A mate of mine's son had always wanted to be a doctor. He was a straight A student and did loads of voluntary work (with St John's etc) to enhance his chances of being accepted onto med school.

The summer before Uni he got a support job at a local hospital and the advice he got from virtually all junior doctors was 'do something else'.
The said the hours are a nightmare, the loans are massive, the pay poor. And the chances are that this will be the case for at least the first 10 years of his career.

So, he jibbed it. It's crazy that we've got to this point.