The Hospital Doctor

Abstract

The limits of acceptable practice within which any doctor acts are very wide; the quality of his work may vary from indifference to excellence, yet be included within competence. This chapter is not concerned with the quality of technical work in detecting and treating illnesses but rather the difference between negligence and minimum competence in the less technically able, and the factors that put the excellent above the very competent in those who are technically very able. These latter factors are in the social skills domain. We can assume that in providing specialist or secondary care (a distinction which will be described in detail later) the hospital doctor is fully equipped with particular technical and individual skills in medicine; it is attitudes and social skills which set the excellent apart. The differences that make a hospital doctor unacceptable or satisfactory are determined by knowledge and experience. It is in the grey area above satisfactoriness that the effect of attitude appears, here there is scope for a study of social skills.