Does anyone want to do medicine for the right reasons?

[spectroscopy]

do people actually want to help people, or is it just chicks money power chicks
after randomly wandering through these forums for the past few months im almost convinced noone wants to do med for the right reasons, the main ones are
- standard parental "dont talk to me until youre a doctor"
- high average salaries
- dont want to waste atar
- prestige
- chicks
- scrubs inspired
- sounds like a fun job and you get to walk around with a stethoscope (ive actually heard this one used, not on AN but in person)
- you get to have the Dr prefix

this is more of a rant than a question it just feels annoying that whenever people ask me what i want to do after high school and i say medicine all of the above just comes into their mind,
 just thought id put it out there and maybe the following discussion might stop someone from doing med for the wrong reasons and follow their passion instead.

and of course there are people on here that do med for the right reasons, im not trying to hate on everyone, just i thought this post should be made, and the discussion might be productive

[Thu Thu Train]

Nah man people only do med for the money and the chicks not because they want to help anyone.

Everyone is evil and selfish.

Edit: Didn't you answer your own question?

"Does anyone do med for the right reasons?"

and of course there are people on here that do med for the right reasons

[brenden]

So selfish. I heard they wore the white lab coats as a symbol of elitism and white superiority. (Lol white doctors hahahaha)

[spectroscopy]

Didn't you answer your own question?

"Does anyone do med for the right reasons?"

and of course there are people on here that do med for the right reasons

that was just to be polite so i dont get flamed from every med student or aspiring doctor in here
there goes that plan

[mark_alec]

Why is it wrong to desire a job with a high status and financial benefits? Seems like a rational choice.

[spectroscopy]

an example why medicine isnt an area you should do for the money:
say for example, youre a gp, and you just want to pump through as many patients you can to get the most money,
therefor you give everyone either amoxicillin or telling them to rest up, or come back in a few days, then 5 minutes later saying the same thing to the next patient, and when they come back you just tell them its stress or just a bug and they should take it easy, then after the third visit they'll either tell you the same thing or finally do some tests, then after changing doctors 2 or 3 times you see someone whose worried and finally does the right tests on you, and finds out whats wrong

[ktrah]

I know someone who genuinely wants to become a dentist to travel to remote areas of the world to help people who really need it. But I'm sure there are tons of people who just get into it for the money and prestige.

[synchronise3]

Money may come into play for the choice and even if it does that's justifiable but if it's solely for the reason of money and not any other factors such as helping people, then such a reason to do medicine wouldn't be that genuine. Besides, I hear dentists make more

[Russ]

an example why medicine isnt an area you should do for the money:
say for example, youre a gp, and you just want to pump through as many patients you can to get the most money,
therefor you give everyone either amoxicillin or telling them to rest up, or come back in a few days, then 5 minutes later saying the same thing to the next patient, and when they come back you just tell them its stress or just a bug and they should take it easy, then after the third visit they'll either tell you the same thing or finally do some tests, then after changing doctors 2 or 3 times you see someone whose worried and finally does the right tests on you, and finds out whats wrong

There's a big difference between doing medicine for the money and being criminally negligent

[Truck]

I agree in that many people do it initially for the wrong reasons, but like the majority of humans, I think people just adapt to those circumstances and become good doctors down the track regardless of whether or not they initially wanted to do it for money or power.

[Greatness]

an example why medicine isnt an area you should do for the money:
say for example, youre a gp, and you just want to pump through as many patients you can to get the most money,
therefor you give everyone either amoxicillin or telling them to rest up, or come back in a few days, then 5 minutes later saying the same thing to the next patient, and when they come back you just tell them its stress or just a bug and they should take it easy, then after the third visit they'll either tell you the same thing or finally do some tests, then after changing doctors 2 or 3 times you see someone whose worried and finally does the right tests on you, and finds out whats wrong

My parents said that there is a cap for how many patients a doctor can see in a day, but I don't know if that's completely true. Also there are probably regulations against what you described.

Of course there are people who genuinely want to study and practice medicine! I know some who want to go overseas and help the people who are living in extremely poor health conditions such as Africa, or going to war stricken towns and treating people there. Since, we are human, there will be people who study it for money, prestige and so on, but that doesn't necessarily mean they don't care about the patients. You make it out to seem that if someone is doing it for the security, money etc then they're a bad person. And, yes there may be some who do it completely for the above reasons but they probably won't survive long in the field, or will get caught out with malpractice or something.
Medicine is a popular and highly regarded career choice, due to the nature of the job the reasons you've stated are extra factors/benefits that come along with it.

[paulsterio]

You have to understand that just because someone does Medicine for the "wrong" reasons doesn't mean that they'll be a bad doctor. Generally, the majority of normal people want money and power, that is true, but the majority of people also want to help people if they have the chance.

A person who does Medicine for the money isn't necessarily heartless, greedy or selfish. We see people do Engineering...etc. for the money all the time, it's just that Medicine has a way of attracting attention. In the end, it doesn't matter, who are we to judge what reasons are "right" and what reasons are "wrong" - as long as they do their job properly and provide society with a good service, why should we complain?

[brenden]

At the end of the day if your life is saved by a surgeon you're not going to give a shit why he or she did the operation. Unless it was Surgeon, then you'd probably just rather he didn't touch you and let you bleed to death.

[MJRomeo81]

People who study medicine for money fail to understand the opportunity cost of those wages.

[Limista]

"Does anyone want to do medicine for the right reasons?"

Note that not everyone is altruistic ~ it is a quality seen in only a handful of people.

Therefore, there are some people who want to do medicine for the right reasons, but then again, it depends on your perspective of what the right reasons are.