Author: Jill Thistlethwaite
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What does it all mean? A handy guide to health professional qualifications.
Health professional qualifications may be difficult to understand even, in my experience, by health professional students. In this post I consider these questions and others: What do all my doctor’s qualifications mean? Why are some surgeons referred to as Mr/Miss and some as Dr? Why is my English doctor not an MD but my American one…
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#menopause: there’s a lot of it about
Hot flushes are trending. One British celebrity has registered to trademark the term ‘menopausing’ to complement her book.[1] Scotland’s first minister has referred to the stigma surrounding the climacteric, admitting anxiety about coping in her public role once symptoms intensify.[2] In the last month the Guardian has published 8 articles on the menopause ranging from the possibility of…
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The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
Three days in the lives of a midwife, a GP-obstetrician and a young hospital volunteer in Dublin in the midst of a pandemic and towards the end of the First World War. Most of the narrative takes place in a store room repurposed for expectant mothers with the influenza. The title of the book is…
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Thoughts on becoming a doctor: part 2
An important question for health care practice is ‘who becomes a doctor’ or more specifically ‘who chooses and who is chosen to enter medical school’. Medical schools can support only so many students due to the size of facilities and, particularly, access to clinical learning spaces such as hospitals, clinics and general practices. Some countries have…
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So, why did you want to be a doctor?
Thoughts on becoming a doctor: part 1 I must have been asked why I wanted to be a doctor several times during the process of applying to medical school in the 1970s. My chemistry teacher advised that this question was sure to pop up in interviews and that a reply including ‘I want to help people’…
Health professional education and practice 