{"id":888,"date":"2009-11-13T13:04:19","date_gmt":"2009-11-13T12:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=888"},"modified":"2009-11-13T13:04:19","modified_gmt":"2009-11-13T12:04:19","slug":"frances-dixon-on-medical-professionalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2009\/11\/13\/frances-dixon-on-medical-professionalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Frances Dixon on medical professionalism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"float: left\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/columns\/icons\/frances_dixon.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"110\" \/>I was flicking through my <a href=\"http:\/\/student.bmj.com\/student\/student-bmj.html\">Student BMJ<\/a> the other day when I came across an article on <a href=\"http:\/\/student.bmj.com\/student\/view-article.html?id=sbmj.b4455\">Medical Professionalism<\/a>. This is a subject that I have been thinking about recently, mainly as we have just had the first of our \u201cPersonal &amp; Professional Development\u201d sessions at medical school.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Being a medical student isn\u2019t really like being a normal student. We are expected to behave as \u201cprofessionals\u201d 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\u2019re not doctors. Of course we should be expected to behave professionally when it\u2019s 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\u2019s just too much. I seriously doubt that the people disciplining us never did something they regret as a student.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not saying we shouldn\u2019t 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 \u201cconscientious\u201d) 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\u2019t know if we are attending more lectures this year, so I can\u2019t make a judgement on whether our professionalism has improved in this regard.<\/p>\n<p>What I\u2019m 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&#8217;s ok to go to the pub, and enjoy ourselves too.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Frances Dixon<\/strong> is a medical student at Imperial College School of Medicine, London.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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, [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2009\/11\/13\/frances-dixon-on-medical-professionalism\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[224],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-students"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Frances Dixon on medical professionalism - The BMJ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2009\/11\/13\/frances-dixon-on-medical-professionalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Frances Dixon on medical professionalism - The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was flicking through my Student BMJ the other day when I came across an article on Medical Professionalism. 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