What do I do now?
BMJ 2001; 322 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/sbmj.0104101 (Published 01 April 2001) Cite this as: BMJ 2001;322:0104101
- Griffin Trotter, assistant professor of health care ethics and of surgery1,
- Kate Christensen, internist2
- 1Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center, St Louis, Missouri
- 2Permanente Medical Group, northern California
The aim of “What do I do now?” is not to provide answers but to offer readers a range of reasonable and defensible options with which to inform their own thinking and conduct. We invite readers to submit their own dilemmas for possible presentation and discussion. In all cases, scenarios are presented anonymously to prevent identification of individuals and institutions involved. Cases may be submitted to the Student BMJ directly or to hrc@globetrotter.berkeley.edu. The subject line should read: What do I do now?
Thomasine Kushner, University of California, Berkeley, and David C Thomasma, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, are coeditors of the book, Ward Ethics, published by Cambridge University Press, from which some of the cases and commentaries in this column will be drawn.
Case: “Who am I?”
As medical students we are given no instructions on the proper way to identify ourselves. Sometimes on ward rounds the doctors introduce us to patients as “Dr So and So,” and students are not discouraged from describing themselves the same way. I even overheard a doctor instructing a student to take a history from a patient, "But, don't tell her you are a medical student because she won't talk to you. I am uneasy about this dishonest self description. But the practice is common, and when I introduce myself as a medical student, I get the feeling people think that it is silly or unnecessary.
Commentary
Every medical student faces this issue at some point in his or her training. I faced it in my first month as a medical student. One of my fellow students passed round his new business cards, which said “Doctor Bloggs” and …
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