Am I the only one who sees this reason for going into medicine?

[student113]

The money vs. idealism debate is inconclusive as always. However, even if the financial aspect of the profession hits ROCK bottom and doctors get paid like middle school teachers, this is why I would still do medicine:

If that day does come, can you imagine what it will be like to be a patient? Even if it doesn't get as bad as "come back in 5 months to get your tumor removed," not only will patients have trouble accessing the system but the entire quality of healthcare treatments might fall. Doctor's offices will be swamped, quality of care might decline, the whole thing will be a mess.
I have lived in a country where this is the case, and I can't tell you how much it sucks to need to see the doctor, and also how much of a difference it makes to have an insider's track.
Being a doctor not only lets you understand your and your family's health, but if one of you really needs complex treatment one day, you'll have connections through your hospital/colleagues/etc.. I personally think a huge pay cut (provided I can live off of it...) is worth it for not having to be frantic about my family's health. Maybe I'm biased or something, but from the desperation I've witnessed of people who can't help their sick family, no amount of money is worth that.


Money and helping people aside, this is why, even if I make 80k (EDIT: I just realized I made a typo) a year, I still think it's worth it to be a doctor.

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[Drrrrrr. Celty]

To each there own. I can not judge you on your ideals or values because I am not you, I have not walked in your shoes. I personally simply wouldn't do it on the ground of self-preservation and the sheer sacrifice. That being said your values are respectable, but its a choice which will provide you hardship. Because you wont be able to pay off your debt if you started getting paid a high school teacher's pay check.....
I mean do realize that there are implications in your actions which will affect your family. So be careful where you trend, bread needs to come to the table and feed the childrens.

 

[PianoMajor]

The money vs. idealism debate is inconclusive as always. However, even if the financial aspect of the profession hits ROCK bottom and doctors get paid like middle school teachers, this is why I would still do medicine:

If that day does come, can you imagine what it will be like to be a patient? Even if it doesn't get as bad as "come back in 5 months to get your tumor removed," not only will patients have trouble accessing the system but the entire quality of healthcare treatments might fall. Doctor's offices will be swamped, quality of care might decline, the whole thing will be a mess.
I have lived in a country where this is the case, and I can't tell you how much it sucks to need to see the doctor, and also how much of a difference it makes to have an insider's track.
Being a doctor not only lets you understand your and your family's health, but if one of you really needs complex treatment one day, you'll have connections through your hospital/colleagues/etc.. I personally think a huge pay cut (provided I can live off of it...) is worth it for not having to be frantic about my family's health. Maybe I'm biased or something, but from the desperation I've witnessed of people who can't help their sick family, no amount of money is worth that.


Money and helping people aside, this is why, even if I make 8k a year, I still think it's worth it to be a doctor.

You can't live off 8k a year...

But I see your point... I really doubt things will get that bad though.

 

[student113]

You can't live off 8k a year...

But I see your point... I really doubt things will get that bad though.

Hahahaha well you COULD...not the same level of lifestyle of course. But that's why you get married and have 2 salaries

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

You can't live off 8k a year...

But I see your point... I really doubt things will get that bad though.

Hopefully, if not we'll all be in the military working for 4 years...

 

[lovemesomeTJ]

You can't live off 8k a year...

But I see your point... I really doubt things will get that bad though.

It's been done. It's never easy, but it's possible...

 

[IDoIt4Love]

yes, I do see this as a benefit of becoming a doctor! especially as someone who lives with a heart condition! though in this country, access to healthcare isn't as abysmal as other countries, so this alone would not make up for a really low salary.

 

[CaptainSSO]

It's been done. It's never easy, but it's possible...

Well if you consider living below the poverty line to be "living" then yea, it's been done.

 

[IndianVercetti]

It's not uncommon for some doctors in other countries, like India to be making something like 10k a year (in US Dollars)

 

[Davydude7]

......even if I make 8k a year, I still think it's worth it to be a doctor.

May as well just go on welfare and volunteer to be a doctor. Probably make more than 8k a year.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

It's not uncommon for some doctors in other countries, like India to be making something like 10k a year (in US Dollars)

You need to remember that 50% of India makes about a dollar a day salary. < Though my Indian friends tend to say that its less. But still...

 

[circulus vitios]

I really don't care about helping people. I want to be a doctor for myself. I find the work interesting and challenging. It pays well (which I care about) and it's prestigious (which I don't really care about, but it's still nice.) Helping people is secondary.

