Originally posted by monster2
I know on this forum, and the premedical world in general, there is a lot of arguing about "why" a person should pursue a career in medicine. Some have even gone as
far as to claim that premeds solely interested in money, prestige, and power should not go into medicine because they would not only fail to meet their high expectations
but would also fail to be the kind of doctor patients deserve. The argument goes something like this: "If you were suffering, would you want a self-centered, arrogant,
power-hungery doctor who had his mind on the 12:00 golf round with the rest of his elitist pals at the yuppie country club attending at your bedside?" I must admit that
even I wouldn't want this. I would rather have a caring doctor who had his mind on me as a person and not some disease he had to usher out of his office so that he
could meet his HMO quota. This is ideal, but in today's world it is not very likely. So I ask you: Take away the prestige, the money, the power, and all the other perks
that come along with being a doctor...take it all away...now how many of us can truly say (without some resignation in back of our mind) that we would still take the
gruelling path to be this kind of doctor. Would we study for 10 exhaustive years after college to make an average salary, with no prestige, and no power? My answer is
no and I guarentee almost all premeds feel the same way I do. You say you want to be a doctor so you can help people...I say that is b.s. because you could just as
easily help people by being a nurse or respiratory therapist. So why are we not applying for these careers? Because we all know that nurses and respiratory therapists
take their orders from doctors, make less money than doctors, and do not have nearly the prestige that a doctor has. When was the last time a nurse got credit for saving
a life? Even if she did, the doctor would most likely get the credit. You as well as I know that to want to become a doctor you must be a little more arrogant and
goal-driven than the average person. Yet, some of us do a very good job at hiding their arrogance and down-play their efforts to pull the best grades they can. Why?
Because they don't want to be known as the typical "premed" student. So do you volunteer at a hospital? Work at a homeless shelter? Donate your time to the food
bank? Of course you do...because you know it will help you get into med school. But oh no you'd never admit that, so you instead say that you do it b/c you "care." Give
me a break. Fact is if it wasn't for med school you wouldn't be found anywhere near a hospital or homeless shelter. And that my friends is the bottom line...argue all you
want but all those arguments are masking the real reasons as to why you want to go into medicne.