The "Why do you want to study medicine and be a doctor?" megathread

There are lots of threads (forever increasing in number) asking questions like:

"Why do you all want to study medicine?"
"Why do you want to be a doctor?"
"What inspired you to study medicine?" etc.

This is the thread to discuss them all in. Note, this isn't an interview discussion thread (use the relevant thread when it is available for that) but is instead for more general discussion of the points of surrounding the above questions.

I understand that all the sarcastic answers ("nurses", "I like scrubs" etc.) that are usually given are because the same question has been asked a hundred times before, but try and refrain in this thread.

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Reply 1

JackG1

My girlfriend is doing nursing at uni, I applied purely to improve our roleplay.

On a serious note; 1. it is an intellectually stimulating career being a doctor regardless of which of the many paths you choose to go down after completing your degree 2. it is applying your knowledge to benefit others and 3. most importantly to me however, I'll be able to sit back when I'm old and crusty and feel good about my contribution to society.

Reply 2

Vox0

My main reason was because I saw critical illness within my family at a young age and felt pretty much helpless at the time. I saw the work of doctors and other healthcare professionals who more or less saved the lives of some of the most important people in my life. Therefore, I couldn't think of a more valuable or fulfilling or personally meaningful career for me. Not to mention the fact that I'm pretty fascinated by the human body, the way it works and the ever-increasing knowledge about how to keep its systems in balance.

That... or the fact I used to run around as a semi-naked 5 year old playing doctor?

Reply 3

Picture~Perfect

I started off thinking I wanted to go into Medicine because of my interest in Science and my fascination with the way in which the human body functions. Now I think it runs deeper than that, when I was younger my Grandfather suffered from a heart attack, sadly he didn't survive. I think that this is ingrained in a part of me, I remember feeling so helpless, the ambulance took over an hour to get to us. My mum, dad and me (I was 10) went straight over, what I remember most specifically is that I was in the living room, on the phone to the 999 operator relaying instructions to my mum, who was in another room with my Granddad, who I think was unconscious at the time. I blamed myself for a long time, thinking that he might have lived if I had given the instructions more clearly. This experience has made me want to be involved in a caring profession. I see it as an opportunity to help prevent families going through a similar situation.

There are many other reasons that interest me, lifelong learning, the opportunity to teach and pass my skills onto others, but mostly, more than any other profession a true sense of being able to make a difference to the community. :smile:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 4

UMARTIAN

Fascination about the human body, how it works, why it doesnt work, hows its made.
The idea of being able to use your medical knowledge to save a life.
Job security and stability.
And the added perks if you are successful.

Reply 5

thechem1

Never really thought about this properly until recently, I suppose for me its the knowledge and understanding I will have of the human body during and after my studies. Also, I imagine there is a massive amount of job satisfaction working as a Doctor, as well as a lot of pressure that would be challenging, yet enjoyable to deal with, and successfully overcome.

Has anyone else got any definite reasons why they want to, or why they chose to study medicine ?

Reply 6

theking1

Original post by thechem1

To help people?

Reply 7

AishaTara

the content- the stuff you study interests me, and at the same time I like the active job, creative, challenging and i like working under pressure and applying what I know and scenerios where I have to figure out the problem. The job satisification is the bonus, but even if tomorrow medicine became an average degree, doctors were paid less etc I'd still do it.

Reply 8

thechem1

Original post by theking1

To help people?

Teachers help people, nurses, police officers . . . expand.

Reply 9

Chloe:')

I want to be a Doctor because I think as a career it would be constantly changing due to new discoveries and treatments as well as interesting and diverse. There are so many speacialities and illnesses that one can acquire. Not only would it be satisfactory but if you love Science, not only do you get to help people and make a difference but you get to work with the subjects you enjoy in an analytical way, which I personally think is rewarding. I also think it's good because you take an active role in making a difference to someone's life. I agree with Aisha Tara, even if doctors were poorly paid I would still want to do it.

Reply 10

AtomicMan

to gain access to drugs

Reply 11

-Simon-

Original post by thechem1

I imagine this is all about medical school applications and as this is a common interview question it would make sense to answer in this respect.

1) "knowledge of human body"...why not do x profession which would give you just as detailed/a more detailed understanding?

2) Why do you imagine there is a great deal of satisfaction to a job as a doctor? Is this the only job that would give this satisfaction?

3) What experience of pressure have you had? Why do you think dealing with pressure would be enjoyable? Do you think that this pressure can often be really depressing and stressful?

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 12

Helloworld_95

Because one year you could be transplanting organs and the next you could be growing them from stem cells. Because one year you could be watching a disease force a death sentence and the next it could be cured. Because it's a challenging career with options from clinical work to research to teaching. Because you get to meet new interesting people everyday. Because as a doctor you are the frontier to protecting and improving a persons quality of life.

Reply 13

Giggy88

Original post by -Simon-

I imagine this is all about medical school applications and as this is a common interview question it would make sense to answer in this respect.

1) "knowledge of human body"...why not do x profession which would give you just as detailed/a more detailed understanding?

2) Why do you imagine there is a great deal of satisfaction to a job as a doctor? Is this the only job that would give this satisfaction?

3) What experience of pressure have you had? Why do you think dealing with pressure would be enjoyable? Do you not think that this pressure is not often really depressing and stressful?

OMG I think if the interviewer would attack me like that, he would only observe silence from my side :redface:

.. It's not easy to explain why you think this job gives you satisfaction while equally claiming that all jobs give satisfaction.

WOuld it be weird if I just took a few seconds to think about my answer or would they just move on ? :tongue:

Reply 14

-Simon-

Original post by Giggy88

OMG I think if the interviewer would attack me like that, he would only observe silence from my side :redface:

You should be prepared for an interviewer to ask questions in an aggressive manner, some places are infamous for having really strong interviewers.

No, the exact opposite! You should take a few minutes to consider an answer to an interviewers question. No candidate should just instantly answer. Take time to logically think through an answer that reflects the differences between being a Doctor and other health professions/academic research.

Reply 15

Add!ction

All then emotional scenes from Scrubs.

Reply 16

Democracy

Not sufficiently interested/motivated to do anything else.

And having gone up to postgraduate level in something else, I think that my decision is very well informed.

There are also a whole load of other things I could write, but my personal experiences won't really be helpful or relevant to you.

Original post by Helloworld_95

For real?

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 17

EllaBella<3

I chose medicine through personal circumstances. It had been a subconscious decision for a long time, but as I grew up the other factors appealed to me, as lots of people have said above, the lifelong learning, the constantly changing field, working with people, the course content. The experiences i've had in medical settings concreted my decisions :smile:

Reply 18

purplefrog

First and foremost, want to help people and not spend my life in an office job meeting arbitrary sales targets etc.
was considering teaching, but found medicine more attractive due to the diversity it offers within science as well as the other less commonly trodden areas (epidemiology, international health, health policy).