 

[student113]

Yeah I don't think it'd actually come to this either.
BUT, if these apocalyptic claims in some other threads come true (it won't), it is possible, because "something" has got to give and it will be quality of care.

I'm just illustrating how I'd approach it if that WORST possible scenario came true. Frankly, making a ton of money in some other profession won't even register when I have to worry about how my mom has to be on a waiting list for 7 months to have her surgery.

 

[lovemesomeTJ]

Well if you consider living below the poverty line to be "living" then yea, it's been done.

You appear to have been fortunate by your sarcastic remark, and I say good for you! But there are others who are doing it right now, whether by choice or by force.

We can't all keep up with the Joneses. Or the Strattons.

 

[student113]

I really don't care about helping people. I want to be a doctor for myself. I find the work interesting and challenging. It pays well (which I care about) and it's prestigious (which I don't really care about, but it's still nice.) Helping people is secondary.

I don't understand your comment's relevance to the topic at all but haha good for you, hope it works out for ya!

 

[lovemesomeTJ]

I really don't care about helping people. I want to be a doctor for myself. I find the work interesting and challenging. It pays well (which I care about) and it's prestigious (which I don't really care about, but it's still nice.) Helping people is secondary.

Sounds like helping people is actually quinternary for you...

 

[IndianVercetti]

I really don't care about helping people. I want to be a doctor for myself. I find the work interesting and challenging. It pays well (which I care about) and it's prestigious (which I don't really care about, but it's still nice.) Helping people is secondary.

I never understood why people say stuff like this as if it's something to be proud of.

 

[circulus vitios]

I never understood why people say stuff like this as if it's something to be proud of.

Because the idealism is sickening. I have to keep it real.

I never understood why people say stuff like this as if it's something to be proud of.

Why would I not be proud of it? I have one life. I'm going to live it for myself.

 

[randombetch]

The money vs. idealism debate is inconclusive as always. However, even if the financial aspect of the profession hits ROCK bottom and doctors get paid like middle school teachers, this is why I would still do medicine:

If that day does come, can you imagine what it will be like to be a patient? Even if it doesn't get as bad as "come back in 5 months to get your tumor removed," not only will patients have trouble accessing the system but the entire quality of healthcare treatments might fall. Doctor's offices will be swamped, quality of care might decline, the whole thing will be a mess.
I have lived in a country where this is the case, and I can't tell you how much it sucks to need to see the doctor, and also how much of a difference it makes to have an insider's track.
Being a doctor not only lets you understand your and your family's health, but if one of you really needs complex treatment one day, you'll have connections through your hospital/colleagues/etc.. I personally think a huge pay cut (provided I can live off of it...) is worth it for not having to be frantic about my family's health. Maybe I'm biased or something, but from the desperation I've witnessed of people who can't help their sick family, no amount of money is worth that.


Money and helping people aside, this is why, even if I make 8k a year, I still think it's worth it to be a doctor.

Why, you don't trust other doctors with your family? This is pretty absurd. If you make $8k a year, your family will die of malnutrition, and you can't even pay for health insurance to cover medications they might need.

 

[IndianVercetti]

Because the idealism is sickening. I have to keep it real.



Why would I not be proud of it? I have one life. I'm going to live it for myself.

I never said you shouldn't think like that. You're a free person, and no one can change the way you think - I'm merely asking why it's something to be proud of? As far as I can see, that displays nothing but greed for oneself. If your value system honestly puts greed on a pedestal, then I can see your logic.

I think our attitude toward power and wealth changes over time. As young people, we feel the need to improve our stock value as individuals, but as time progresses, our values shift. Once again, I am not trying to change your viewpoint.

 

[mfrizzo3]

OP, Pretty much.

 

[tuffguy13]

It's only normal to rationalize this career path, since many of us probably dedicated huge amounts of time and effort into all of this. It still doesn't make what the politicians are doing to the field as something that is proper or correct.

At the end of the day, we're getting the shaft compared to docs in other countries. The worst of both worlds. Pay will start to get scaled back by some all knowing bureacracy that sets the price, similar to the way Medicare does it already. Our reimbursements will decrease but we're still stuck with the bill for our education.

European physician pay is not as good as ours but hey at least their education is paid for. On the opposite side of that, in America before this hell care monstrosity, we made good money but we had to pay for our whole education. Now we have both; scaled back pay and the bill from med school.

 

[randombetch]

I never said you shouldn't think like that. You're a free person, and no one can change the way you think - I'm merely asking why it's something to be proud of? As far as I can see, that displays nothing but greed for oneself. If your value system honestly puts greed on a pedestal, then I can see your logic.

