<p>Such as Grey’s Anatomy, ER, Scrubs(?), etc…</p>
<p>No, my sister is actually influenced by my mom. Oh well, I think she really wants it herself, too.</p>
<p>Please don’t say that shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs, and <em>sigh</em> House can influence students to become doctors. These shows are jokes.</p>
<p>(I’m biased toward ER though. ER ruled until Mark died.)</p>
<p>Students become doctors because of money, love of helping others, parental pressure, or thirst for knowledge.</p>
<p>Sometimes they only go for one of those.</p>
<p>Sometimes they have a combination of those things.</p>
<p>Sometimes they have all.</p>
<p>In the end, most students become doctors because they simply want to be doctors.</p>
<p>For some HS students, yes, these shows do have an influence. One of the biggest issues though is that many, MANY people come into college as pre-med or pre-law because they don’t know any better - they haven’t been exposed to the really astounding number of career options available to them. Attrition though - particularly for the pre-meds - is swift and those who realize they hate chemistry quickly change their majors.</p>
<p>By the time the herd has thinned and that cohort is in the 4th year, those who are still pre-med and actively applying to med school are far less likely to have been influenced by TV and movies - though I imagine there are always a few. That’s not to say that med students don’t love Grey’s Anatomy, b/c many of my M2 classmates do, but they’re just not very likely to have been influenced directly by shows like ER or Chicago Hope (the shows that would have inspired today’s current medical students). That’s also not to say that people who were interested in medicine as HS students didn’t also enjoy shows like ER, just that those who actually matriculated into medical school weren’t inspired by the shows.</p>
<p>Being pre-med takes too much work though if you aren’t in it for the right reasons or if you don’t really believe in the reasons that you going down that path.</p>
<p>Lots of kids say they are going premed, but once they realize what it encompasses they don’t. At my school the statistic is 40% of freshman enter as premed and 3 or 4% graduate it. Furthermore a portion of those 3-4% will not get into medschool. I’m just glad I’m not doing it :)</p>
<p>I’m the opposite: I volunteer at a hospital every week, watch Scrubs compulsively, and read medschool memoirs the way other people read trashy romance novels or detective stories… but I don’t want to be a doctor, I just think it’s fascinating. :)</p>
<p>ER > all and I want to be a screenwriter so…</p>
<p>lol Im pretty sure many premeds are premeds because of those shows. I haven’t really seen any of them (I have seen ER) but if that’s their inspiration then good luck. It takes a lot more determination than just looking up to the docs on those shows to make it to med school.</p>
<p>I’m a premed that wants to be a doctor for my own reasons, experiences etc.</p>
<p>I’m not a premed because I love Scrubs, but rather, I love Scrubs because I’m premed. Oh man that’s like my favorite show ever.</p>
<p>I want to go premed (I am in college btw) because I’ve always loved science since I was a little girl. I consider myself very inquisitive, I like finding out why things happen the way they do…(which is why I love psychology). I’ve always done well in the sciences, and what amazes me the most is that science is always evolving. </p>
<p>Yes, I do like House, but I’ve wanted to become a doctor since I was in eighth grade which was waaay before House came out on t.v. I have never watched ER because it never interested me.</p>
<p>I think it has more to do with the fact that we live in an unpredictable world and economy. A career as a doctor is secure…it cannot be outsourced, and although medical technology is advancing, doctors will still be in demand in every part of the country for at least the next century. Also, doctors are paid well. </p>
<p>Thank about it, being a stock broker is precarious work.</p>
<p>It’s absolutely ridiculous to say TV shows influence a person’s career choice, or maybe you just watch way to much TV</p>
<p>Most people who want to become doctors and even doctors are idiots, I don’t consider somebody smart because they can read a book. The people who want to become doctors are idiots and most of them have No Common sense, if it doesn’t say what to do in a book, they don’t have a clue. This is a Big reason why so many doctors need to go to Business school before or during there practice of medicine, they just don’t have a clue in the common sense area. Such as my room mate this semester, He a Great Guy, Very very Book smart and I love him like a brother, but ask him what to do in real life, He wouldn’t be able to tell you same with all of his friends. He world tell you he didn’t learn that yet. Now for somebody who wants to become a doctor, I asked him some questions, I said what is a Heart Attack, No clue, just knew it was bad, Ask him what a laxative was, No clue, what diabetes was, No clue, didn’t even know what hydrogen peroxide or beta dine was. I said how can you not know this stuff, you want to be a doctor, this stuff is just common, your Local Janitor would have 50X more medical knowledge then some of these pre-med students.</p>
<p>The lack of life experience of some of these kids is also pretty dam insane, as humans we are moving and ever changing organisms, not everything always go perfectly. I wake up one morning and my leg hurts, no real reason I just say hey man can ya get me an Advil my leg hurts. He says why does your leg hurt, I said I don’t know it just hurts, sometimes your body just hurts. He said Mine never has, I looked at him and said everybody gets common pains sometimes in there lives, sometimes your body just has an ache, He said well mine never had, you should go to the doctor, I said your insane its just an ache. We then went into this whole big thing on asking people if they had everyday pain, all of his friends said they have never had a pain before. while all random people we asked said, yeah sometimes, I’m sure many of you here will agree.</p>
<p>We get into arguments all the time,</p>
<p>He says he has never had Diarrhea/Constipation.
Never threw up,
Never heard of somebody being sick for more than a day.
Didn’t know what Katrina was or the Tsunami in Asia.
did int know that some poeple are Poor.
didn’t know that students paid for there own school
didn’t know that not all students have cars
didnt know that some students paid there own tuition.
and many more.</p>
<p>He was so surprised that I was poor, didnt have a car and that I go to school 100% by myself with No help from anybody.</p>
<p>I don’t know how people like this become doctors, he has had life handed to him, and been so protected from the outside, he only knows one way of life and I don’t know how he can be compassionate to other people.</p>
<p>If someone could elaborate on this it would be great.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t extrapolate your roommate’s situation to ALL student aspiring to become doctors.</p>
<p>Does TV influence people to become policemen, rocket scientists, or zookeepers? Sure it does.</p>
<p>Completely agreeing with Bigredmed. TV might get you into the field, but it isn’t going to sustain you through the MCAT study season.</p>
<p>UB-</p>
<p>Wow. You sound bitter. Trust me, your roommate is not indicative of ALL aspiring doctors. No way.</p>
<p>Yeah, UB, I’ve never met somebody who’s really like that.</p>
<p>wow UB that in no way is a reflection of premed students in general … i tend to think ur exagerrating and a little bitter over somthing (what, does ur roommate and his friends get better grades, while u feel ur smarter than them?)</p>
<p>I wish I was exaggerating.</p>
<p>Talking with my mother, she is around a lot of doctors, I mean a lot. She says that around 90% of them are like this and once they go out on there own, and there parents don’t pay for everything. They finally realize the value of a dollar at least what it is in there eyes a dollar is worth. Then then become the Heartless and money hungry doctors we see today.</p>
<p>same with lawyers she said.</p>
<p>wow…you just made feel a lot better about wanting to become a doctor…</p>