All doctors are disabled, but some are more disabled than others
I was asked to write this article because I went through medical school with a marked visible disability, which has given me a good ‘worm’s-eye' perspective on how disability is handled within the medical profession.
Medicine is not an easy training. Most people who consider themselves fully able-bodied, seem to find it so challenging that they cannot imagine how anyone could cope with the training as well as an obvious handicap. This viewpoint constitutes one of the major handicaps facing disabled people wanting a career in medicine.
Experience is never wasted. The medical training is full of opportunities to learn about medicine, people, team-work and relationships. During this training, each of us has to confront our individual weaknesses, and as all Deans know, some of us will come to the conclusion that our flaws are not consistent with our ambitions. I would like to encourage a more experimental attitude towards selection at undergraduate level. The training is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon, and it really isn't a disaster if people do not travel smoothly along a conveyor belt towards consultant posts at the age of 32. I have a curriculum vitae peppered with holes and flaws. However, the end result has been a happy and fulfilling lifestyle.
Let us consider the three ages of medicine:
Infancy
Looking back at my training, most of the difficulties I faced were either unrelated, or only remotely connected to, my more obvious disabilities. They were difficulties I shared with many of my able-bodied peers, the worst of which were:
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social problems. I entered medical school with an inadequate infrastructure, a discretionary grant that periodically fell to pieces, and no idea that the course would require me to commute from …
