Satisfactory.

This is the grade I got in the exams i thought I'd failed. it isn't even like 'good not great, could try harder', or 'better luck next time'. 'Satisfactory' is all you need to get through medical school. 'Satisfactory' is a PASS.
And thank god i satisfactorily gauged the amount of work required over Christmas, turned up with satisfactory Biro's and managed to satisfactorily work out which little box corresponded to a satisfactory answer.
Fair Enough. they don't want to start telling us were 'good' or anything. Heaven forbid you compliment anyone in my year for fear their heads may grow to a size that wont fit through the double doors that lead into the medical school...
BUT. Surely 'pass' is OK? i mean i know I'm getting picky about terminology but who wants a doctor that did what basically is 'o.k' at medical school? Were talking 'alright', 'adequate', 'not outstanding'..'unexceptional'....??
After satis comes Honours, then Distinction. You get honours points every time you get one of those and then at the end of your degree you get even more letters to put at the end of your name...Dr Doug Ross (par example) MbChB(Hons)...
I was in a lecture this morning and an HONOURS STUDENT was TALKING in the row behind me about how 'in the handbook it says honours points count even from the progress test even in first year even though the progress test doesn't count for anything'.
Firstly, SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Secondly, jeez Louise, you've only just STARTED. Its like collecting gold stars when the teacher hasn't even put up the chart.
Ive encountered many doctors in my 21 years. There were many present at my birth i believe. One was dragged from sleep and required to give my mother an epidural because i was taking my time entering the world (theres a theme here....birth, getting up at the weekend, getting a degree....all so long in coming..)
Mr P.J Witherow. A man who has morphed into someone who kind of resembles my uncle Pierre and father Christmas performed surgery on my club foot. twice. My GP Dr Spence is someone i have visited my entire life, he wrote the sick note when i had tonsillitis during my final A levels, he always asks about my family in England and abroad before he asks why I've come to visit, and he always sends his regards to everyone as i leave the door. This isn't to mention the many doctors I've encountered in the Accident and Emergency department when I've thrown myself off my bike and knocked my teeth out, slipped on some leaves and broken my wrist, caught a hard ball at netball and broken the other one, and this isn't even to mention the many Ju-Jitsu related injuries...
I encountered a very young lady doctor in A&E who saw my GP and announced that she had just moved there, but on some days she works a rotation in the hospital. Dr Janssen is so nice that i make a point of seeing her if spence isn't around because she seems like she cares.
The other doctor i remember from A&E is a guy, i don't remember his name or what he looked like, but i do remember that he was HOT. so lets imagine its doctor carter from E.R. I went in with the most disgusting, gammy, infected ankle from scuba diving in Thailand. Id caught some bug and it wouldn't go away, and whats more it was eating its way up the scar Mr Witherow had so beautifully made so indistinguishable on my left ankle. Dr McDreamy asked where I'd been and how the diving was and la la la if id enjoyed myself etc etc. This was 2 years ago. And yes, i don't remember all of the names, but i do remember their kind manners.
Equally, there are people that i remember who were horrible and dismissive and made me feel like i was time wasting, so thanks doctor so and so who said that my loose joints were something i had to live with. I KNOW theres nothing you can do about it but you could have been nicer. And thanks to the doctor who missed my vein 4 TIMES before admitting it had been a 'while' since he'd taken a blood sample. i GET that you don't do it all the time, but i was only 14 and that needle bloody hurt.


The thing I'm getting at here is even if i can remember the names of the doctors (sorry Mcdreamy, i wish i could cos id probably look you up on facebook if i could....!) i haven't a clue whether they were (Hons) or not. In fact if Mr Witherow was 'Satisfactory' (or even 'Low Pass') at med school id give him (Hons) just for his needlework, and Dr Janssen can have (Hons) for just being really easy to talk to, and McDreamy can have (Hons) in the looks dept......
If i come out of med school being nothing more than satisfactory, and i manage to go most days acting in a way that me personally would like a doctor to act, that's all i care about.....

Maybe I'd ask about the patient before the extended family. that would be satisfactory.