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Why is Medicine so popular?

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Reply 60

Hippysnake

Original post by Spencer Wells

Which you could argue we kinda are.

Yeah, but Drug Dealers have better working hours.

Reply 61

sherlock holmes

Original post by peachyclean

I'm not sure what other people think, but I'm totally set on applying to do Medicine as I genuinely want to help people, not just in the NHS, but everywhere; the money doesn't really mean anything to me, I'm more excited at the prospect of being in a field where your work is greatly respected, and you receive huge job satisfaction in return.
The only reason I didn't want to go into nursing is because much of the time spent on the ward is filling out paper work - a friend of mine had work experience, and she was completely taken aback by the lack of patient contact involved in nursing - whereas patient contact is the most important aspect of being a doctor.
If I could work for an organisation like MSF, I'd be happy :smile:

Dude Doctors and nurses get pretty much the same amount of paperwork. A lot of a doctors work is just filling out paperwork too! She/He's not the one that sees all the patients while the nurses write stuff down. Nurses actually have more patient contact than doctors do!

Reply 62

Talkin and Orcyn

Original post by nmudz_009

Why it's so popular now more than it was before? Maybe immigrationxD :colone:

On a serious note, pretty much the reasons ppl have already stated above :tongue:

I see your immigration and raise you emigration. It's a very international skillset for home students.

Reply 63

Orinincandenza

Original post by peachyclean

Hi, was just flicking through this thread and this post jumped out at me.

I don't mean to be patronizing but there are a few misconceptions here that i think you should be aware of.

- Doctors are not universally respected, GPs and juniors especially are often taken for granted, insulted etc. Yes, some doctors are respected but have a flick through the daily mail or similar and you will often come across a "scumbag doctor sentenced me to death" type article. I think it would be helpful to ask yourself if people should respect doctors more than any other profession. They charge for their work and are by no means saints.

-Nurses spend much much much more time with patients than doctors, in fact it's why many go into the profession, you spend time with patients actually on the ward getting to know them and helping them with basic tasks like eating/ taking meds etc. Doctors on the other hand might see a patient on admission and if there's an emergency, in GP it can be a couple of 10 minute sessions over a period of years.

-It's great to want to help people, but medicine isn't a charity, if you want to help people, run a homeless centre, or become a professional fundraiser or something. Medicine is really a service like any other, they help people, but so do accountants.

I don't mean to be cynical and despite these still want to go into medicine, i just think it's important to be realistic about it.

Reply 64

Mathlete 4 the win

For the money, chicks and money.

Reply 65

Student 1

Helping people, being respected, getting to learn about science, the human body itself is incredibly fascinating, the money.
Why not a nurse? Well, no disrespect due but doctors want to do complicated procedures, surgery etc, not just take obs and blood...

Reply 66

username356927

Original post by Student 1

Well, no disrespect due but doctors want to do complicated procedures, surgery etc, not just take obs and blood...

Nursing is far from simple. They have to do an extremely tough job which involves far more that 'take obs and blood'.

They have to work with people of all ages, with a huge variety of conditions (both acute and long term) They have to care for and counsel patients as well as trying to manage the logistics of the ward, educate junior staff (including doctors) and have a direct role in treatment options and protocols.

Please think carefully before you resign an entire profession to half a sentence.

Reply 67

Davidragon

Original post by Orinincandenza

- Is the daily mail really the best representation of general public opinion? I know the "my GP is crap" seems to be a commonly spoken mantra among many, but among people who actually have needed treatment for anything non minor, I would say healthcare professionals hold a degree of respect.

- I don't see what is wrong with wanting to help people and wanting to make a living along with that. The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. You can carry out charity work as a doctor. Plus, considering the work put in, doctors in the UK don't exactly earn a lot, so it is difficult to be entirely motivated by money. Obviously the sole motivation isn't necessarily to help people, Medicine combines lots of different features that make it attractive to students.

- I genuinely don't think healthcare is a service just like anything else. Healthcare is far more fundamental in my opinion. Pretty much everyone is going to need medical care at some point in their life. Plus, medicine mixes the difficulties of a service profession with those of a science profession so it isn't quite the same imo.

Reply 68

Orinincandenza

Original post by Davidragon

OK, so yeah there are some valid points here.

- I agree that medicine does hold some degree of respect above say Bankers or street sweepers, but it is more nuanced than that. In hospitals patients will judge doctors on how they perform, and a little slip up can lead to being accused of being incompetent. Similarly those with conditions that the medical profession can do little for, take Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for example, often feel that their doctors have personally failed.

