The Semantics of Healthcare - John wasn't fighting in Afghanistan he was busy being a GP!

[wellingtongoose]

As a medical student and soon to be doctor, I often watch TV programs about medicine and despair. Not because the likes of Casualty and Holby City (for those of you who don’t watch British TV these are hospital dramas) are not entertaining, but rather because they have a habit of misleading the public on what real doctors can do.

So in the spirit

Comments

[cleflink]

Very interesting! Am I right in thinking that a GP is not a surgeon? Because that would make for an interesting deviation from the original ACD!Watson.

Thank you for sharing! ^_^

[wellingtongoose]

A GP is not a surgeon (they are the Family Doctors of the UK). Canon ACD Watson was an army surgeon but at that time doctors did not specialise. You could do both medicine and surgery (any type of surgery). Therefore ACD!Watson wouldn't have had to choose a narrow field in which to work, he could have done everything that was medically helpful to the army.

[cleflink]

*nods* That's what I thought (general practitioner, yeah?). Very interesting about the changing face of medicine, both since ACD was writing and since John would have done his training a dozen years ago.

Also, thank you for your second post as well; John the doctor and John the BAMF soldier as two separate careers makes a lot of sense and I think you're right that it seems to align better with BBC!John. I'm enjoying learning more about British medicine and military service!

Thank you!

[love_bug_54]

Thanks for this! My own experience is in the US Navy decades ago and then doctors were not line officers and did not see combat, unless, like you said, they somehow found themselves attacked on the base or while travelling between bases. Doctors are too valuable to risk on the front lines, so medics are the ones more likely to be in harm's way during a battle.

But, this John Watson is an MD because his Victorian counterpart was an MD. John Watson, MBBS, etc., doesn't have quite the same panache (not to insult those who've earned those titles). We also know that Watson was wounded when his unit was overrun by "the murderous Gahzis." We see something similar during the opening scenes of Study in Pink, which was Moffat/Gatiss' way of introducing the character as he was introduced in the Sherlock Holmes Canon.

[wellingtongoose]

In ACD John is an MD because that was what all doctors got when they graduated but just as the telegram has been updated to a mobile phone, I think we should update John's letters to MBBS.

I like the idea of John fighting on the frontlines so I wrote part 2 of this series about how John the doctor could be a fighting soldier

http://wellingtongoose.livejournal.com/7885.html

I;d love to hear your thoughts and thanks for the comment!

[tweedisgood]

Actually no, not all Victorian doctors got an MD. It was a higher academic qualification at a time when not all doctors had one beyond basic clinical training.

[wellingtongoose]

Really? I was under the impression at in the Victorian Era medical degrees were awarded as Doctors of Medicine (MD) they didn't have Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS). Is there a source I can have a look at?

[blue_midnight]

Very interesting stuff! It's always nice to read different theories on back stories.

[wellingtongoose]

Thank you so much! Part 2 and part 3 are now up as well.

[ariadnechan]

I know about this but i think our writers were trying to John more as Watson from the books

So i think John it was not in the program, perse, and that's why he doesn't fit

I believe he finished maybe step 3 to be GP and then he enter the military at the academy and so he was a captain, captain who works as a med in his unit, not in the program, because if not the first scene and all the watson background have no sens at all specially what John himself says in the series.

In the books there were doctors who went as meds with units like Watson, and ones who stay at bases... So there was no problem with that.

But now for us to hace our Watson i think he have double status militar and medical carreres and that's why the dreams, the injury and his background.

[wellingtongoose]

Yes I agree with the double military status and I worked out how it would happen in real life.

It's pretty anti-canon but might prove interesting

http://wellingtongoose.livejournal.com/7885.html

Please tell me what you think.

[azriona]

Some of the research I did into the Cadetship program indicated that when John graduated from med school, he'd automatically become a Captain. (Granted, the information stems mostly from Wikipedia, so I'm willing to believe it's not entirely accurate.) I don't remember anything about Second Lieutenants - though I have to admit, since we know that John was a Captain at the time of his discharge, and given his age, he's probably been in the army since he left med school, it doesn't make sense for him to still be a captain ten or fifteen years later.

(Not so much a correction, because clearly you know more than I do; mostly I'm curious for your comment re: John's rank?)

[wellingtongoose]

I wrote part 2 of this semantics in healthcare series and I've come to conclusion the only way John is a Captain at his age is if he's actually a career soldier not a career army doctor.

If you'd like to read it http://wellingtongoose.livejournal.com/7885.html and tell me what you think?