Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • BJGP LIFE
  • MORE
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Librarian information
    • Resilience
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers

User menu

  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
British Journal of General Practice
Intended for Healthcare Professionals
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers
  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in
  • Follow bjgp on Twitter
  • Visit bjgp on Facebook
  • Blog
  • Listen to BJGP podcast
  • Subscribe BJGP on YouTube
British Journal of General Practice
Intended for Healthcare Professionals

Advanced Search

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • BJGP LIFE
  • MORE
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Librarian information
    • Resilience
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
The Back Pages

Template for a junior doctor

Samir Dawlatly
British Journal of General Practice 2011; 61 (583): 151. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp11X556425
Samir Dawlatly
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

If you have dissected a head when all about you

Were losing theirs and blaming it on the fumes,

If you trusted yourself when all examiners doubted you,

And mitigated for their doubting too;

If you can write and not be tired by the curse,

Of being written about, despised,

Or being hated, don't give way to thinking like a nurse

And yet don't look too flash, nor talk too wise:

If you can sit exams – and not make exams your master;

If you can think – and not make thinking your aim;

If you can meet with depression and plaster

Of Paris, and treat those two just the same;

If you can bear to hear the diagnosis you've spoken

Use gallows humour and always play the fool,

Or watch people give up their life, broken,

And stoop and sew them up with worn-out tools:

If you can make it through by just grinning,

Acting like you just don't give a toss

If you lose your faith in humanity, and start at the beginning

And never breach confidentiality about their loss;

If you can fix their hearts and nerves and sinews

And serve their family after they are gone,

And so keep on working when there is nothing in you

Except the voice which says to you: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with patients and keep your virtue,

And walk with consultants – without losing your common touch,

If neither death nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all patients count to you, but none too much,

If you can fill every last minute

With sixty seconds' work, worthwhile,

Yours is the NHS and everything that's in it,

And – what is more – you'll be a doctor, my child!

  • © British Journal of General Practice, 2011
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

In this issue

British Journal of General Practice: 61 (583)
British Journal of General Practice
Vol. 61, Issue 583
February 2011
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
Download PDF
Email Article

Thank you for recommending British Journal of General Practice.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person to whom you are recommending the page knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Template for a junior doctor
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from British Journal of General Practice
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from British Journal of General Practice.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Template for a junior doctor
Samir Dawlatly
British Journal of General Practice 2011; 61 (583): 151. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp11X556425

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero

Share
Template for a junior doctor
Samir Dawlatly
British Journal of General Practice 2011; 61 (583): 151. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp11X556425
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

Jump to section

  • Top
  • Article
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF

More in this TOC Section

The Back Pages

  • How to protect general practice from child protection
  • Who Is My Patient?
  • Working with vulnerable families in deprived areas
Show more The Back Pages

Digest

  • Book review
  • Exhibition review
Show more Digest

Related Articles

Cited By...

Intended for Healthcare Professionals

BJGP Life

BJGP Open

 

@BJGPjournal's Likes on Twitter

 
 

British Journal of General Practice

NAVIGATE

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • All Issues
  • Online First
  • Authors & reviewers

RCGP

  • BJGP for RCGP members
  • BJGP Open
  • RCGP eLearning
  • InnovAiT Journal
  • Jobs and careers

MY ACCOUNT

  • RCGP members' login
  • Subscriber login
  • Activate subscription
  • Terms and conditions

NEWS AND UPDATES

  • About BJGP
  • Alerts
  • RSS feeds
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

AUTHORS & REVIEWERS

  • Submit an article
  • Writing for BJGP: research
  • Writing for BJGP: other sections
  • BJGP editorial process & policies
  • BJGP ethical guidelines
  • Peer review for BJGP

CUSTOMER SERVICES

  • Advertising
  • Contact subscription agent
  • Copyright
  • Librarian information

CONTRIBUTE

  • BJGP Life
  • eLetters
  • Feedback

CONTACT US

BJGP Journal Office
RCGP
30 Euston Square
London NW1 2FB
Tel: +44 (0)20 3188 7400
Email: journal@rcgp.org.uk

British Journal of General Practice is an editorially-independent publication of the Royal College of General Practitioners
© 2023 British Journal of General Practice

Print ISSN: 0960-1643
Online ISSN: 1478-5242