Medical- school culture

Abstract

The structure of western medical education over the last 150 years has been remarkably unchanged (Sinclair 1997: 11) and largely unaffected by the wider world despite the many intellectual and social transformations in society and its health. In parallel fashion, the continuity and homogeneity of medical-school culture appear surprisingly unaltered. How has such stability been maintained? This chapter will start with a description of the role of medical schools and will provide a definition of medical-school culture. Attention will be paid to a number of influential internal and external issues that have shaped the medicalschool climate in recent decades. Underpinned by findings of a recent study conducted in a UK medical school, this discussion provides further evidence about the insulated life of a medical school, thereby illustrating the saying that ‘there is more to see than what meets the eye’. The integration of three sociological theoretical models – Bourdieu’s concept of ‘playing the game’ (Bourdieu 1994), Goffman’s notions of ‘the presentation of self in everyday life’ (Goffman 1971) and ‘total institutions’ (Goffman 1961) – add an important theoretical relevance to the results of the recent UK study.