Practising on the poor?

doi:10.1136/bmj.b519

Published 10 February 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b519
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b519

Letters

Worrying behaviour on electives

Practising on the poor?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The ethical debate on what you should do when you see a fellowstudent behaving inappropriately highlighted some of the manyethical issues surrounding medical student electives, particularlyin the developing world.¹ ²

On my student elective in the Solomon Islands, I conducted astudy that looked at healthcare workers’ beliefs aboutthe role of medical students during their elective.³ Most staffthought that medical students should be able to diagnose, treat,and prescribe without direct supervision. However, they werenot aware that students were not allowed these responsibilitiesat home. There seemed to be widespread lack of knowledge ofmedical education in developed countries. Thus students couldeasily "practise on the poor" by exceeding their normal rolewithout the host institution realising but with their full blessing.

All host institutions should be made aware of the role of medicalstudents in their home countries, and the objectives of theelective . . . [Full text of this article]

Samantha J J Radstone, GP registrar¹

¹ The Surgery, 119-121 Coalway Road, Wolverhampton WV3 7NA

sammyradstone@doctors.org.uk