Abstract

There is a prevalent view that medical education is having a detrimental influence on values of students, leading to production of selfish and distrustful doctors. One can assess the motivation of individuals by eliciting and analyzing their personal wishes. A questionnaire in English, consisting of statements with examples of wishes, under 18 different headings were completed by the third and final year undergraduate medical students, of both sexes , to assess their motivation. Fischer exact test was used to analyse significant gender difference if any. In pooled data, the three most popular categories of wishes were; self-esteem , happiness and health . Significant gender difference existed only for wishes pertaining to sex, power and self-esteem. The rank order of the three most popular wishes for males were happiness , health and intimacy , while for females they were, self-esteem happiness , health / intimacy . In this study there is no evidence that medical students were money oriented. However poor preference for altruistic wish was highly discouraging, pointing to the need for shaping the students’ personal and professional career towards a non-cynical, person oriented approach