I read this article with great interest, and have equally enjoyed reading the responses to it. I like many of my undergraduate colleagues find the reluctance of the health service to embrace new technology very frustrating.
However, secretaries provide an invaluable liaison service for medical students, particularly in hospitals. Whether it's a consultant with whom some experience has been arranged, a meeting with my personal tutor or a teaching session, the secretaries are often the first port of call.
Clinicians are difficult people to pin down at the best of times, but secretaries are usually located in one office in the hospital. As well as an in depth knowledge of a doctor's diary and workload, they also know the personalities and habits of the consultants they work with. The secretaries I have encountered have always had a wise word or two about the doctor I'm looking for, which has helped calm any nerves and smooth the first meeting/phone call etc. Secretaries are now the first person I search out in order to organize anything with a senior clinician.
Despite dreaming of the day when I no longer have to trawl through paper notes on a busy ward, I for one would definitely vote to keep medical secretaries.
Rapid Response:
Re: Doctors no longer need medical secretaries
I read this article with great interest, and have equally enjoyed reading the responses to it. I like many of my undergraduate colleagues find the reluctance of the health service to embrace new technology very frustrating.
However, secretaries provide an invaluable liaison service for medical students, particularly in hospitals. Whether it's a consultant with whom some experience has been arranged, a meeting with my personal tutor or a teaching session, the secretaries are often the first port of call.
Clinicians are difficult people to pin down at the best of times, but secretaries are usually located in one office in the hospital. As well as an in depth knowledge of a doctor's diary and workload, they also know the personalities and habits of the consultants they work with. The secretaries I have encountered have always had a wise word or two about the doctor I'm looking for, which has helped calm any nerves and smooth the first meeting/phone call etc. Secretaries are now the first person I search out in order to organize anything with a senior clinician.
Despite dreaming of the day when I no longer have to trawl through paper notes on a busy ward, I for one would definitely vote to keep medical secretaries.
Competing interests: No competing interests