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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