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Photographic memory, money, and liposuction: survey of medical students' wish lists
K J Petrie1, G R White, L D Cameron
1Health Psychology Research Group, Faculty of Medical and Health Science, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand. kj.petrie@auckland.ac.nz
Objectives:
To examine whether medical students made fewer altruistic wishes and more money oriented wishes in later years of the medical course than students in earlier years.
Design:
Anonymous questionnaire survey.
Setting:
Auckland University School of Medicine.
Participants:
520 medical students from 6 years of the course responded to the questionnaire item "If you had three wishes what would you wish for?"
Main Outcome Measures:
Proportion of wishes in various categories.
Results:
The three most popular categories of wishes were happiness (34% of students), money (32%), and altruistic wishes (31%). Rates of altruistic wishes (odds ratio=1.05, 95% confidence interval 0.94 to 1.18; P=0.36) and wishes for money (odds ratio=0.96, 0.86 to 1.08; P=0.52) did not vary over the years of the course. Female medical students were more likely than males to make altruistic wishes (36% v 26%; chi(2)=5.68, P=0. 02), intimacy wishes (25% v 18%; chi(2)=3.74, P=0.05), and happiness wishes (42% v 26%; chi(2)=18.82, P=0.0001). Men were more likely than women to make sexual wishes (5% v 0.8%; chi(2)=7.34, P=0.01).
Conclusions:
We found no evidence that students were less altruistic and more money oriented in the later years of the medical course.