From App Developer To WhatsApp Queen— Stereotypes Of 21st Century Doctors

Stereotypes of rugger-bugger orthopods and self medicating gas men are old hat. Anne Gulland explores the stereotypes plaguing 21st century doctors

Doctors know all about the old stereotypes: anaesthetists love gadgets and self medicating; orthopaedic surgeons are rugby playing public school types; and A&E doctors just love to get stuck in.

But what about the 21st century doctor? After extensive research (honest), The BMJ has come up with a list of the new breeds of doctors stalking the nation’s wards and consulting rooms.

The app developer

She’s got this little side hustle going on, which is set to disrupt healthcare. She’s in stealth mode at the moment but is looking for crowdfunding so that she can upscale her idea.

Basically, she’s come up with a device which, when hooked up to an iPhone (OK, it works with Android too), will be able to monitor a patient’s symptoms, perform routine procedures such as taking bloods and inserting IVs, and even organise the coffee rota. And—this is the really cool part—she’s built in an algorithm that allows it to learn iteratively. So, the more it performs a procedure, the better it will get.

It’s still in the development stages, so she doesn’t really have the bandwidth to concentrate on her day job. But do you fancy getting on board as an angel investor? What do you mean, “It sounds like a medical student”?

The portfolio GP

“You want to see Dr Smith? She teaches on a Monday; every other Tuesday she has a clinical commissioning group management meeting; Wednesday’s her admin day; Thursday’s her day off; and on Fridays she’s got this new project with NHS England, researching how to increase GP capacity.

“Now, let’s have a look: her CCG meeting is next Tuesday, so you could see her this Tuesday. No—sorry—she’s got a meeting with someone about setting up a private tattoo removal practice, “Re-think the Ink”; and then it’s her CCG day the following Tuesday. She could do some time in March if you’re free?

“Oh, you’d rather play appointment roulette when the phone lines open at 6 am tomorrow? That’s absolutely fine. Or, if you know where the CCG offices are, you could hang out in reception and try to catch her there. She’s such a popular doctor: unlike the other partners, she’s not at all jaded or frazzled and has managed to retain her enthusiasm for general practice.”

The keen bean

He really needs to get his clinical skills signed off, but the wards are just so busy! As well as his fellow medical students there are physician associate students, nursing students, surgical care practitioner students, and lots of other people whose roles he’s never even heard of. They all seem to bag the best patients and, to top it all, his educational supervisor is on long term sick leave.

He knows that he shouldn’t have inserted that nasogastric tube into that patient, but how was he ever going to get any practice? It was just sitting there. And yes, that man didn’t need catheterisation, but he was very understanding about it? Said that he quite liked not having to get up to go to the loo. And, OK, he shouldn’t have performed that caesarean, but mother and baby are doing fine now, aren’t they? If he can just get his skills signed off he promises to stop.

The smug consultant

“So, Olivia’s in her final year at school and, fingers crossed, she’ll join Seb at Cambridge. We spent a fortune on school fees, so she’d better bloody get those A stars or there’ll be blue murder from me and her mother.

“Private practice has dried up a bit and the indemnity fees have gone sky high, but back in the day the wife and I were really able to coin it in. At least the mortgage is paid off, and the accountant’s been able to do a little something on the quiet so that the flat in Courchevel is tax deductible. We’re sitting pretty now—time to enjoy life, I say.

“I love my job, but what gets me down is my trainees. Such long faces . . . they’re always banging on about the new contract, the cost of childcare, and rota gaps, whatever they are. They keep telling me that we had it so good: cheap mortgages, the firm to look after us, and a gold plated pension to look forward to.

“Not sure what they’re moaning about. They never had to do 14 night shifts on the trot and then get bawled out by a consultant who modelled himself on Sir Lancelot Spratt, did they?”

The WhatsApp queen

She’s a member of so many different WhatsApp groups, it’s no wonder she gets a bit confused. Anyway, it’s got end-to-end encryption, so not even the CIA can hack into it. That’s what everyone says.

She’s a member of the trauma team group on WhatsApp—sooo useful in a major incident or for organising birthday collections or sending funny memes around. She needed to run a scan past the consultant, and he told her to send it to the whole group: he loves that stuff, as he’s got teenage kids and the only way he can communicate with them is through Instagram and Snapchat. Like, who uses Facebook anymore, anyway? The team’s always whizzing scans back and forth, and they only ever use patients’ initials, so it’s not as though they’re identifiable.

The trouble is, she thinks that she sent the scan to the WhatsApp group for her son’s class, and one of the other mums is a manager at the trust who’s always banging on about patient confidentiality and data protection. You don’t think she’s going to snitch, do you?

The leadership guru

Monday

• All day conference: Leading in times of difficulty and change
  

Tuesday

• 9-12 am: Coaching workshop
  
  
• 12-2 pm: Lunch with mentor—discuss boss and her attitude
  
  
• 2 30-5 pm: Communication skills training
  

Wednesday

• 9-11 am: Meeting with lawyer (bring diary to demonstrate heavy workload)
  
  
• 12-3 30 pm: Workshop on building an effective team
  
  
• 4 pm: Mindfulness training
  

Thursday

• 9-10 am: Meeting with manager to discuss working hours. NB—ask if BMA rep can attend
  
  
• 11 30 am-1 30 pm: Working lunch with mentee. Discuss raising self awareness
  
  
• 2-5 pm: Workshop on prioritising and planning
  

Friday

• 9 am-12 pm: Meeting with senior exec (bring BMA rep and lawyer)
  
  
• 2-4 pm: Locum agency catch-up—discuss transferable skills
  
  
• 6 pm: Meeting with financial adviser (bring mortgage and pension statements)
  

Saturday

• Start “sabbatical.”
  

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