Encouraging insensitivity in doctors is not an option

EDITOR-There may be a sense in which being a caring doctor may be bad for you, as suggested by Sweet in her report of a study into the psychological health of students from University of Sydney medical programme. 1 With the changes in medical education over recent years, many medical schools now hav...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ 2003-05, Vol.326 (7397), p.1038-1039
Main Author: Double, D B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Education, Medical, Undergraduate
Emotions
Empathy
Humans
Letters
New South Wales
Students, Medical - psychology
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:EDITOR-There may be a sense in which being a caring doctor may be bad for you, as suggested by Sweet in her report of a study into the psychological health of students from University of Sydney medical programme. 1 With the changes in medical education over recent years, many medical schools now have similar aims to this programme, which are to produce medical graduates who are committed to rational, compassionate health care and medical research of the highest quality. 2 However, it is not helpful to encourage insensitivity in doctors as an option. 3 It is important to differentiate between being uncaring and being defensive about caring too much. 4 Doctors do have to cope with emotionally difficult situations.
ISSN:0959-8138
0959-8146
1468-5833
1756-1833
DOI:10.1136/bmj.326.7397.1038/b