Why is "I want to help people?" always seen as an inadequate reason on SDN? I understand that, in the PS and during interviews, it needs to be more developed and thought out; however, I feel that it is one of the more sound reasons for wanting to become a physician. Certainty, I feel it is a better motivation than money and prestige.*
In my case, personal experiences early in my life (0 - 14ish) exposed me to a heavy dosing of trauma, sickness, disability, poverty and inequality. Surviving that and, unfortunately, seeing so many others fail to, has resulted in a passion to come back to the situations I grew up living through and make a difference in the lives of those still living in them; ideally, my goal is to have an impact on both a micro (each individual patient) and macro (policy and public health) level.
On the micro level: The physicians, of all different specialties (one more than others), who have treated me throughout the years saved and changed my life. This may sound cheesy to some; but, while the majority of the people around me were saying "You can't, don't even try" (still do), many of the doctors I had been seeing long term (multiple severe and/or chronic illnesses) were encouraging and pushing me to reach higher, with one in particular having the most profound impact and giving the strongest support. In other words, they (he) said "You can" and have, at times, gone out of their way to help me get there. Though the state of managed care is making it more difficult to achieve, the doctor - patient relationship can be so incredibly powerful: it allows for the trust needed to heal what ails the patient in the present time and, if done over a longer period of time, can heal the patient in ways that transcend the diagnosis written down on the chart. If I can utilize that trust, that relationship, and the clinical knowledge I will gain in such a way that I can do for even one patient what has been done for me, that is all I could ever ask for in life.
On the macro level: Having grown up being directly impacted by it, I have a strong desire to dedicate a large portion of my career towards fighting and trying to lessen/eliminate health inequality, disparity and anything else that blocks access to care or makes it more difficult to find (among other problems in healthcare unrelated to this). I want, in some way, to help make it so that nobody has to go for months without medical attention simply because they can't afford to see a physician (or because their insurance won't pay enough); I want to make it so that no child has to watch their mother or father or sister or brother nearly die in front of them again because the co-pays on that loved one's necessary medication were just too expensive to afford that month; I want to keep insurance companies, either private or government run, from deciding that a CT for a stroke patient they have never evaluated is not indicated or that a hospitalization for a suicidal patient they have not talked to once is unnecessary; and I want to be the one at the forefront of health policy, service and economic research and analysis figuring out the best way to make all this happen without defaulting to the extremes of unregulated capitalism or complete socialism.
*This is not to say that one should not care about money or, to a certain extent, prestige. There is nothing wrong with wanting to make a good living, have a nice house, be able to afford those vacations you've always wanted to take, be able to send your kids to a private school, etc and to be in a position where you don't have to worry about where you're going to get the money to pay for food, electric, rent/mortgage, etc. Heck, after being in training for 7+ years, not demanding that one have this is absurdity. I just don't believe that, for the majority of people, this is good enough reason in and of itself (in the absence of any other reason). Maybe some people can be happy working in a profession that they dislike if it pays enough; but I have seen so many people, both doctors and those working in other well-paying fields, hate their lives because they could not tolerate their job. As I said, it's OK to care (a lot) about money, as it's certainly important; but, even (especially?) as an MD/DO you will be spending -- for a significant portion of your life -- the majority of your weekdays (and sometimes weekends) working and, either that reason be wanting to help people or a love of medical science or a need to be intellectually stimulated, I hope that there is something about it that you look forward to and makes it worth it.
