Does a person's skill as a Physician correlate with reason(s) for entering medicine?

[jjoeirv]

Many of the pre-med students within the bio major at my school are so competitive that there is a major cheating problem within the major (including sabotage of other students' experiments in order to harm their grade, stealing of exams, etc.). What I find perplexing is the fact that these are the same students who want to become medical doctors, who are supposed to be professionals interested in helping people.

I am sure that the same students who do these unethical acts will write in their essays for medical school the reason they want to become doctors is to help people.

When I look at my friends who want to become medical doctors, I noticed that many of them are not that nice. They act like Mother Theresa when being interviewed by the Medical School admissions committee. They don't care much about other people, and are only interested in becoming doctors because of any or all of the folowing reasons:
(1) high pay
(2) prestige
(3) pressure from parents

Do medical schools do a good job weeding people out who want to become medical doctors for any of the above reasons? How would they even know that the student wants to become a doctor for the "wrong" reasons?

Why does it matter if someone entered medicine for any of the above reasons? If someone is intelligent enough, then I don't think there is any reason for them not to become a doctor for any of the above reasons. Also, their skills as physicians will not necessarily be less just because they entered medicine for the money.

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[mpp]

Medical schools don't do the best job at keeping this type of person out. But that would be a difficult job. It's pretty easy to act altruistic for 45 minutes during an interview.

Whether they should or not is quite interesting. It is definitely in the long-term best interest of the profession to keep everything on the up-and-up. Physicians have historically had respect, prestige, and high income because they have been so trustworthy. The more doctors that get caught being greedy, unethical, and overtly uncaring, the less the public will hold them with such high regard. As that happens, there goes the prestige and respect, and eventually, the money will follow.

 

[quackdoc]

The job of the medical schools is not to "weed" out the scum anyway.
I feel that the ones acting altruistic land up nowhere.In order to "treat" one needs to have compassion and enuine care.Trust me,my experience have seen many of them who land up nowhere becuase they hanker too much after the issues that are not clearly reflected they way that this profession demands.It can be a bitch and it can be killing.Howvever the amount of rofessional satisfaction that lands up is beyond any comparison.The ones that you talked off ultimately end up nowhere.

 

[aphistis]

Originally posted by mpp
Medical schools don't do the bets job at keeping this type of person out. But that would be a difficult job. It's pretty easy to act altruistic for 45 minutes during an interview.

Whether they should or not is quite interesting. It is definitely in the long-term best interest of the profession to keep everything on the up-and-up. Physicians have historically had respect, prestige, and high income because they have been so trustworthy. The more doctors that get caught being greedy, uncaring, and overtly uncaring, the less the public will hold them with such high regard. As that happens, their goes the prestige and respect, and eventually, the money will follow.

This is an especially interesting commenting when you consider recent trends in compensation. Unfortunate coincidence, or karmic retribution?

 

[Fermata]

Originally posted by aphistis
This is an especially interesting commenting when you consider recent trends in compensation. Unfortunate coincidence, or karmic retribution?

Do you think dentists will be immune from this as well?

 

[logos]

Do you think dentists will be immune from this as well?

Thats actually a very interesting question. Although i'm not really interested in dentistry... I'd guess yes, mostly because dentists have seen what managed care did to medicine and will avoid it like the plague.

 

[dave262]

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[Fermata]

Originally posted by dave262
Why would someone want to come into medicine for the money. If I was in the business world and worked as hard as i am in med school, I'd be a freakin millionaire several times over by now.

Instead im worth....lets see here.... uh...
assets: $0
debt: $85000

$-85000

This is good in theory. However, there are many MBA's from good programs that don't make nearly this amount. The reason certain business professionals make so much is because they took some serious risks and had the right connections. Medicine, on the other hand, is less risky in the sense that you are gonna get paid a lot of dough even if you finish at the bottom of the class.

 

[piu]

did you ever think the perhaps the best doctors are all driven by material reward ? I mean what better reason is there to work like a dog and get that top residency other then for the financial reward it promises. If you wanted to help ppl i think most ppl would be happy being a general practitioner.

 

[Kalel]

Originally posted by Fermata
Do you think dentists will be immune from this as well?

Dentistry is immune from many of the compensation problems facing medicine because most dentists have the option of only taking cash for their procedures and not accepting any insurance from insurance co's who can dictate their rates. Also, dentists are not obliged to treat everyone who comes to their door and needs urgent dental care. Many ER's have difficulty treating patients with dental pain and conditions because they can't afford to keep a dentist on staff, and many patients come to ER's knowing that if they complain of dental pain, they will be given a few narcotics for the pain by a physician who knows nothing about dentistry and told to follow up with a real dentist.

 

[aphistis]

Originally posted by Kalel
Dentistry is immune from many of the compensation problems facing medicine because most dentists have the option of only taking cash for their procedures and not accepting any insurance from insurance co's who can dictate their rates. Also, dentists are not obliged to treat everyone who comes to their door and needs urgent dental care. Many ER's have difficulty treating patients with dental pain and conditions because they can't afford to keep a dentist on staff, and many patients come to ER's knowing that if they complain of dental pain, they will be given a few narcotics for the pain by a physician who knows nothing about dentistry and told to follow up with a real dentist.

This is true enough when it happens, but dentists are ethically bound to treat emergency cases. Granted, most after-hours dental emergencies can be taken care of with a call to the pharmacy and a squeeze-in appointment the next day, but I think you'll find most any dentist worth his/her salt will see a patient after hours if immediate intervention might be needed.

Plus, with dentistry you've got a number of viable treatment options available for any given situation, depending on the patient's resources. They might not be ideal (i.e., extract vs. implant & crown), but they're still effective treatments. I just posted in another thread that despite the many similarities between dentistry & most medical fields, plenty of differences still exist; I think this is a good example.