Nearly 80 percent of the 3,700 doctors surveyed by the Chinese Medical Doctor Association said they don't want their children to work in medicine. Many of the doctors surveyed cited the growing tension between patients and doctors as well as the escalating violence in hospitals across the country in recent years.

In 2009, 62.5 percent of the 3,200 doctors the associated surveyed expressed the same opinion, according to the Chinese Medical Doctor Association.

"We conducted similar surveys around the country in 2002, 2004, 2009 and 2011, and we found that the proportion of doctors who want to see their children become doctors keeps dropping," said Deng Liqiang, an official from the association.

An overwhelming majority of doctors also said that their salary didn't match how much work they put into their jobs, and that tense doctor-patient relationships and enormous amounts of pressure at work are creating a negative attitude toward their jobs.

"The survey results showed that doctors are not positive," Deng said.

A survey conducted by one of China's most popular medical websites, Dingxiangyuan, or dxy.cn, showed that many doctors are not in good health, with more than a quarter of those surveyed are at high risk for cardiovascular diseases. The incidence of hypertension among male doctors older than 35 is two times the normal rate.