Becoming a doctor

roadshow

Photographs courtesy of King’s Fund

Journey or destination? BSMS students and staff join the debate about becoming a doctor

‘I got the feeling this evening that your sense of commitment is palpable. Don’t lose that engagement – your contribution will make a very great difference.’

Sir Graeme Catto

With rapid social change creating new expectations of the profession, information and other technology altering its nature, and the Tooke report’s conclusion that doctors’ roles can lack clarity, current medical students have a lot to think about.

GMC President Sir Graeme Catto, King's Fund Chief Executive Niall Dickson, Royal College of Physicians President Professor Ian Gilmore and editor-in-chief of The Lancet, Dr Richard Horton spent an evening with BSMS medical students, their teachers, local doctors and other professionals discussing issues around medical professionalism.

This is defined by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) as ‘a set of values, behaviours, and relationships that underpins the trust the public has in doctors’, and involves considerable thought reconciling ethical and political values within the UK’s evolving healthcare system.

Topics at the RCP & King’s Fund January Roadshow ‘Becoming a doctor: journey or destination?’ included leadership, how students can affect the public perception of medicine, the interaction between personal and professional behaviour, management, fitness to practise, the role of the patient and the concept of professionalism itself.

Two BSMS students were given the opportunity to join the panel. Krzysztof Rakowski from year 2 found it

‘an amazing opportunity to listen to and question some of the most influential people within the medical profession.

‘Question time really wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be, and all the panellists were such a good laugh.’

As the roadshow moves on to other medical schools, students can continue to debate these issues in the Facebook group ‘Becoming a Doctor’.