Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Head To Head

Should undergraduate medical students be regulated? Yes

BMJ 2010; 340 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.c1677 (Published 05 May 2010) Cite this as: BMJ 2010;340:c1677

Rapid Response:

Bring me your reprobates.

As a “Gen Y skunk” I feel I need to defend my lifestyle and my peers.
I would agree to some extent we have become blinkered. Much in the same
way horses are not known to don blinkers by choice it is not us to blame.
We are being led to a life of middle England which you vehemently oppose
by our oppressive Gen X teachers and role models, of which you may or may
not be a part of!

The article title in itself and its subsequent conclusion proves my
point. Students face greater legislation, regulation and discipline.
Generation X medical students, a group which I believe you belong to, have
benefited from a liberal education where “reprobates” were actively
deplored but secretly sought after. Now these same people squeeze the life
out their successors.

We have the pretence of being conservative as any expression of
personality outside of the norm is criticised. We are pre-occupied with
fiscal matters as students are paying more money than ever before on
university fees. We are worried about career prospects as the government
is meddling in the profession and our education more than ever and in my
opinion very poorly. Our apparent belief in the emptiness of secular
materialism probably stems from your misplaced existential angst filled
youth vicariously spent through Sartre.

I appreciate your view on the matter as one of an apparent minority
you believe we deserve greater freedom. But before you point fingers maybe
you should count how many cars are in your garage, which lynx deodorant
your prefer and which school your children go to and maybe you will find
the problem starts a little closer to home.

Competing interests:
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

17 May 2010
Max Allen
Medical Student
Oxford