Abstract
It is easy to fall into a narrow view of personal development. We either create our own development plans or often do no more than consult our manager. But personal development was never meant to be built on such a shallow foundation. At the very least, we should seek the views of colleagues and patients as medical practice advances rapidly, teams become bigger and more diverse, and leadership and compassion must go hand in hand to solve the problems of a financially stretched health service.
Fiona Moss and Lorelei Jones seized on the true spirit of personal development by asking different groups, from patient representatives to medical directors, what should be prioritised in personal development of senior hospital doctors. 1 Analysis of the group discussion revealed three main themes: developing and supporting the system of care; changes in medical practice; and personal wellbeing and that of colleagues.
A patient perspective is an important feature of this study, and a patient voice also emerges in our latest article on empathy. 2 Amy Price and Hajira Dambha-Miller argue from personal experience that ‘empathy is as complex as human nature: it is more than a feeling, it is a state of choosing and being’. Importantly, empathy is in our hands and must be redesigned by patients and clinicians working together to improve healthcare and people’s health.
Revolution is rarely far from medical practice. One of today’s revolutions in healthcare is driven by patients. Others are driven by clinicians. Sometimes even methodologists are a catalyst for change. Over 40 years ago, Richard Peto was at the heart of a revolution in research methods by promoting a new technique called meta-analysis. The evidence on use of streptokinase after myocardial infarction was unclear until a meta-analysis proved persuasive. Peto describes his early career struggles in an era before personal development plans, when he was met by opposition but overcame it to ensure his ideas helped establish collaborative clinical trials and meta-analysis founded on the principle that ‘many plausible treatment effects required substantially larger numbers of patients than had previously been recognised’. 3
An idea whose time may yet come in the UK is a four-day working week. 4 In our rush for new cures, treatments and personalised medicine, public health is easily forgotten, marginalised and stripped of funding. Our new regular columnist, John Ashton, will remind us how public health is central to creating a better world. 4