I think our attitude toward power and wealth changes over time. As young people, we feel the need to improve our stock value as individuals, but as time progresses, our values shift. Once again, I am not trying to change your viewpoint.

I don't think it's greed as much as it is self interest.

Personally, I think pre-meds who understand that medicine is a business just like all other fields exhibit much more maturity than those who look down upon pre-meds who considers opportunity costs.

 

[musafirah]

You appear to have been fortunate by your sarcastic remark, and I say good for you! But there are others who are doing it right now, whether by choice or by force.

We can't all keep up with the Joneses. Or the Strattons.

this is totally how i felt about that comment. haha i live on about 5k a year but with a ton of debt.

studnet113 i hear you completely. i really do think that for some people medicine is a calling! and in the end, this country will have to realize (as the other developed countries have) how important healthcare is for a society to function, and doctors will come out strong.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

The money vs. idealism debate is inconclusive as always. However, even if the financial aspect of the profession hits ROCK bottom and doctors get paid like middle school teachers, this is why I would still do medicine:

If that day does come, can you imagine what it will be like to be a patient? Even if it doesn't get as bad as "come back in 5 months to get your tumor removed," not only will patients have trouble accessing the system but the entire quality of healthcare treatments might fall. Doctor's offices will be swamped, quality of care might decline, the whole thing will be a mess.
I have lived in a country where this is the case, and I can't tell you how much it sucks to need to see the doctor, and also how much of a difference it makes to have an insider's track.
Being a doctor not only lets you understand your and your family's health, but if one of you really needs complex treatment one day, you'll have connections through your hospital/colleagues/etc.. I personally think a huge pay cut (provided I can live off of it...) is worth it for not having to be frantic about my family's health. Maybe I'm biased or something, but from the desperation I've witnessed of people who can't help their sick family, no amount of money is worth that.


Money and helping people aside, this is why, even if I make 8k a year, I still think it's worth it to be a doctor.

This will not happen. I did not read the rest of your post.

 

[thepoopologist]

The money vs. idealism debate is inconclusive as always. However, even if the financial aspect of the profession hits ROCK bottom and doctors get paid like middle school teachers, this is why I would still do medicine:

If that day does come, can you imagine what it will be like to be a patient? Even if it doesn't get as bad as "come back in 5 months to get your tumor removed," not only will patients have trouble accessing the system but the entire quality of healthcare treatments might fall. Doctor's offices will be swamped, quality of care might decline, the whole thing will be a mess.
I have lived in a country where this is the case, and I can't tell you how much it sucks to need to see the doctor, and also how much of a difference it makes to have an insider's track.
Being a doctor not only lets you understand your and your family's health, but if one of you really needs complex treatment one day, you'll have connections through your hospital/colleagues/etc.. I personally think a huge pay cut (provided I can live off of it...) is worth it for not having to be frantic about my family's health. Maybe I'm biased or something, but from the desperation I've witnessed of people who can't help their sick family, no amount of money is worth that.


Money and helping people aside, this is why, even if I make 8k a year, I still think it's worth it to be a doctor.

No doctor is going to make 8k a year ever, unless it is in a country so poor that 8k is equivalent to 200k/year in the US.

Now if you're implying that you're okay with taking on four years of med school, 200-300k in debt and at least three more years of residency to make 8k a year practicing medicine in the US, then that is just dumb.

REALLY ****ING DUMB. If your family needs a "complex treatment" and you are a doctor making 8k a year (or 50k, like you state above with middle school teacher salaries), you'd have to count on the assumption that you had inside connections, because there'd be no money to buy your way into anything. But then who the **** would want to get treated by a US doctor making 8k (hahahahaha) to 50k a year? Where would we find such a doctor, because I'm pretty sure nobody would apply to med school? How would you understand your families health if no one but you went to med school? They need more money than that to hire faculty to teach you, and then to pay hospitals to allow you to do clinical rotations (so that you could learn medicine from doctors make peanuts???)


It's these kinds of posts that make me want to vomit all over a babies face.

 

[Evergrey]

A physician is one of the few professions that will never need to starve, even in an apocalypse situation. Your skills are valuable and irreplaceable. Food is just as good a payment for treating patients!

 

[Cleavername]

I never understood why people say stuff like this as if it's something to be proud of.

alot of people feel this way, just don't have the balls to admit. and there are others who don't even want to believe that they actually feel this way, just too ignorant to see the truth.