Careers advice
Common medicolegal problems faced by medical students
What legal support might you need as a medical student?
- By: Shelagh Turvill
As future doctors, medical students are held to higher standards of conduct and ethics than many of their student peers. Student pranks can backfire and lead to disciplinary proceedings or questions about fitness to practise. Medical students also have obligations to raise concerns if they encounter situations that could affect patient safety or if they have health problems that could affect their fitness to practise. They may find themselves in need of medicolegal advice or support for any of these areas.
Students who don’t meet the standards of behaviour expected are at risk of a formal fitness to practise investigation and will be obliged to disclose proceedings to the General Medical Council when they apply for provisional registration.1 The GMC’s guidance reflects the fact that the standards expected may be higher than for other students because of the privileged position they hold.
Between 2009 and 2013, the Medical Defence Union