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March 29, 2024, 08:17:46 pm

Author Topic: Why do people want to do medicine so badly? (srs)  (Read 17853 times)  Share 

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alexa94

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Re: Why do people want to do medicine so badly? (srs)
« Reply #15 on: August 18, 2012, 05:06:31 pm »
+3
Yes, what I said is from scrubs. I don't actually want to study medicine for chicks, money, power and chicks.

On the note of being sued, doctors have insurance for a reason. You're not going to wind up homeless after being sued as long as you have insurance.

OP, I don't see why you're arguing with current medical students about what studying medicine and working as a doctor entails. You posted a thread asking questions and they answers them. Don't start arguing. That's what the "Rants and Debates" section is for.
I'm not looking for an argument. I believe that if prospective med students read everything here, they can consider the disadvantages and advantages at their own merit, and if after reading everything they still want to do med then congragulations to them; it is the right profession for them. I'm doing them a favour by ensuring that they know they are getting into medicine for the right reasons, not because they have been brainwashed into believing that they must do it because it is the mot prestigious course.

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Re: Why do people want to do medicine so badly? (srs)
« Reply #16 on: August 18, 2012, 05:07:43 pm »
+11
Bragging rights mostly - it's seen as a "prestigious" degree

I find it extremely hard to believe any prospective med student who claims to want to "help people", unless they also put nursing down high on their preferences (rare)
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Re: Why do people want to do medicine so badly? (srs)
« Reply #17 on: August 18, 2012, 05:08:27 pm »
0
I want to study medicine for the same reason everyone else does. Chicks, money, power and chicks.
Ha it might sound cool now mate, but I seriously advise you to think hard about what you want to do if you're basing your career solely on that (debtable how true it is anyway)

Believe it or not, it's pretty true.

Quote
Why are you doing mbbs at monash then?

Don't have the money to move interstate :(

- Friends in 3rd, 4th year med etc. told me they constantly have to cancel on commitments, birthdays, etc. to the point where friends outside of med just began to stop inviting them to things. That's just an example. Maybe if you're super commited you could maintain a decent social life, but then you would probably have no time to just unwind by yourself.
- Well, simply how you view it i guess; way more contact hours than other courses
- It's not that stressful? I've heard otherwise, but I guess I'm not doing the course so I'm not in a position to comment
- Doesn't matter what specialty you do, during intern years you'll be exposed to some pretty horrific things
- Yes anyone can get sued, but you are much more liable when you are directly dealing with people's lives

- I reckon if you schedule things well, you can always fit things in, be efficient
- It's not that much more contact hours - do you want to look at my timetable? The kids down at the Engineering faculty have more contact hours than I do.
- It's not that stressful - I kid you not - stress is a mental concept, it's the way you perceive things - I deal with stress really well, so I can't comment much either
- Yes, but I know a lot of doctors and they're not scarred for life
- According to my Clinical Skills tutor from last semester, the whole suing thing is blown up more than it actually is for the purpose of education. You'd be pretty unlucky to actually get sued.

Also let's not kid ourselves, until you are specialised as a GP, etc. money earned is less than satisfactory

You'll be earning around $50,000 as an intern, 60-70,000 as a resident and around $90,000 as a registrar, apparently you can go past the $100,000 mark too, but I'm not too sure.

Btw, also, let's not kid ourselves, who much do you intend to make in your first few years out of university? It's not like you'll be making anything more than an intern, resident, registrar would, so I don't see your point.

I'm not looking for an argument. I believe that if prospective med students read everything here, they can consider the disadvantages and advantages at their own merit, and if after reading everything they still want to do med then congragulations to them; it is the right profession for them. I'm doing them a favour by ensuring that they know they are getting into medicine for the right reasons, not because they have been brainwashed into believing that they must do it because it is the mot prestigious course.

Look I don't usually stick up for medicine as a whole, because, like you, I know how many people do it for the wrong reasons, but to be honest, if you're advocating against med, please do find me some statistics, like seriously - you haven't really brought up anything which sound legitimate - like Surgeon said, it just sounds like you are here to start arguments.

Russ

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Re: Why do people want to do medicine so badly? (srs)
« Reply #18 on: August 18, 2012, 05:08:39 pm »
+2
Quote
I'm doing them a favour by ensuring that they know they are getting into medicine for the right reasons,


Your information is still very subjective and as I pointed out in some cases is factually incorrect, but I agree that more perspective would be beneficial for prospective medical students in high school

Russ

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Re: Why do people want to do medicine so badly? (srs)
« Reply #19 on: August 18, 2012, 05:11:11 pm »
+3
On the point of lawsuits, 3% of doctors are responsible for 50% of complaints. Patients complain because they didn't like the way the doctor treated them or how the doctor acted, which intimates that if you treat your patients as people and not just walking medical problems you'll cut your lawsuit risk dramatically

Surgeon

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Re: Why do people want to do medicine so badly? (srs)
« Reply #20 on: August 18, 2012, 05:12:11 pm »
-3
I'm sure you posted this thread in good faith but it's not upto you to ensure that people are going to into medicine for the right reasons and are well informed about the positive and negative attributes of studying and practicing medicine.

Just chill and focus on doing what you want to do.

If your brother is in his last year of med school, perhaps you could ask him a lot of these questions?

Surely you could see for yourself how vivid his social life is, how much time he spends at uni and how much time he spends studying.
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Re: Why do people want to do medicine so badly? (srs)
« Reply #22 on: August 18, 2012, 05:21:55 pm »
+4
http://www.monash.edu.au/news/show/australias-new-health-crisis-too-many-doctors - from monash uni

You're taking the article out of context.

