Poem of the Day: Address to Medical Students by Professor Sir Kenneth Calman

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The Chancellor of Glasgow University, Professor Sir Kenneth Calman, is also a poet. He draws on his rich experience of the worlds of medicine, science, academia, and public service, as well as his personal life, for material for his collection Afterthoughts, published this week (Kennedy and Boyd, £12.95).

Here he talks to medical students, on the point of graduating, about their responsibilities to their patients and fellow humans.

ADDRESS TO MEDICAL STUDENTS

There will come a time when it will be up to you.

In front of you sits a person

Who seeks your help, your care, your compassion.

You will draw on all your experiences

Of teachers, books, resources, past patients

To answer, assist, help this individual

All the anatomy, physiology, pathology, therapeutics you know

Is focussed on the problem; but remember

This is a person, with feelings, emotions, anxieties

Waiting to be listened to and be understood.

More than a collection of bones, muscles, cells

An individual, a whole person, a human being with a soul

With a family, friends, a home, a job, or not

The social context of the illness needs similar concern

That’s where you matter. Making all this come together

The synthesis, the diagnosis, not in any limited

biomedical sense

But as a process of integrating all those factors which

matter to them

With one purpose in mind, and with your professionalism,

To care for the person in front of you

To help them on their journey to restoration of health

Or to be with them on a different road to comfort and care

And share the pain

That’s what all this learning is for,

And that time is now.

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