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What motivates a Doctor? Money, Prestige or Moral Imperative ?

What motivates a Doctor want to become a Doctor? Is it the Money, Prestige or Moral Imperative, like helping people because they need help?

Some comment I read said Doctors need high salaries or they wouldn't want to do the work.

Umm, Nurses work just as hard but they are supposed to be all lofty and idealistic about helping people with compassion and a warm heart, how come nurses are supposed to be driven be lofty ideals about humanity and Doctors are driven by high salaries?


There's a whole raft of articles on the excessive salaries of doctors of late:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2305272/Trainee-doctors-paid-2-000-A-DAY-NHS-control-agency-payments-scandal.html

Trainee doctors are being paid more than £2,000 A DAY by the NHS in 'out of control' agency payments scandal


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1204065/The-GP-earning-380-000-year--hours-doctors-200-hour.html

Bonuses for doctors: How GPs are earning up to £380,000 a year... and £200 an hour for work they used to do for free



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Reply 1
I can't judge every single doctor so I can't answer that question, but from what I've noticed from someone who is a doctor in my family is that they go in for it with the medicinal appeal/to help people but come out merely wanting money. But as I say, I can't apply that to every doctor in the world.
Reply 2
My Uncle's a doctor and he says he does it just so he can help people. It was that drive that led him to choose to become a doctor.
However, there will always be a money factor involved. There is no point studying in medical school for 7 years of your life just so you can help people for 'moral imperative' - the other drive is the mega bucks you get after every year, especially as you get more trained and experienced, your salary increases.
Asian parents.
Reply 4
I think in some ways it depends on a person, I mean in the UK if you want to specialize in psychiatry you have to medicine , in other countries you don't so for me its about wanting to make a positive impact in the field I want to go to, I wouldn't do med if not for psychiatry. However, I think alot of people are money motivated but alot of people see it as a garunteed job after graduating. I think the NHS shouldn't give figures for doctors pay, they should reduce it (on the surface, we cant have doctors on strike, not good for the country) and then see how many people actually apply, for example say a first year will get 15 k and the max a consultant will get is 60k instead of 100+K,and state its not a garunteed job I'd actually be interested to know how may people apply.
Reply 5
I also know a psychiatrist and she has a lot of patients who are suffering from depression, they are not happy as doctors, because they were pushed to hard by their parents because it was all about the money and keeping the family on upper class boundaries. Of course, I don't know who the patients are or anything about them ( patient confidentiality), but I know their case. It's awfully sad :frown:.
Reply 6
ofc my statements are not applicable to every medic, or aspiring medic.
Reply 7
by alot patients, quite a number of doctors.
Reply 8
It's a combination of a lot of factors I think. I go to a private school and I see a lot of kids applying due to the prestige it earns or the intelligence that it validates. I want to apply because I want a job where I can feel satisfied that I'm doing something morally right on a daily basis, also because my strengths are science/mathematically based and the idea of being accepted to medicine at the age of seventeen and knowing that on the whole you will never seriously struggle financially is obviously a very attractive prospect


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Reply 9
There are going to be loads of reasons, interest in the subject, prestige, job security, ability to treat and help patients, comfortable salary, diverse variety of fields, etc etc.

Doctors are not overpaid. In case you haven't noticed, salaries aren't decided by the number of hours someone works. Those GP's earning near £400k are very very rare, most GP's would be on around £100k which is completely fair considering the length of training they have to go through and the amount of knowledge they need to have.
Reply 10
It is what their parents want...children like to please their parents. Before people actually think about what they want to do with their life(most actually don't) they're just doing whatever they think will make their parents happy.
(edited 10 years ago)
It's a whole mixture of the reasons you've given that motivate me. Mostly for me, I want a job that's going to be challenging and interesting, in which I work with people. I was also pretty motivated by the degree as I really enjoy studying the science of the human body. The fact that it will get me a nice middle class salary is comforting - I don't know whether I'd be less interested if I was going to be paid as much as a teacher, but it's definitely not what first drew me to the career. The prestige is a nice bonus, not really anything I care that much about. I'm not actually sure it's that prevalent amongst our generation anyway.
Reply 12
For many what motivates them is their parent's ideas of prestige.
Ahh, another thread where the TSR haters hate on medics using that infallible source relating to all things medical....the Daily Mail, which of course doesn't have an axe to grind and doesn't exist simply to give middle class housewives something to gossip about :curious:

The Patient's Association as a source? Sounds legit.

