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 s tudents 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 t he 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 w ishes (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 nor va ry over the years of the course. Female medical students were more likely t l-lan 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 t o 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 mor e money oriented in the later years of the medical course.