Warning to all would-be medical students

We had 4 sixth-formers on work experience today. And a medical student as well. Unfortunately for them I was in an incredibly foul mood from having worked all weekend. I was particularly abused this weekend by some nurses who had the collective intelligence of a woodlouse. I managed to muster just barely enough niceness for the patients and their relatives, but had none spare for anyone else. It's one of those 'I wish I did Architecture' days. Or any job where you get all your weekends (or at least all your Sundays) off. The warning is this: a career in medicine means you will have to work at LEAST one weekend a month for the rest of your life. This month I have worked 2 out of 4 weekends. No amount of life-saving or gratitude from anyone, or intellectual satisfaction, or money is worth giving up 2 weekends a month for. And that is not to mention how ungrateful people can be. Too many bright, promising young people become doctors through parental/societal pressure, or simply lack of imagination, and lack of effort toward finding out about other career options. So if you are 18 and reading this, consider your options carefully. A career in medicine does NOT give you 1. Money (I get around on a borrowed bicycle and can't even afford a mortgage on a one-room flat) 2. Respect (see previous entries re: rude/racist patients) 3. Intellectual satisfaction (if you want that, become a proper scientist; Medicine is primarily an Art) 4. Emotional/spiritual gratification (on the contrary, most weekends on call leave you emotionally wrecked). What is left? I guess it is the same masochistic gratification that a marathon runner aspires to.