Chapter 6

Print ISBN: 978-81-19102-54-9, eBook ISBN: 978-81-19102-55-6

What Does It Mean to be a Doctor

Harish A. Wankhede a++* and Dipti Nimje b++

DOI: 10.9734/bpi/rdmms/v3/4525C

ABSTRACT

Many parts of the world have inadequate medical care. As a result, doctors may
not need to perform all of their traditional roles, and new roles may emerge.
Doctors are in charge of overseeing patient care. They assess symptoms,
consider possible diagnoses, perform examinations and tests, counsel patients
on treatment options, and monitor treatment progress. Doctors must collaborate
at all levels, from regional to international, to develop and provide the best health
care to society.

Keywords: Doctor; social role; primary health; health care system.

1. WHAT DOCTOR MEANS [1,2]

The word “Doctor” is derived from Latin docere “to teach”. As teachers,
physicians should share information and medical knowledge with colleagues,
students of medical and related profession and their patients.

‘Doctor’ is the title given to a qualified medical practitioner registered by the

Medical Council, usually after he or she has obtained a bachelor’s degree or a
diploma in medicine and surgery. Doctor is also the academic title granted to
someone who has a university degree higher than a master’s degree. Some
universities grant a medical doctorate for a research thesis of approved
standard. In India general practitioners must complete a one-year vocational
training course before practising as an independent general practitioner.

2. PROFESSIONAL QUALITIES OF PHYSICIAN

Physician need to have following qualities to be a good Doctor in the society
1. Expert in medical knowledge.
2. Good communication skills.
3. Ability to collaborate at different levels with different peoples like
patients, patients relatives, professional colleagues, other peoples
________________________________________________________________________
a
Department of Anatomy, Government Medical College, Nandurbar, Maharashtra, India.
b
Department of Anatomy, Government Medical College, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India.
++
Assistant Professor;
*Corresponding author: E-mail: [email protected];
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What Does It Mean to be a Doctor

working under them, other peoples in the society like social workers,
peoples representatives.
4. Ability of leadership, administrator and team worker.
5. Life long learning attitude in academics.
6. Avoid unprofessional behavior which is not acceptable ethically and in
society.
7. Practical based learning and improvement attitude.
8. Importance to patient care and safety.
9. Interest in research, education, learning and teaching.
10. Balance of technical and nontechnical skills.

3. ROLES OF DOCTOR [3]

Doctors are responsible for leading the care of patients. They evaluate
symptoms, consider possible diagnoses, undertake examinations and tests,
advise patients on treatment options and monitor the progress of treatment. If
necessary, they will refer patients onwards to a specialist doctor or other health
professional for further opinion.

There are 7 basic roles of doctor:

1. Medical expert
2. Collaborator
3. Communicator
4. Manager
5. Health advocate
6. Scholar
7. Professional

3.1 What is the Role of Physician/ Doctor in Health Care System

Role of physician is not always patient centered because many physicians has to
perform other activities that are indirectly related to patients. Moreover not
everyone who consults a physician is ill e.g. screening, preventive examination,
routine follow-ups, etc.

In Hippocratic Oath physician commit themselves, ‘Always and in every aspect to

do all in my power, according to my best judgment, to apply my abilities with
diligence and great care for the benefit of society and my fellow human beings.’

Medical care is deficient in many parts of the world. So doctors may not need to
undertake all their traditional roles, while other new role may emerge.

3.2 What is the Need for Redefinition of Roles of Doctor in Health

Care System

1. Changing political and social setting in which medicine is practiced.

2. Change in healthcare system around the world.

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3. Change in the medical knowledge and rapidly changing medical

technologies.
4. Professional non medical groups are now interested in doing work in
medical field than past.
5. Shortage of manpower in healthcare system.
6. Rising healthcare costs.
7. Internationalization of medical education.

3.3 Role of Doctor in Health Care System [4]

1. Role in primary care: Doctor has major role in primary care. In most
societies patients expects doctors as first contact when ill. But in addition
to that doctors has to perform and focus more on preventive role
considering the recent pandemic of COVID-19 by driving attention of
people toward personal hygiene, social behavior, etc.

2. Role as technical expert: Many highly technical areas of medical care

like cardiac surgeries, transplant surgeries, interventional radiological
procedures, intensive and critical care management doctors with highly
skilled technical knowledge are required. In addition to that coordination
with technical team involved directly and indirectly in the patient care is
also required.

