The Doctor as the Patient: Doctors Recount Their Experiences on the Other Side of the Consultation Desk

Samantha Scallan is Senior Lecturer in Medical Education at the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing, University of Winchester.

In 2009, GPs were asked to contribute to a collection of real-life clinical experiences and to draw out the associated learning points in relation to clinical practice. This led to the publication of What’s in a Story? Lessons from Reflections in General Practice in 2017.¹ In 2019, another call was made, this time for doctors to tell their stories of being patients. The Doctor as the Patient is the second publication from this project. It is a collection of accounts from those who have found themselves ‘[S]eeing life from the other side of the consultation desk’ (p.357) and their reflections on this experience.

The book comprises 12 chapters, and within each a curated selection of experiential stories are presented in relation to the chapter theme. There is an introduction to each chapter, which provides an overarching context to the accounts that follow, sometimes framed by links to selected wider literature or picking up on earlier accounts to thread the narrative strands throughout the book. The chapter themes include perennial and expected topics such as ‘Communication’, as well as more contemporary areas, for example, reflections on COVID-19, mental health, and burnout. Some chapters are relatively short — chapter 6 ‘Even doctors get ill — so go and see your GP’ has two stories, whereas chapter 4 ‘Becoming a patient & being a patient’ has 20.

Much of the richness of the accounts comes from the way they are written — from a short and ‘to the point’ half page of experience to longer unfolding accounts, and others written in instalments that appear across multiple chapters. Some are presented with brief concluding thoughts and others with a reflective interpretation of the events and ‘lessons to take away’. Many simply invite the reader to reflect on the experience shared.

The richness also comes from who has written the accounts. The contributors are recognised, with a small number choosing to be identified alongside their accounts. The collection includes the voices of an advanced clinical practitioner and medical student who contribute poems; specialties and professions beyond general practice can be found in among the pages, as well as international perspectives.

What connects the accounts and makes them compelling is the way they are crafted to articulate lives interrupted by illness and the effect of this, as Gavin Fairbairn states:

‘[S]kill in the construction of true stories … is one sign of expertise, because true stories can only be written by those who know and understand a wide range of possible circumstances and events well enough to allow them to create stories that hang together in a way that allows us to believe in them.’ ²

The editors guide the reader, ‘… this is not a book to read from cover to cover, nor in sequence necessarily, but one that can be dipped into and explored’ (p.15). These are considered words as a ‘run through’ reading of the accounts is not an easy read. An array of profound emotions is conveyed through the narratives — anger, anxiety, confusion, contradiction, denial, disempowerment, embarrassment, empathy, fear, isolation, liminality, loss, overwhelm, role reversal, sadness, shame, sympathy, transformation, vulnerability …

The collection falls within the rich tradition of storytelling in education and clinical practice. As Ken Cox has noted, ‘[E]very case contains a human story of illness and a medical story of disease’.³ In contrast to What’s in a Story?, here the reader is invited to share human stories of illness through the power of lived experience. The editors of the collection state their work ‘is not a research project’ (p.18), however the intersection with wider academic literature and recent publications is clear, and on occasion made explicitly so for the reader in the chapter introductions and in some accounts. Conversely the editors do note that it is ‘an academic book’ (p.188) and ‘a text book’ (p.358), thus contributing to the patchwork of understanding that connects and contextualises lived experience with wider research findings and contemporary literature.^4–7

Who might the readers of this book be? In the first instance, doctors who are experiencing ill health may find comfort in reading the accounts. It asks questions such as is medical knowledge ‘a blessing or curse’? Where the patient is a doctor, should this be shared? Difficult questions to which there are no clear answers, as the accounts illustrate.

Second, I think it will be a resource for those in educational roles across the continuum of medical education, be that as trainer or appraiser. Several of the accounts note a curriculum gap where the doctors of tomorrow could be better prepared to navigate difficult waters should they find themselves a patient. Similarly for appraisers, the accounts can raise awareness and offer the opportunity to supportively explore the impact of illness on the doctor, professionally and personally.

Third, in the same way the reflective accounts in What’s in a Story? illustrate reflective writing about clinical practice, in The Doctor as the Patient the accounts and reflective interpretation that accompanies some of them reveal the potential for illness to have a transformational impact on clinical practice, empathy, and understanding of patient experience. Similarly notable are aspects of accounts that recognise the importance of kind acts or words that provide comfort. Thus, they stand as a way to illustrate for learners the relational nature of care embedded within clinical practice.

Finally, some accounts of illness within the book describe contributors feeling pushed out of the profession or alienated. Similar experiences were noted in the work of Max Henderson et al in 2012, some 13 years before.⁸ This presents an uncomfortable question and perhaps one for the profession for wider consideration — is the medical profession harder on doctors who ‘cross […] the implicit divide from their colleagues and become something “other”‘ ⁹ when they become unwell than their own patients?

Featured book: Rodger Charlton, Sharon Worcester, David Orlans, The Doctor as the Patient: Doctors Recount Their Experiences on the Other Side of the Consultation Desk, What’s in a Story Publishing, 2025, PB, 364pp, £15.00, 978-1068605307.

References
1. Orlans D, Charlton R, Finnikin S. What’s in a story? Lessons from reflections in general practice. Solihull: Hampton-in-Arden Publishers, 2017.
2. Fairbairn GJ. Ethics, empathy and storytelling in professional development. Learning in Health and Social Care 2002; 1(1): 22–32.
3. Cox K. Stories as case knowledge: case knowledge as stories. Med Educ 2001; 35(9): 862–866.
4. Fox F, Harris M, Taylor G, et al. What happens when doctors are patients? Qualitative study of GPs. Br J Gen Pract 2009; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp09X472872.
5. Morishita M, Iida J, Nishigori H. Doctors’ experience of becoming patients and its influence on their medical practice: a literature review. Explore (NY) 2020; 16(3): 145–151.
6. Gerada C. Beneath the white coat: doctors, their minds and mental health. Oxon: Routledge, 2020.
7. Hutton CJ, Kay M, Round P, Barton C. Doctors’ experiences when treating doctor–patients: a scoping review. BJGP Open 2023; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGPO.2023.0090.
8. Henderson M, Brooks SK, Del Busso L, et al. Shame! Self-stigmatisation as an obstacle to sick doctors returning to work: a qualitative study. BMJ Open 2012; 2(5): e001776.
9. Miles S. Addressing shame: what role does shame play in the formation of a modern medical professional identity? BJPsych Bulletin 2020; 44(1): 1–5.

Featured photo by Susan Q Yin on Unsplash.