Quote
The report shows that the oversupply is directly related to the number of international medical graduates (IMGs) immigrating to Australia to fill ‘vacancies’ in the non-metropolitan GP and hospital medical officers workforce.

The success of this program has resulted in most non-metropolitan areas of Australia having a lower patient/doctor ratio than authorities consider as the benchmark to provide an adequate level of service.

“The research findings show that we are actually awash with doctors wishing to become GP’s,” Dr Birrell said.

1) Are we internationally trained?
2) There are many many other specialties apart from GPs.

alexa94

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Re: Why do people want to do medicine so badly? (srs)
« Reply #23 on: August 18, 2012, 05:23:36 pm »
0
why does it matter if you're internationally trained? you're still competing for the same jobs. I'm still failing to see how I've taken the article out of context. More interntationally trained GPs entering Australia = more competition for graduating domestic students as well.

edit: and yeah, fair enough about the lawsuits, i'll cop that. i don't have any statistics to say that doctors are more likely to be sued than other professions

I'm sure you posted this thread in good faith but it's not upto you to ensure that people are going to into medicine for the right reasons and are well informed about the positive and negative attributes of studying and practicing medicine.
It's not up to me? So who exactly is it up to then? Only high school career counsellers are able to provide opinions on different fields now? Why should it matter. If someone truly has their heart set on only one profession, then they should be aware of all the negative aspects of that career, accept it, and tell themselves that even considering these facts they are not deterred from pursuing this path.
« Last Edit: August 18, 2012, 05:42:20 pm by alexa94 »

Jenny_2108

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Re: Why do people want to do medicine so badly? (srs)
« Reply #24 on: August 18, 2012, 05:39:35 pm »
+1
http://www.monash.edu.au/news/show/australias-new-health-crisis-too-many-doctors - from monash uni

If there is oversupply of doctor here, how about graduating in Australia then move to other countries?
Somtimes I consider studying  biomed/science undergrad in Australia then postgrad in England/USA, do they accept that?

MJRomeo81

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Re: Why do people want to do medicine so badly? (srs)
« Reply #25 on: August 18, 2012, 05:40:01 pm »
+1
Also let's not kid ourselves, until you are specialised as a GP, etc. money earned is less than satisfactory

You'll be earning around $50,000 as an intern, 60-70,000 as a resident and around $90,000 as a registrar, apparently you can go past the $100,000 mark too, but I'm not too sure.

Btw, also, let's not kid ourselves, who much do you intend to make in your first few years out of university? It's not like you'll be making anything more than an intern, resident, registrar would, so I don't see your point.

Yeah but what is the opportunity cost of those wages? There are plenty of other degrees that can land 50k after graduating (and far less effort involved). There's no denying that med is big bucks later down the track, but if you excel in your profession there is no reason not to be pushing those salaries given years of experience (and if you take it seriously).

I do respect the people who decide to study medicine but only for the right reasons. I also knew some people who were persuaded by its apparent benefits and I just can't help but wonder what they were smoking.
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Re: Why do people want to do medicine so badly? (srs)
« Reply #26 on: August 18, 2012, 05:54:29 pm »
+3
Bragging rights mostly - it's seen as a "prestigious" degree

I find it extremely hard to believe any prospective med student who claims to want to "help people", unless they also put nursing down high on their preferences (rare)

I duno, you could list wanting to "help people" as one of your reasons, but not want to do nursing because you also want to be reasonably wealthy (for example). Nursing is a very different job from Medicine, so I don't necessarily blame people who want to be doctors instead of nurses - I remember during my work experience thinking that while the doctor's have to see/do some occasionally gross stuff, nurses have it much, much worse (and with a lot less reward and recognition for their efforts).
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Re: Why do people want to do medicine so badly? (srs)
« Reply #27 on: August 18, 2012, 06:01:26 pm »
+3
I don't think 'wanting to help people' can be put down as a sole criterion for why anyone would want to study med. That would imply the only vocations in which you can help other people are medical professions.
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alexa94

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Re: Why do people want to do medicine so badly? (srs)
« Reply #28 on: August 18, 2012, 06:03:02 pm »
0
I don't think 'wanting to help people' can be put down as a sole criterion for why anyone would want to study med. That would imply the only vocations in which you can help other people are medical professions.
I agree, I think we've just been taking the piss out of the phrase to an extent because it's so generic, overused and ironically superficial (thanks medentry).

thushan

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Re: Why do people want to do medicine so badly? (srs)
« Reply #29 on: August 18, 2012, 06:09:56 pm »
+3
Chicks, money, power and chicks.

Well, that's how it is for guys. Not sure about girls. :P

Perhaps it's guys, money, power and guys? :P

But in all seriousness, this is why I decided to do med:

- I was always a sciencey person, particularly in Chemical sciences and to a lesser extent biological sciences
- I was a keen researcher
- I like problem solving

So, from those two, you'd think I'd have gone into academia in Organic Chem. However, there's more:

- RELATIVE (not 100%) job security, my parents were telling me that to be a researcher is very very very difficult to get a job unless you were the best in the field
- my parents wanted me to do med
- my parents wanted me to do med
- i didn't want to give them an excuse to say "i told you so" should i have done science and somehow something goes wrong and my life's screwed
- i like working with people
« Last Edit: August 18, 2012, 06:22:59 pm by thushan »
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