Why study?

Don Eby

doi:10.3399/bjgp14X677013

In November’s Out of Hours, Trisha Greenhalgh asked the rhetorical question ‘Why study?’.1 Her reflections were prompted by one of her self-funded, mature students completing his PhD while studying part-time and working as a full-time clinician.

She answered her own question by suggesting academic study resulted in both a public good and a benefit to the individual undertaking study for its own sake. As the student referred to in her article, perhaps I can provide a perspective on the personal benefits of academic study.

After approximately 25 years of non-academic full-time clinical practice, I felt at a crossroads. I wondered what I was going to do with the rest of my life. Clinical practice can be immensely fulfilling but it can also become mind-numbing under the pressure to care for a seemingly unending stream of patients.

Academic study provided an opportunity for me to pause, reflect on, and understand my experience within a larger context than my own practice. I found it immensely satisfying to think about ‘big ideas’ and academic study provided an opportunity to do so.

A structured programme of academic study produced many side benefits. It increased my self-confidence and self-esteem. My information searching and retrieval skills, improved. My ability to write coherently without resorting to wild hyperbole continues to develop. Even my spelling improved. Academic study changed both my way of thinking and approach to problems. I learned to evaluate how arguments are constructed, consider evidence used to justify assertions, recognise rhetoric, and most importantly I learned to be sceptical and not to accept conclusions at face-value.

Academic study requires considerable investment of time, energy and money. Having the opportunity to observe full-time academics for the past decade made me realise I do not want to be one. For me, the main reason for prolonged academic study was personal fulfilment. So, for the time being I plan to continue my clinical practice and remain a hobbyist researcher. I now realise there are many opportunities to do meaningful research on a shoestring budget or no budget at all. I look forward to many more years having more fun doing this!