Female fashion on the wards - part II

[genie22]

Professional life is continuum of compromises. Or so it seems on the wards. Not only have you got to tone down your extra-curricular behaviour, conflicting your civil liberties (re: pot) in order to be in concordance with the GMC, but you've also got to keep it conventional on the wards, for having piercings, coloured/fake hair, artsy make-up and

Comments

Is this for the Medical Student?

[dr_monkey]

"How a few pieces of metal or a head of locked hair are going to prevent an able doctor from being able to provide the care that is in the best interests of the patient is beyond me, along with the notion that doctors shouldn't be allowed to express their individuality

Re: Is this for the Medical Student?

[genie22]

In that case, society's attitude to body modification needs to change, since it clearly doesn't affect the basic product (patient care) provided.

People need to learn to see beyond the surface, and the way to do that is with flooding/systematic desensitisation. (see 2nd yr psych notes).

Re: Is this for the Medical Student?

[dr_monkey]

Nah I'd rather not - Gruzelier made me sleep!

But the visual input is very powerful - why else do you look at someone's physical attributes first before approaching to speak with them. Its not that you're shallow (well its debateable) but because you have an inbuilt survival mechanism to go for the healthiest looking product; be it food, doctors or sexual partners.

We need to make everyone blind if we want to dress how we feel as doctors - thats a little difficult.

[elfstar]

way good writing.

i agree with you that it shouldn't matter what you look like as a doctor--it is the service you are providing that is important. and that if everyone took to a more edgy sense of fashion, then the reigning paradigm of professional appearance would crumble. i just don't think that the old guard is ready to crumble just yet.

i know that as a teacher, i have to go for the well groomed look. people have a certain preconception of how teachers or doctors or anyone in a position of authourity should look. if you challenge that idea, you have to work ten times as hard for people to take you seriously. and that is not something i want to deal with.

guess it is up to our generation when we get old and crusty and become the last bastion of standards not to judge a person's ability by their persona.

[zobia]

Hehe, I think it's really amusing...I love your articles. Life sounds interesting at the old ICSM. Agree, most definitely, with the St. Tropez tan, which could also serve as a sort of introduction to the outside world, for those preparing for imminent release. x

[genie22]

You can find more rambling on the paper wot I wrote it for.

http://www.medical-student.co.uk

Past issues can be d/l using pdf.

[zobia]

Hey, I went on and tried to sieve through and although the whole paper is very interesting, I shouldn't be procrastinating quite so much, hehe, so could you tell me which issues you've contributed to? Thank you, x

[genie22]

I wrote in - Oct, Nov, Dec, Feb, Mar, April, June.

[actually_not]

Hi, nice to meet you today...hope the lecture wasn't too awful. You should put your obvious talent at writing to good use and write to the 'powers that be' about the failings of the pathology course....I bet you could make them take notice.

Jo

[genie22]

Hey - good to hear from you too :)

I would love to take on the path posse - I think a personal telling off, an irreverant rant in The Medical Student (free paper that goes out with the London Student to the 5 medschools - http://www.medical-student.co.uk) and a general rant on the decline in pathology teaching with both student and staff views in the student BMJ (or the main BMJ) should do the trick ;)

I shall go on a fact-finding mission and come back to you (if that's cool with you) when I get time.

What are the main points of contention (from the staff perspective)?

[actually_not]

It seems to me that the emphasis on Pathology teaching has declined quite seriously in recent years. It would appear that those higher up in the pecking order don't believe that undergraduates need to understand the pathology behind the disease. Maybe this is true but from my perspective (as a histopathologist) it is crucial that junior doctors do have a good grounding in pathology and (in order to achieve that) histology too and it is my impression that we have been seriously sidelined. Is that the student feeling too?

I don't know...maybe I am biased and feel my subject is more important than it really is...but I know I wouldn't have gone into pathology at all without the decent courses that I was taught as a student....

Am certainly happy to dicuss it. It might be worth approaching Dr Walker directly for the facts about the organisation of pathology teaching, since she orchestrates it all.