The blind leading the blind

I recently wrote a piece on curiosity in medicine and how for me and hopefully others being curious is integral to the work we do and the profession I’m in.

However a question has been nagging me, are we becoming blind to that curious side?

I will explain shortly who and what defines as blind....

I mention this as it’s something that I’ve observed consistently over the years in more so my consultant life rather than my medical reg years

I knew my career would be hospital based and it was always medicine calling out for me from my early medical student years. Or possibly it was the surgeon who also observed my suturing skills and quoted ‘you’re not going to be a surgeon my dear’

I took no offence as he turned out to be absolutely right!

There is a consistent dialogue when I speak to resident doctors about the next stage in their careers. It’s rare but still consistent when I ask about medicine….

‘Medical registrars run the hospital & always look so busy’

Sadly the latest narrative has been:

‘The medical registrar never seem happy and tell us not to do it’

Now that got my attention!

Has the medical reg become blind to their curiosity?

The blindness is also heightened from those leading them.

I see it in the approach of the newer consultant.

The passion is there, the fear is stronger, the uncertainty is palpable & inadvertently the demand therefore is filtered downwards.

However the more wiser of us consultants vary from being attached to their resident doctors development to the extremes of being dismissive that even surprises me at times

This is turn feeds the sense of detachment & disconnect from the curious side of medicine.

To keep it simple: if we don’t bother, why should they?

It’s time to think about how our actions lead to rebuilding curiosity and ultimately correct our own blindness.

Ask yourself again:

• Why did we do medicine

• What inspires us still

• If we have been uninspired what’s changed?

If you know the answers to the above and particularly the last one, then we can at least address that blindness will only reinforce the blindness of those who look to be inspired from us

What inspires me still:

• I love my specialty and I hope that comes through when I meet a patient

• I'm aware what still inspires me; be that the older patient who needs more than 5 minutes of my time, be that connection with them in the extremes of their illness, being in awe of their strength and also reminding me the responsibility I have in turn to ensure I do my job well for them

• Disillusionment is driven more so by those who don't inspire me with their interactions or their disengagement. It's transient though, as I know that disillusionment does nothing but cause resentment & detachment on my part. I'm still learning this at times!

Let’s try to become those who lead from a sense of clarity not disillusionment

Thankyou to those that still inspire me & remind me blindness is still so so transient in medicine.