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%; χ(2)=5.68, P=0.02), intimacy wishes (25% v 18%; χ(2)=3.74, P=0.05), and happiness wishes (42% v 26%; χ(2)=18.82, P=0.0001). Men were more likely than women to make sexual wishes (5% v 0.8%; χ(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.