- Yeah there's definitely nothing wrong with wanting to help people and making money, charity execs, professional fundraisers, even medics working in charity do this. But this is the fundamental distinction i was trying to get across:

Charity medical work - Doctor gives some guy an injection --> helps him.

NHS medical work - Some guy pays a company to hire a doctor and buy supplies so he can get an injection --> helps him.

Other work - Some guy pays a company to hire a cobbler and buy some materials so he can get shoes --> helps him.

Really i get what you're saying, prescribing a drug that puts a cancer into remission, giving someone with appendicitis an appendectomy, it's pretty cool.
I just think the problem that some people have is when they first think about it they're like 'Im gonna be a doctor and save the world' and then when they get to it they're like 'Well this is hard, and people don't appreciate me and my work isn't as beneficial to my patients as i'd like'

But yeah, you're probably fine.

Oh with the doctors not getting paid much http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/nov/25/highest-paid-jobs-uk-2011

Reply 69

OMFS_BoneSetter

Original post by R4INBOW

Well the title is self-explanatory. I'm just genuinely curious as to why a medicinal degree is so popular? Is it because of the pay or the job prospects? The self-satisfaction that the job brings? I'm currently in Year 11, and already I'm beginning to hear classmates say that they want to study medicine at Oxbridge. Don't get me wrong, even I'm fond of the idea; I just want to know why there's such heavy competition for the course. And tbh most of them don't even know what they're getting into anyway :rolleyes:

. So tell me forum, why did you choose medicine.

EDIT: Since I'm getting negged, let me just establish something. When I said "them" i meant my classmates. I'm not trying to disrespect any hopeful medics out there.

When you're in Year 11 and have good grades, all you know about is how to achieve good grades and all most people at that age have ever known is the safety and comfort of their world in which they were raised, so when you hear about people talking about wanting to study medicine at Oxford and Cambridge, I think it is either a sense of approval that they are looking for from their teachers, family and friends or else it is a genuine desire to help people, but without a true reckoning of what it entails or the fact that it is a 5 or 6 year course, during which after 3-4 years, your friends are earning money and saving to buy a house, whilst you are still studying and doing night shifts trying to achieve basic competency as a doctor. Hence, medical schools tell you to get experience of that vocation, before you submit any application to medical school. I think that the true reckoning of wanting to be a doctor (despite people romantically talking about how they learned to use a stethoscope before they could walk), only comes somewhere between work experience and graduating.

There is something undeniably satisfying (in a non-egotistical way) about saving someone's life or offering them life-changing treatment or advice, beyond that I think interest in the human body mainly comes second to that, it's just that you need the knowledge in order to perform the clinical task.

Why did I choose medicine? Putting things into context, I went to quite a high-flying private school on an academic scholarship where 100% of my fees were paid. Suffice to say, I was clever and I was also dirt poor. I think, I had always been quite alternative and one thing I have always done is observed others, and their actions and behaviours, which made my quite attentive to people's reactions and emotions. I also found that whilst I was becoming increasingly brooding as a teenager, wondering why bad things happen in the world to good people and arrogantly coming up with "full-proof" ways to end poverty, crime and cure cancer, I was becoming increasingly disillusioned with the doctrine that in order to be successful, you had to be a businessman, or a lawyer, or an accountant, or a banker, or a politician, which indeed many of the parent's of my peers were. At 14, I decided that I wanted to be an Architect, because I loved design and I was good at Maths, and I did loads of work experience every summer with a local architectural firm and loved it.

I remember having a few arguments with my mother about Medicine. Although, she supported me doing Architecture, she thought I'd be more suited to medicine, to which I said, No, and I felt that she wanted me to do it for all the wrong reasons (i.e. the prestige, the money, etc). It was only at 17, that things began to change. There wasn't one specific thing, but it was a number of factors such as (friends and family dying or becoming ill, maturity that comes with age, greater knowledge of jobs and vocations, and an even stronger sense of wanting to do good in society that wasn't fuelled by how much money you took from some someone, dissatisfaction with the status quo). Everything started pointing towards medicine. I did one of those annoying online careers questionnaires that normally advise you to pursue a career as a cleaner or dustbin man, but it advised "being a doctor" a career option. I hated biology (particularly plant biology), but was fascinated with the human body, and I increasingly found that due to my willingness to listen to people, people (even people I disliked) started to confide in me about personal issues. After a bit of a crisis of conscience, I ended up changing 2 of my subjects at IB after the first term, which at one point the school nearly didn't allow. I didn't get in first time round so I went to get work experience during my gap year, got a job and did a Biology A-level and reapplied and got in 2nd time around.