3. Role as a leader of healthcare team: Doctor and other health care

workers work in a team in delivery of health care. So doctor has to play a
potential role as a leader of healthcare team.

4. Role as a teacher: Passing his or her skill and knowledge to others in the
health care system is one of the core role of doctor other than the
providing patient care

5. Role as a researcher: Doing research is an important role of doctor to

upgrade the knowledge, skills. Doctors should always be research
oriented and should be evaluate relevance of research findings to
practice. Also able to recognize problems and unsolved questions that
need research.

6. Role as a leader in making and implementing health policy: In making

and implementing health policy, doctor has prime importance because
medical policies will not be efficient unless the proper medical input is
provided. Since doctor work at the ground level and knows the health
situation better so can provide the effective health care at local as well as
national level. Also understanding and promotion of international health
policies and their implementation in our own country requires knowledge
of health care situation in our own country which can be better provided
by doctors.

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What Does It Mean to be a Doctor

3.4 Physician Role and Responsibility to the Society and

Community
Doctor plays various role in the society which are as follows-

1. Role as a medical expert: Doctor must act as consultant by contributing

with their medical expertise to identify healthcare problems and solutions at
various level of health care system. E.g. supervision and guidance in health
projects, adviser in health care policy making.

2. Role as a communicator: Doctor must use methods and media to share

medical research based knowledge in society. Also must be capable Of
discussing professional and scientific problems. E.g. using social medias and
research platforms like journals, paper and poster presentation in
conferences, participation in awareness campaigns, etc.

3. Role as a collaborator: Doctor must collaborate at all levels from regional

to international with purpose of developing and delivering best health care to
society.

4. Role as a administrator and organizer: Doctor must have ability to apply

both theoretical and practical knowledge at social level. Must understand
actual healthcare system situation and setting the priority in relation to
resource allocation at social level.

5. Role as health advocate: Doctor must contribute to collection, analysis and

processing of data with purpose of launching health promotion initiatives at
social level. E.g. Planning and participating in general campaigns in society
to support health and wellbeing of population, screening programs.
6. Role as a scholar/ researcher/ teacher: Doctors must implement teaching
and educational activities in society. Must take responsibility for their own
professional development, specialization and continual training. E.g.
conducting social talks on various disease of public interest like diabetes,
hypertension, cancer.
7. Role as a professional: Doctors must pay attention to ethical issues related
to society. They must aware others that society expects physicians to
behave ethically and professionally not only in working group but also in
society.
3.5 Life Long Learning as a Important Part of Physician Growth [5,6]
o Most doctors are aware of the phrase that, ‘learning should continue
from the cradle to the grave’. However, medical school does not
prepare anyone fully for responsibilities, long hours and challenging
tasks that qualification brings.
o The fittest survive by learning from their practice, whereas those who do
not continue to learn become dissatisfied and burn out. So its very
important to grab learning opportunities wherever possible.

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o Throughout the career, doctors need to work hard at taking advantage

of the constant learning opportunities that arise.
o Lifelong learners’ biggest achievement is finding the motivation to keep
questioning their actions and knowledge.
o Lifelong learning means striking the right balance between confidence
and doubt. It is easiest to find this balance if you work with people who
support and value questioning behaviour. If that working culture does
not exist, it is difficult for a trainee to create it.
o It is essential to develop the confidence to doubt your own practice even
when patients, nurses, and peers expect you to behave with apparent
certainty.
o Lifelong learning is a process of continuously scrutinizing and building
on your practice to be the best doctor. You can be always have three
questions in your mind: where am I going? How am I getting on? where
to next?
o Use of electronic tools that provide filtered information at the point of
care is important because you cannot hope to stay up to date on
everything.
o One should keep a learning portfolio so that you can see how you have
already developed and how you can develop in the future.
o Doctors should keep their learning efforts alive by discussing them with
their peers and supervisors.

3.6 How Can Trainees Develop Lifelong Learning Strategies?

1. Learn in the work place: By interaction with other doctors, nurses, and
allied professionals of various levels of seniority shapes learners personal
and professional development. As a learner, you therefore need to capitalise
“On the job” learning opportunities by participating fully in the educational
activities of whichever community of practice you are currently working in.

