Chris Yates “But what if you get made to go to war?” This must be the most prevalent initial response I get from my NHS colleagues on hearing that I juggle being both a junior doctor and an army reservist. It is a question that I have honed my response to over the last year […]
The importance of caste!
Dr Sagarika Kamath Assistant Professor Manipal University, India Dr Rajesh Kamath Assistant Professor Manipal University, India As young doctors being trained in hospital and health administration, we had a class in Organisational behaviour where the professor began saying that caste was a very important factor in any organisation. It was important for the caste to […]
A collection of thoughts from Colorado Springs to mind
Philip D Welsby Retired Consultant in Infectious Diseases, University Teaching Fellow, University of Edinburgh Two events of medical interest occurred during a recent visit to the Rocky Mountains and Colorado Springs. I developed gout in my left little toe within one week of arrival in Denver, the “mile high” city (5,280 feet) above sea level. […]
Collusion, illusion, or delusion?
Fending Off Death 1 by wiebkefesch on DeviantArt Doctors are – in the main – trained to prevent death. Modern medicine has made huge advances, and life expectancies continue to rise. However, there remains only one certainty in this life – that we are all going to die. Patients in the last year of life […]
All in a day’s work
Becoming a doctor is a long and arduous process. It involves many years of study and more of practice. It is inconceivable that this process leaves those who go through it untouched. This process is called professional socialisation. It confers values, and behaviours on the participants, and these help to mark our profession out from […]
The art of medicine
Doctors have a long and proud history of involvement in the arts. There are classic tomes published by doctors – The House of God (Shem), Sherlock Holmes (Conan Doyle), The Story of San Michele (Munthe), The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov). The profession has also produced a number of playwrights (Chekov), and poets (Keats). This […]
In the land of the blind…
Leadership is one of those areas of medical training that is increasing in prevalence, and the number of schemes to ensure that medical leaders are available within the workforce is ever expanding. Some in our profession feel that the ‘leaders’ who are ‘trained’ seem to have few leadership qualities, and even less legitimacy to lead […]
Turning over a new leaf
The PMJ blog has been running for 2 and a half years, and in that time I have looked at many aspects of medical practice and education that have been thrown up by papers published in the PMJ. As time has gone on, we have had several submissions to the journal which seem to fit […]
Hidden in plain sight.
Patients do not come with diagnoses attached to their foreheads. If only they did, huge numbers of hospital visits and admissions could be avoided. To overcome the ever increasing number of potential diagnoses, and the rising tide of illness encountered by our ageing populations, we rely ever more heavily on investigations to guide us […]
Did you choose them, or did they choose you?
Medical stereotypes are a well known, ranging from the hippy-esque GP, to the man-mountain of an orthopaedic surgeon, via the suave and sophisticated plastic surgeon. I’m not entirely sure what the stereotype of a chest physician is, but I would be grateful if you could let me know… These stereotypes, and perceptions of who goes […]