Just a guinea pig

I am at best a guinea pig, a participant in a grand experimental design. How else can you explain that after four years in medical school, after you've realised that medicine is not really for you and your interests lie elsewhere, you have no option other than going on. No matter how long you spend in medical school, if you don't sit the final exam, you'll get absolutely nothing to show for it. Even participants in randomised controlled trials can opt out.

Many of us are disillusioned medical students, held up, claustrophobic, within a foreign territory. We got in to medical school with naive excitement and great expectations as impressionable school leavers. We had been cajoled and coaxed by peers and parents, when we hardly knew what being a doctor meant.

The way to prevent this is to turn medical school into a graduate programme. At least we are sure that medical students will be better suited for the peculiar demands of medical school if they have a proved record of successful performance at university. …