I'm about to attend a one day conference aimed at medical students interested in medical education. As ever, I have been requested to fill out a questionnaire and one of the questions asks whether I am attending for the benefit of my CV. I think it is an indictment on the current system that students are attending everything under the sun for the express purpose of enhancing CVs. Why can't people simply attend something because they want to or because they have a personal interest?
When I read CVs as an employer in my past, if I saw attendance on courses, I would make it my business to grill the candidate about the course to verify in my own mind if the attendance was genuine or mere window dressing. I find it astonishing the lengths my peers will go to to enhance a CV irrespective of any personal interest let alone altruism!
The chilling reality is that future generations of doctors are being created on the basis of a perceived pressure to attend courses in which they have no basic interest. I can only hope their interest is being reserved for patients -if there is anything in it for them of course....
