Photographic memory, money, and liposuction: survey of medical students' wish lists.

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.