What’s the ethnicity of Dr Google? SPECIALTY searches

What do the images of online doctors tell us about how doctors are portrayed in the Internet Age? What implications might this have on wider society and the medical profession itself? Hey Google! What’s my ethnicity? This post supports my poster at the 2022 Midlands Racial Equality in Medicine Conference. Twitter @MREMnetwork Learning objectives 1. […]

The Sick Child: Edvard, empathy and expertise

Can physicians discover empathy and derive clinical expertise from art? Let’s try with The Sick Child by Edvard Munch. Learning objectives 1. Utilise The Sick Child to try and discover empathy 2. Reflect on the meaning of clinical expertise 3. Consider how experiences of illness can be expressed through art Edvard Munch (1863-1944) is perhaps […]

Google Images, M.D. (Class of 2020)

Has your perception of your profession, your colleagues or yourself changed over the the last year? Time for an unreality check. Learning objectives 1. Image search your job role/specialism 2. See what changes, if any, have occurred since last year 3. Reflect on whether these images are influencing patients and doctors Last year I wrote […]

Learning failure for doctors: The Kobayashi Maru simulation in medicine

Report to Starfleet medical immediately. Learning objectives 1. Understand the nature of the Kobayashi Maru simulation 2. Consider how experiencing no-win situations could be useful for doctors 3. Reflect on your own experiences of failure and whether you could have anticipated your feelings In arguably the best Star Trek film we have perhaps one of […]

‘The Doctor’ by Fildes. Part 1: Painting and power

Apparently a a picture is worth a thousand words, but what can a Victorian painting tell us about doctors today? Learning objectives 1. Look at ‘The Doctor’ by Fildes. 2. Consider the societal expectations of doctors. 3. Reflect on whether doctors can live up to Victorian ideals. The Victorian era was an exciting period for […]

Ways of seeing: healthcare edition

In his book Ways of Seeing, John Berger uses the medium of pictorial essays to make the reader think. Similarly, this post contains only images but is intended to raise questions and stimulate reflection as much as any of my other posts. Learning objectives 1. Consider what questions arise from viewing the images below 2. […]

The medical student or the optimist: the best of all possible chocolate biscuits and how suffering in healthcare became normal

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever experienced as a doctor? Has anything in the world of healthcare come as a total shock? Do you question if things could be made better or does everything happen for a reason as part of some divine masterplan? Candide: or, The Optimist is a satirical work written by Voltaire […]

The waiting room exercise

The patient waiting room can be an insightful area to learn more about how a GP practice or outpatient department work. It also allows an opportunity for members of the clinical team to gain some understanding of the waiting experience from a patient perspective (or perhaps Jerry Seinfeld’s perspective). The waiting room exercise is sometimes […]

Don’t blame it on Baltasar

As The Jacksons famously said, “don’t blame it on the sunshine, don’t blame it on the moonlight, don’t blame it on good times, blame it on the boogie“. Baltasar Gracián (1601-1658), a Spanish Jesuit and philosopher would have probably agreed with the sentiment. Learning objectives 1. Introduce Baltasar Gracián to those unfamiliar to his works 2. […]

Marcus Aurelius: reflection good enough for an emperor but is it good enough for medicine?

Reflection is an important part of training, appraisal and revalidation for doctors based in the UK. However, for many doctors the very thought of reflection can cause feelings of frustration, non-engagement or even rejection. Where did we go wrong? Learning objectives 1. Consider the definition of reflection used in medicine 2. Understand how reflection can […]