2. Be in charge: To be an effective lifelong learner, you have to make a

conscious decision to direct your own development. Research in continuing
medical education shows that doctors learn most when they are motivated
enough to identify their own learning needs and meet those needs at their
own pace. E.g. When you finish rounds in medicine ward, list the topics you
need to learn more about; prioritise them, and write down one or two higher
level learning objectives for the weeks to come; and set a date to finish them
by.

3. Seek inputs from others: Use input from peers and seniors to identify your
learning needs because a person’s ability to assess his or her own
performance is limited. Keep a personal portfolio on an electronic organiser
(and always keep that in your pocket) so you can note new goals and new
learning points. For feedback to be effective, it needs to be directed at the
task as a whole or at certain aspects of the task, and not at the person who
performed it.

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4. Application of evidence based practice at the point of patient care:

Research into information seeking behaviour on the internet found that only
9% of 2500 physicians in the United States searched for information during a
patient encounter. The greatest barriers were a lack of available information
or a glut (excess) of it. Evidence based practice provide an excellent model
for learning from practice. It urges doctors to use the challenges and
surprises that they encounter in practice to formulate questions and find
valid answers that they can then apply to patients.

5. Stay on track: A portfolio can help you to formulate and structure your
learning targets and keep track of how well you are meeting them. A portfolio
can help you decide whether your previous learning outcomes have been of
use in practice; if not, you need to reconsider your learning habits. A portfolio
provides you (and your educational supervisor) with evidence to look back
on your learning and evaluate it. The information collected in your portfolio
helps to make your development more clear and provides the input for
discussing your personal development plan with an educational supervisor.
Do not invest energy in the pursuit of goals that are irrelevant to practice or
personal development. Portfolios can keep you on track.

4. CONCLUSION

Traditional role of doctor is well known to medical students and society. But this
chapter will throw light on other roles of doctor as a teacher, leader, researcher,
life long learner. These non traditional roles of doctor are important in medical
profession for growth of medical fraternity as well as for well being of society.

COMPETING INTERESTS

Authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

REFERENCES

1. Doctor’s titles: explained. British Medical Association. BMA House,

Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9JP bma.org.uk; 2017:1-13.
2. Harrison’s principle of Internal Medicine, 20th edition. McGrew Hill Global
Education Service; 2018:18.
3. The seven roles of physicians. The Danish Health and Medicines
Authority, Denmark. 2014:1-39.
4. Gordon D, Lindgren SC. The global role of the doctor in healthcare. World
medical and health policy. 2010;2(1):19-29.
5. Teunissen PW, Dornan T. Lifelong learning at work. BMJ 2008;336:667-9.
6. Ding M, Babenko O, Koppula S, Oswald A, White J. Physicians as
teachers and lifelong learners. Journal of continuing education in the
health professions. 2019;39(1):2-6.

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Biography of author(s)

Dr. Harish A. Wankhede, Assistant Professor

Department of Anatomy, Government Medical College, Nandurbar, Maharashtra, India.

Research and Academic Experience: 12 yrs.

Research Area: Anatomy.

Number of Published papers: 13.

Any other remarkable point(s): Working in the subject Anatomy since last 12years and have special
interest in research in Anatomy. This chapter of book is helpful to students as well as faculty of Ist MBBS
as this are new topics introduced in new CBME curriculum and as no specific guideline is given on it.
This chapter will expose the different roles of doctor among budding doctor’s.

Dr. Dipti Nimje, Assistant Professor

Department of Anatomy, Government Medical College, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India.

Research and Academic Experience: 11 yrs.

Research Area: Anatomy.

Number of Published papers: 10.

Any other remarkable point(s): Working in the subject Anatomy since last 11years and have special
interest in research in Anatomy. This chapter of book is helpful to students as well as faculty of Ist MBBS
as this are new topics introduced in new CBME curriculum and as no specific guideline is given on it. As
one compulsory question is asked in all summative exams of Ist MBBS this chapter will definetly act as a
guide for students and teachers.
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© Copyright (2023): Author(s). The licensee is the publisher (B P International).

Peer-Review History: During review of this manuscript, double blind peer-review policy has been followed. Author(s) of
this manuscript received review comments from a minimum of two peer-reviewers. Author(s) submitted revised
manuscript as per the comments of the peer-reviewers. As per the comments of the peer-reviewers and depending on the
quality of the revised manuscript, the Book editor approved the revised manuscript for final publication.

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