Am I glad I switched to medicine? I suppose yes, although I'll never know the outcome of becoming an Architect to compare it with. I still can't quite determined what got me first interested but I know now that as cliché as it sounds, it's a desire to want to help and interact with people to improve their lives that keeps me interested in this cool profession.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 70

Durido

I'd say it is from a range of factors as has already been mentioned. Some do it out of the noble desire to improve others life. Some are simply fascinated by the processes of the human body ( medicine after all can be divided into multiple sub categories some of which are not directly connected to the patient ,such as biomedicine , or forensics) . Than there are some who do it for the social status and the pay. And there are some who simply didn't really know what else to do after they left school ( these people are quiet rare but they do exist )

Reply 71

DarkAndTwisty

I've found that quite a few people who I met who wanted to do medicine at the start of this year (AS level) have since changed their mind to other careers. I think when you were younger and university seemed like a long way off, medicine didn't really seem like that much of the commitment. As people realised what the career actually entailed, how competitive it was etc, they changed their mind.

It's quite weird because I didn't decide I wanted to do medicine until quite late, but now that I've realised it's what I wanted to do, I honestly can't imagine applying for everything else. I will openly admit that the (relative) job stability and comfortable salary are part of the overall reason for wanting to do medicine, but I think the main reason I want to be a doctor is because I literally cannot think of anything else that I would rather do, anything else that I believe that I'm truly suited for.

Reply 72

Sapien

Original post by Hippysnake

they'll start circa £25k and consistently get paid less than other professions, like Dentists, Magic Circle Lawyers and Drug Dealers.

Thank you for making me chuckle on this gloomy April morning!

Reply 73

llessur123

I'd say the main reasons are,

-Job stability
-Progression to a salary of ~£100,000
-Respect, eventually.

Obviously the aspects of science and everything but disregarding peoples personal interests, I'd say the reasons mentioned above are real pushes. I'd like to see if it would be so popular if the salary only progressed to £25,000, there were no jobs and if consultants didn't have much respect.

(edited 12 years ago)

one word: House

Disease will always exist and so humanity will always have a demand for doctors. Always. Thus, it's a very stable job.

Reply 76

AishaTara

Original post by catoswyn

Though I remember something Florence Nightingale said. She was very annoyed that so many women were fighting to become doctors because the profession was already over-subscribed with excellent people and there was a desperate shortage of nurses. She thought that actually if someone really was driven by the desire to help they would go where they were most needed.

It seems much the same now with thousands of people applying to medicine and other parts of health care or social work struggling to get quality applicants. So I do believe status and money also play a huge part in the drive people have to enter medicine.

:smile:

For some maybe, but when I did work experience with a nurse, she told me its fustrating not having the knowledge, nor much control. Nurses cant diagnose, and don't know most of the information so can't judge whats wrong. Often with experience they'll pick up some things as they would have been exposed to some cases over and over. Thats the biggest difference, medicine is more academically challenge, and for those who prefer problem solving as to just the practical side, they tend to go for medicine. Most people don't go into medicine to justhelp people, otherwise they could do other things. Knowing you are helping people is a big bonus, but the main reason is the content to the course, and the application of knowledge.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 77

AishaTara

Original post by TooSexyForMyStethoscope

Exactly! work experience really opened my eyes to the nurses role. Infact, if tomorrow all the nurses went on strike, doctors wouldn't cope. They are definitely more than capable of doing the nurses role i'm sure, but having nurses is more efficient as doctors can see more patients in a day than if they had to do everything. Training doctors costs a bomb, and some nurses probably wouldn't academically be able to cope with the content of a medical degree, which is why they have them.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 78

Davidragon

Original post by AishaTara

Exactly! work experience really opened my eyes to the nurses role. Infact, if tomorrow all the nurses went on strike, doesn't wouldn't cope. They are definitely more than capable of doing the nurses role i'm sure, but having nurses is more efficient as doctors can see more patients in a day than if they had to do everything. Training doctors costs a bomb, and some nurses probably wouldn't academically be able to cope with the content of a medical degree, which is why they have them.

I think some doctors would possibly struggle at least in terms of communication and empathy, which you could argue is a bigger part of being a nurse due to spending more time with patients.

Reply 79

AishaTara

Original post by Davidragon

I think some doctors would possibly struggle at least in terms of communication and empathy, which you could argue is a bigger part of being a nurse due to spending more time with patients.

Perhaps, but nursing they don't even interview some people, whereas medicine you have to do an interview; I know some nurses who are super shy, and just did whatever the senior nurse says. You're right though, nurses speak more to patients, but all the doctors ive shadowed have had great communication skills, i guess they may have picked it up over the years, but even as a patient I find doctors who have great communication skills are easier to talk to! plus nowadays trere is such a strong emphasis on communication skills throughout med school.