What do you do with a drunken doctor?

It’s 23:25. I’m sat in a hotel bar in Central London. It’s one of my favourite hotels and I was sat relaxing with a beer after a really tough couple of days work until 10 minutes ago.

Because it’s December, many of the hotels are hosting Christmas parties and this one is no exception.

A group of ‘medical professionals’ seem to have finished their main group party and have entered the bar area to continue their festivities. They’re not drunk – just merry and a little ‘relaxed’ having imbibed a dose of medicinal gin.

They’re talking (shop) really loudly and arguing about seemingly trivial medical issues. They actually sound like very articulate, well paid, 5 year old children.

“No, no, no…. if I want to wear a tie on the ward, nobody is going to stop me”

“I think it’s entirely comfortable to start work after 9 o’clock”

“It’s her own fault, she should serve the patients breakfast before I do my round instead of causing me to interrupt them”

“It comes across as a symbolic undermining of my skills”

When I visit my doctor, I have a certain mental image. I think of him as having considered, assured knowledge that he will use to help me with my problems. I have a distinct confidence that, whatever I present him with, he will either know what to do, or know who to send me to see. He seems almost super-natural in that he knows how my body works without knowing me.

The guys in the bar have just broken my mental image of medical professionals. Because I’ve seen and heard them with their guard down, away from their work environment, I’ve gained a different insight into the way they think and interact as a group.

My bar pals seem to be ‘consultants’ so are probably not representative of GPs. But I can’t help but tar them all with the same brush.

This got me thinking about something I’ve not considered before:

The perception you create as a professional says a great deal about you and just as much about your profession.

We expect people to operate to archetypes. When they diverge from that archetype, it creates an impact.

In the case of my tipsy doctors, it has made a negative impact on me (I actually can’t wait to finish my beer and get away from them).

However, behaving outside of your professional archetype could just as easily create a positive impact.

You could do something so unique within your profession that you not only alter perceptions of you but also alter the perception of profession.

How cool would that be?

I’m going to bed now. In the morning, I’m going to find a way to alter the perception of my profession.