Is omniscience enough?

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7544.801-a

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Colin Douglas, doctor and novelist

Edinburgh

In the real world, some of us know a little about a lot, quite a few know a lot about a little, and there is a troubling minority that knows practically everything about hardly anything. That's in the real world. But when it comes to examining in the Practical Assessment of Clinical Examination Skills for the Membership of the Royal College of Physicians, we are all omniscient.

It takes a bit of getting used to. I have seen …