What makes a good doctor?

This is going to be a short and pretty uninformed blog post - I just thought I'd share something with you that stuck in my mind today. Today was the first day of clinical school and while there was lots to do (lectures, endless amounts of paperwork, getting photo taken etc.), we had a long(ish) lunch hour with our MedEd tutors, 6th year clinical students who are going to supervise us for the first couple of weeks of our clinical placements (I'm in Renal Medicine, which should be interesting!). Anyway, there was plenty of opportunity to ask questions about the course and attitudes towards medicine more generally, and during this time one of the 6th years said something interesting. I'm going to paraphrase him badly: "The difference between a good doctor and a bad doctor is how well they communicate with their patients." He went on to point out that all doctors (to a certain extent) are competent in basic clinical skills - these are assessed throughout the course and are required both for finals and for any subsequent postgraduate exams. What cannot be assessed so thoroughly, however, is the doctor-patient relationship, and this is a much more subtle thing. I can easily imagine it being the hardest thing to master on this course, and it's certainly an interesting thought to take forward with me into the clinical course.

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