Sometimes I get the distinct impression that the general public believe that doctors graduate from medical school as middle aged men. This attitude presents itself repeatedly in social situations. Many times when meeting new people I have mentioned that I work at the local hospital or GP clinic, only to be met with the response “oh, are you a receptionist there?”  “Er, no, I’m a doctor there.” “Oh.”

… awkward!

As a junior hospital doctor, it was an almost daily occurrence that patients would mistake me for a nurse / student /  anything other than a doctor. Many female doctors would be familiar with these scenarios:

• You enter a patient’s room and they are on the phone. They end their call by saying “I gotta go, the nurse is here to see me.”
• You spend 45 minutes with a patient taking a history, performing an examination, taking bloods, explaining their diagnosis and…