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The student and junior doctor in distress
Author(s) -
Wilhelm Kay A
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2002.tb04611.x
Subject(s) - editorial board , citation , psychology , distress , duty , medicine , library science , family medicine , law , political science , computer science , psychotherapist
The Medical Journal of Australia ISSN: 0025-729X 1 July 2002 177 1 5-8 ©The Medical Journal of Australia 2002 www.mja.com.au Setting the scene A RECENT ARTICLE noting that “unhappy doctors are a worldwide phenomenon” imputes this to ongoing changes in relationships with patients and society.1 Despite this phenomenon, many young people, for a variety of reasons, still wish to study medicine. The reasons include: ■ parental pressure — “you’ve got the marks” . . . “it’s a secure income” . . . “doctors are well respected” . . . “you can always sing/write later”; ■ the challenge — both academic and personal; and ■ the wish to help people — “to do something meaningful”. ■ Here, I outline some of the issues in the student and early postgraduate years which may influence performance, summarise the effects of recent changes in medical practice, and, finally, explore impairment issues as they affect medical students and doctors.