Motivation for working in medicine

Editor—I am a New Zealand medical student currently on elective in Australia. On elective, I have more time on my hands than usual, and I have reflected on how far I have come since my first year.

I was one of the last people to get into medical school in my year, off the waiting list, six weeks after the course had started. Admission was solely on marks in the first year. I thought, at the time, that I would have had an easier time if there had been interviews. In retrospect, I am glad because if I had been asked why I wanted to be a doctor I would not have known; I do not know now.

I can imagine people would have said, “I want to help people” or “I want to find the cure for cancer,” also mentioning the rarer reasons about influence, respect, and money. In my case these were all important to some extent.

All of these goals can be reached through other professions—for example, law or commerce—except, perhaps, finding the cure for cancer. I still sometimes wonder what my life would be like and what would be different if I entered one of those fields.

I do not regret doing medicine, but the principal reasons as to why may seem wrong to some people: I have met some of my best friends during my time in medicine and have worked with people for whom I hold a huge amount of respect, including consultants, professors, and numerous junior staff.

Over the years many patients have stuck in my mind, including my first patient with HIV and recently, an elderly gentleman who, as I was leaving at the end of the day, said, “Thank you, you are a scholar and a gentleman; not many of us left now.” This brought a grin to my face.

Patients give me a great deal of satisfaction when their problems can be resolved through our interaction. So I suppose helping people is, in fact, a big part of why I enjoy medicine. But it doesnt seem to be as obvious as that to me.

People say that they think I will be a good doctor, but as far as I am concerned the jury is still out. I would be very interested to see if other students or doctors share at least some of my thoughts on medicine and have the same motivation to get up in the morning.

Philip Robinson, sixth year medical student, University of Otago, New Zealand
Email: pcr@ihug.co.nz


studentBMJ 2002;10:131-170 May ISSN 0966-6494