Michelle William's Daughter: to be Actress or Doctor?
Robert Latkany, MDFebruary 23, 2009
Actress Michelle Williams wants her 3 year old daughter, whose father is the late Oscar winner Heath Ledger, to be a doctor. There is no doubt that being in the public eye all day long can end with unwanted mental and physical strain.
But is life as a doctor all that it's held up to be? Why is it that Kibbe et al found that 32% of academic surgeons would not recommend their job to their children or medical students? With a total average debt of nearly $125,000 after completing medical school, it comes as no surprise that they found 35% of surgeons felt this debt placed a strain on their relationships, 48% found it impacted their living accommodations, and 29% felt it forced their significant other to work. This six figure debt will no doubt only rise in the future.
Knowing that it will take years to pay off this growing debt, who is applying to medical school now? Looking at the applicant pool differences from 1974 to 1999, Hall et al found that women applicants increased from 20% to 45% and males dropped from 85% to 55%. Although minority applicants increased 45% during this period they only represented 11% of the total applicant pool in 1999. While minority men dropped by 18%, minority female applicants almost tripled, and Asian applicants rose dramatically to where they represented almost 20% of the total applicant pool. The minority applicant pool plays a critical role in filling an important impending shortage of physicians in the future.
Cooper highlights the importance of academic achievements in early childhood, and the value of parental education, income and expectations throughout a child’s upbringing. A break in either could steer your child away from college or a medical career. Cooper also mentions that inadequate finances, especially for African American and Hispanic boys, may likely force a career path in a direction other than medicine. With the increase in medical education debt, we are headed for an insufficient pool of qualified medical school applicants. Either medical education costs have to be controlled, or the public will increasingly get health care from allied health providers, such as physican assistants, who can be educated at a fraction of the cost.
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