Original post by SILHAM
I think in some ways it depends on a person, I mean in the UK if you want to specialize in psychiatry you have to medicine , in other countries you don't so for me its about wanting to make a positive impact in the field I want to go to, I wouldn't do med if not for psychiatry. However, I think alot of people are money motivated but alot of people see it as a garunteed job after graduating. I think the NHS shouldn't give figures for doctors pay, they should reduce it (on the surface, we cant have doctors on strike, not good for the country) and then see how many people actually apply, for example say a first year will get 15 k and the max a consultant will get is 60k instead of 100+K,and state its not a garunteed job I'd actually be interested to know how may people apply.


Psychiatry is a medical speciality. How can you be a psychiatrist without having trained as a doctor first?

A first year junior doctor earns about £22K...which is hardly an amazing graduate salary, especially for considering many of these doctors will be graduating from very "prestigious" universities where many of their fellow students will be heading off to work for PWC or Deloitte for several times that amount. Frankly anyone who's done their research will realise that going into medicine for the money is really something of a dumb move.
Reply 14
Original post by Democracy
Ahh, another thread where the TSR haters hate on medics using that infallible source relating to all things medical....the Daily Mail, which of course doesn't have an axe to grind and doesn't exist simply to give middle class housewives something to gossip about :curious:

The Patient's Association as a source? Sounds legit.



Psychiatry is a medical speciality. How can you be a psychiatrist without having trained as a doctor first?

A first year junior doctor earns about £22K...which is hardly an amazing graduate salary, especially for considering many of these doctors will be graduating from very "prestigious" universities where many of their fellow students will be heading off to work for PWC or Deloitte for several times that amount. Frankly anyone who's done their research will realise that going into medicine for the money is really something of a dumb move.



Indeed it is a mediccal specialty my apologies, I wrote this in a hurry and didn't read through. I was meant to say in the uk there isn't a massive demand for psychologists. If you are interested in psychology like me, I don't want to go through uni studying a subject then end up in marketing or something non related to psyc, Ive looked at the employment rate for psyc graduates alot of them do go into marketing and accounting . However, being a psychiatrist you are garunteed to do the job you want to do which involves a lot of psyc.
Original post by Multitalented me
Asian parents.


The vid in your sig is quite appropriate too. That show was brilliant in it's time.
Reply 16
Original post by Ape Gone Insane
There are faster and easier ways of earning (more) money than becoming a doctor, so I doubt that would be the sole reason for someone becoming one. And it's worth mentioning a lot of these stories are just headline-grabbers. GPs as highly paid as the one you have highlighted in the OP are a very small group, as far as I'm aware. That runs parallel to pretty much every other profession.


There are only faster ways for the very best people. In reality the majority of medics that I've seen would not be able to hack getting in to some of the very best universities let alone doing well in them. You can be a very average individual academically and still get into medicine though, provided you play your cards well.
Reply 17
Original post by Democracy
Ahh, another thread where the TSR haters hate on medics using that infallible source relating to all things medical....the Daily Mail, which of course doesn't have an axe to grind and doesn't exist simply to give middle class housewives something to gossip about :curious:

The Patient's Association as a source? Sounds legit.



Psychiatry is a medical speciality. How can you be a psychiatrist without having trained as a doctor first?

A first year junior doctor earns about £22K...which is hardly an amazing graduate salary, especially for considering many of these doctors will be graduating from very "prestigious" universities where many of their fellow students will be heading off to work for PWC or Deloitte for several times that amount. Frankly anyone who's done their research will realise that going into medicine for the money is really something of a dumb move.


It's not really a dumb move for someone who can barely scrape AAA in their A-levels. In actual fact it would be a very wise move money wise in that particular case.
Reply 18
For my parents it seems like it was their intelectual curiosity and desire to help people (Though the latter seems to be mostly gone by now).
Original post by Democracy
Ahh, another thread where the TSR haters hate on medics using that infallible source relating to all things medical....the Daily Mail, which of course doesn't have an axe to grind and doesn't exist simply to give middle class housewives something to gossip about :curious:

The Patient's Association as a source? Sounds legit.



Psychiatry is a medical speciality. How can you be a psychiatrist without having trained as a doctor first?

A first year junior doctor earns about £22K...which is hardly an amazing graduate salary, especially for considering many of these doctors will be graduating from very "prestigious" universities where many of their fellow students will be heading off to work for PWC or Deloitte for several times that amount. Frankly anyone who's done their research will realise that going into medicine for the money is really something of a dumb move.


Source for 22k?

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