Why do doctors run in families?

[Beafortea]

Why do doctors' kids often all end up being doctors? You seem to find that doctors are usually from families of multiple generations of doctors. Why is that?

Curious because you'd think with the state of things for junior doctors, parents would be encouraging their kids to pick another career?

You get vet families too, similar factors I guess

Because its so incredibly hard to become a dr if you are not from a family who are drs or have connections. My 14 year old is desperate to be a dr.
He has started volunteering in several things which was easy to organise but i cant get a dr for him to shadow/ work with. Also we only know about Ucat due to googling. Im not going to be able to help him with his ucas form and interview as i have no idea and we dont know anyone who can help. Im going to work overtime to pay for him to go on the medics mentors summer school because otherwise i dont see how realistically he has a fair chance of getting in.
He doesnt go to private school so doesnt get any extra help with applications.
Most teenagers from not well off familes have to get part time jobs so that would be a struggle to get all A's plus volunteering plus working 20 hrs a week in asda or whatever. So its just a lot easier/ harder for some people to get into medical school. He is desperate to do it as he is kind, wants to help people and loves science but unfortunately that is not enough.

I have a friend who is a gp. She is so down to earth and normal, both her parents were gp's and they put a lot of pressure on her to become one also. She took a career break to bring her son up until primary school and this infuriated her parents who thought she could just put her son in a nursery and carry on. I get the feeling it is just a job for her and not something she is mad passionate about.

Expectation
I know two doctors socially, who were always expected to continue the family line of doctors, and they never thought of being anything else.

Our state college arranges a lot of events for A level students interested in medicine, involving visiting unis, having doctors come in to give talk etc.
A lot more than the private school my older DC went to....

I can't think of any doctors I know whose children have become doctors, although I'm sure there are some but it doesn't seem to be so common here.

Family pressure.

Thanks for all the replies! Really interesting reading all your experiences.

Clergy families too, so it can't be for the money. At one religious discussion session I attended at Uni, virtually all the students came from clergy family. Some were quite badly behaved too, giggling and sniggering at the speaker. I was quite shocked at their behaviour. This group monopolised the chaplaincy facilities as well.

No exposure to anything other than medicine as a career choice... given the young age you start medical school at. If you’ve no exposure to anything other than doctors, you’ll end up doing that ...

I’ve been realistic about it to my kids who I hope won’t go into it, not in this country (UK) anyway.

I regularly taught students in medical school a particular topic/course and can confirm there's lots of multi-generational Dr's! I have had students where all their siblings, parents, grandparents and at least one aunt/uncle on each side are. Why? Confidence, money to study, the fact there's many different areas you can go into depending on your interests, private schooling with strong sciences and interpersonal skills, knowing at the end of it there is a decent job and good salary if you keep progressing. Tho there are some appealing conditions for junior Dr's.

I do think medicine is trying to change with more physicians that aren't from privilege. I think those families may have less of a intergenerational element.

Money. And their kids can get the work experience needed

THIS

Is it only me who read this title and pictured a family of doctors at a park run?

Just to point out the reality that doctors generally can’t afford private schools- this was different a generation ago. You’ll find the majority of doctors with school age children now do not send them to private school as they cannot afford this.

The only ones I know who send private are married to partner in finance/ business/ high paying career or have family money. It’s not affordable from the doctor’s salary which has seen 35-40% pay erosion while private school fees have jumped in line with inflation.

I’m the first Dr in my family, I’m not going to dissuade my kids because then that will make them definitely want to do it. Instead I’m going to play the indifference card. I really really hope they don’t do it

In the same way as Musicians and Artists do.

Loads of families seem to have the same jobs - I'm a third generation academic, my step sister is a fourth generation midwife. I don't think either of us were particularly encouraged to go into those lines of work - it just happened. I guess maybe there was a level of familiarity to the life/career path/what you needed to do which made it easier?

Interesting reading. DD wants to be a doctor.

We are in publishing (me) and a director at an NHS trust (her dad). DH's dad was a doctor and totally put him off it - both explicitly, by telling him he wasn't tough enough(!), and implicitly, by obviously finding life so difficult as a doctor (though it was absolute vocation for him).

DD will have some of the advantages of a kid from a typical medical background - we're both Oxford educated, with good contacts and (ancient) experience of tricky admissions processes and her dad will be able to sort shadowing/work experience for her. My impression on reading admissions criteria etc is that med schools are trying hard to make it more open to people from all backgrounds (e.g., valuing customer service experience as much as/instead of shadowing/direct work experience), but I'm not sure how much this is reflected in reality.

Also, it's five years of tuition fees/placements/not a lot of time to work in the holidays. We're reevaluating our medium term spending on the basis that we'll potentially be supporting DD for several years longer than we had planned. We're in a position to do that, but I know a lot of people aren't - it definitely feels like a fairly affluent person's game!

Social capital. Kids understand the demands of the job from and early age and it’s ‘normal’ to them. They’ll have the helpful genetics, but they’ll also have grown up surrounded by medical books, discussions, and parent’s friends - most of whole will also likely be medically qualified. Support with work experience, writing statements for uni. Old boys network, and they will likely also be looked upon favourably by uni admissions because they have a good knowledge of when the career entails before starting so they understand better the expectations and roles so they can hit the ground running, and so are less likely to drop out. Add to that, if they do have any problems they can phone a relative to ask a question - so they effectively have a coach/mentor on tap.

My DP is a software engineer and a bit of a computer genius. His son has followed in his footsteps and while he doesn’t quite have his father’s natural ability he is good and gets straight A grades at uni. He works hard, but a large part of the reason for his success is because he’s on the phone to his dad for an hour almost every night getting help with coursework and exam prep. He effectively has a personal tutor to guide him through his work.

Many professions run in families. In mine it was journalism.

It’s easy to see why: you get the benefit of learning what the job is like from birth, you have a network given to you and free mentorship from your parents. It’s not rocket science.

Being a doctor is a well paid, well respected and rewarding profession so if your parents did it it’s easy to see why you might follow in their footsteps.

I think the trend is there with any trade/profession really.

Nearly all of my son's friends whose parents are teachers are going into teaching themselves. The one of his friends whose father is a surgeon is at medical school himself!

I'm an accountant and my son is training as an actuary (different but still financial), because he has been brought up in a financial background, did work experience in accountancy, but didn't want to be an accountant himself (no doubt because like lots of others, it's not the profession it used to be!), so he looked for financial careers that needed a high level of maths ability (accountancy doesn't, but actuaries do!).

Another friend is an apprentice builder working with his uncle's building business.

It just comes from familiarity - it's a lot easier to find out what a job entails if it's in the family, and there's also "inside knowledge" about the path from GCSEs to A levels/college to degree/apprenticeship etc. Far harder to become, say, a lawyer, if you don't know any and have to work out entry pathways etc yourself, and of course, you don't know what the job entails if you've no one to talk to about it.

@maybemedmum what a refreshingly honest post! So often obvious advantages are watered down. I want to thank you for not doing so.

I wish your DD luck in her ambitions

My husband breaking the four generations of first sons being doctors line. ‘I never want to put my finger up someone’s arse’.
Bil is a doctor

I think it's partly just knowing people who are doctors and feeling that it's something that someone 'like you' can do.

DH was the first in his family to go to university. He says he had no idea what career to aim for because he knew literally nobody who wasn't a labourer/shop worker etc. The idea of becoming a doctor, dentist, lawyer was just not something that people from his background did, although he had the grades for any of them.