the USA? We have a huge shortage of physicians here and those who go to Africa contiribute to further shortage. So, we spend huge public resources (as lots of these very bright kids are receiving various Merit scholarships) and private family resources (all pre-emds and medical students are supported by family) to prepare physicians for spending years in Africa? I feel that they should prefer to give back to society that trained them. Charity is all good, but most have huge loans after medical school. If loans are not re-paid in timely manner, it is a burden not only on a family but on banking system and whole nation (do we need examples of it now? I do not think so). Then, if we want to raise successful kids who will contribute instead of being on recieving side, we need to spend both money and time raising them. Neglecting this primary responsibility might completely erase all the charity accomplished by neglecting parent.</p>
<p>As I’ve often said: “Every job helps people. Nobody would give you money if they didn’t feel helped.” Try looking for a good auto mechanic, plumber, financial advisor, dentist, cable repairman, or customer support staff worker these days and tell me that you don’t feel helped.</p>
<p>(There are obvious exceptions – crime being the big one.)</p>
<p>You could be an investment banker. Assuming your somewhat intelligent, you could make a lot more money and spend a lot less time in school. Going into medicine for money and job security is stupid.</p>
<p>Kamasutra,
How many times you have lost your job and have been looking for a new one that will enable you to support your family?</p>
<p>Ater I lost job 8 times, I cannot say that worrying about job security is stupid. I love to be thrown into brand new business environment, new industry, learn all new technical skills, but it is not for everybody. It is very depressing to be between jobs. It takes certain personality to apply and apply and apply and continue having hopes and be ready to start at any new place for possibly 50% salary cut. If you want to deal with it for the rest of your life, being engineer, IT professional, investment banker, accountant…etc. is for you. If not, get trained in medically related field, and not all of jobs in medicine are as secure as MD. Given that one loves science, biology, have very high GPA, great work ethic, outgoing personality, willing to spend time helping others and enjoying it, feels like he can successfully lead others and have experience doing so, I do not see why not go to Medical School, why not to be an MD.</p>
<p>Calm down with the sentiments there, your going to make me cry. I never said it was a bad idea to be an MD for wanting job security. Having that as your sole purpose for wanting to be a doctor is stupid. You need to actually have a passion for medicine. That was my point —> -1 for comprehension.</p>
<p>One other point. I am an Otolaryngologist-Head and Neck Surgeon and provide plenty of “free” and “reduced fee” care to the uninsured and underinsured. I take call every third week and >80% of patients I see in the ER have no insurance and no intention of paying a dime for their medical care. You do not have to volunteer in a free clinic to provide quality healthcare to patients regardless of their ability or willingness to pay. Whether you desire to provide care to such patients is irrelevant (unless you have a practice in Beverly Hills). As far as being rich, the days of the “rich” physician are dwindling away. Future physicians will be comfortable but will be unable to make the same money as physicians from my generation. Welcome to the REALITIES of medicine in the USA! With all that being said, I still enjoy being a surgeon/physician.</p>
<p>I’ve seen five basic reasons for people to enter medicine. (1) Prestige. (2) Utilization of science in a non-discovery context. Whether these are good reasons to pick a career or not, I think they’re relatively true.</p>
<p>(3) Leadership – depends on the specialty, but sometimes relatively true. We’ll see how this changes as payers become more and more powerful.</p>
<p>And then there’s the three which are just incorrect. (4) Income, which is again just naive in light of discount rates – you’re giving up so much of your most important earning years. (5) The desire to help people, which is usually just a catchphrase: if thought through properly, there’s a LOT of jobs that help people. (6) Security. Of course, your twenties end up being complete and utter chaos if you’re chasing a medical career. And I don’t think the medical profession is the single most stable option later on either, although obviously it’s on the more-stable end of the spectrum. Besides, one of the first principles you learn in consumer irrationality is that people are way, way too risk averse – in fact, most people’s careers benefit in the long run from a few jumps.</p>
<p>Of course, if WW III erupts or something, then yes. In that context, being a physician will be the most stable career.</p>
<p>bdm,
It seems like the last three are ‘incorrect’ if taken alone, but not necessarily as part of the reason someone chooses to be a physician. For instance, if someone wants a relatively good income and job security and is interested in working with people in an applied science field, is physician so off base? Just speaking from personal experience, while I can see my kid ‘helping people’ as a physician, I would have a much more difficult time seeing her doing so as a social worker, teacher or some other jobs, partially because of the first two factors.</p>