Frances Dixon on medical professionalism
13 Nov, 09 | by julietwalker
I was flicking through my Student BMJ the other day when I came across an article on Medical Professionalism. This is a subject that I have been thinking about recently, mainly as we have just had the first of our “Personal & Professional Development” sessions at medical school.
Being a medical student isn’t really like being a normal student. We are expected to behave as “professionals” at all times, which is really quite a lot to ask of a bunch of teenagers. I suppose that yes, we do have different, and perhaps greater, responsibilities than other students, but at the end of the day, we’re not doctors. Of course we should be expected to behave professionally when it’s necessary, i.e. turning up to teaching sessions and placements on time, and paying attention. But, when a student is disciplined for getting a bit too drunk and being sick in public (as happened to a friend of mine) it’s just too much. I seriously doubt that the people disciplining us never did something they regret as a student.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t be disciplined at all. In fact, it would be lovely if our professors were a bit harsher, and actually told people off for talking in lectures. But, I just think that people forget how young we are, and expect too much from us. It is interesting that in the BMJ article, it says that 2nd years seem to show slightly more professional (or “conscientious”) behaviour than 1st years. My year were definitely not overly professional in our behaviour in our first year (2008-09). In fact, the new first years are now being registered frequently to check attendance, probably in response to our poor attendance levels last year. I don’t know if we are attending more lectures this year, so I can’t make a judgement on whether our professionalism has improved in this regard.
What I’m trying to say in this blog is that medical students have to lead a sort of double life. With regards to work and university, we have to behave professionally, like a doctor would. We must be punctual, attentive, responsible, willing to learn, and dress sensibly while on clinical attachment. Appearing professional in front of patients at all times is very important. But outside that, it’s ok to go to the pub, and enjoy ourselves too.
Frances Dixon is a medical student at Imperial College School of Medicine, London.
Interesting, but I think we are allowing “professionalism” used as a yard stick to measure our competence and based on this we are branded as a “Good” or a “Bad” doctor. Yes you must be punctual, clean, courteous, natural and empathetic because our patients place you on a pedestal.
Administrators and pundits who talk about “Professionalism must visit countries like Germany, Sweden or France to understand what professionalism is all about. In the last twenty five years, they have contributed more to our profession and advances than we have.
If medical students have to be “Professionals” and not have a great time and enjoy their life as normal students, then they have missed the best time in their life. Good doctors are those who can understand what their patients go through in their life, why and how they live, what they think, their hopes and aspirations are. Then you will never be able to understand what life is all about and why they are suffering.
I wrote about communication with children and to day believe you will never be a good paediatrician unless you are a parent or spend hours getting to know and understand them.
Ref:
Srivatsa KM; The art of communication with children; Arch Dis Child. 1995 September; 73(3): 277–278.
Dr Kadiyali M Srivatsa
November 15th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
You are right Frances,
There is something a little sinister about all this. It makes me think of the old Doctor in the house film, the one where Sir Launcelot Spratt blackmails the Dean into not expelling some medical students for some high jinks by remembering his misdemeanours as a student.
As a young person it should be quite ok to make a few daft mistakes and not be judged too harshly whether you’re a medical student or not
Peter Ward
November 16th, 2009 at 9:37 pm