Is everyone dissatisfied?
Editor - In response to Benjamin Patter.
son's letter1
I would like to point out that
medical student apathy is not a phenomenon unique to Imperial College. Edin.
burgh is also infected with this disease. It is
expressed not only as grumbles over coffee,
but in chronically poor attendance. Clinical
experience is meant to be a fundamental
theme of the new curriculum, but the
opportunity is lost when students do not
attend. For example, how is it possible to
develop understanding when students miss
two or three out of only four dermatology
clinics?
Clinical contact is the most rewarding
aspect of medical school—so why are
students wasting it? Students become frus.
trated when we are treated as the lowest life
form in a hospital, but is this not what we are
at this point of our careers? Many students
forget that however dedicated to teaching a
clinician may be, their patients must always
come first. I acknowledge that we are a
guinea pig year with the integrated curriculum, so teething problems are inevitable
and, yes, we are subjected to endless
feedback forms. Yet such forms take five
minutes and provide essential and appreciated information to the course organisers.
Still, there are problems. How do we
retain a year's enthusiasm when we have to
cope with the frustrations of timetable
clashes, absent tutors, and general disorder?
How do you overcome the prevalent attitude
of, “Well, it's too late now, we have finished
that module?” I am at a loss; those of us who
are trying to make the best of it just find that
we end up exhausted and disillusioned.
Deep cynicism is a well known trait in
doctors, but surely we are too young to be
developing it yet.
Jane Atkinson, fourth year medical student, Edinburgh University
Email: leglessjane@hotmail.com
studentBMJ 2001;09:399-442 November ISSN 0966-6494
- Patterson B. Is everyone dissatisfied? studentBMJ 2001;9:393. (October.)
