Entering my fifth year of higher education, I am in the unfortunate position to have more years as an undergraduate to reflect on than most, yet still have more to look forward to.
Yes, I am a medical student.
Play and medicine almost seem at odds. How would you picture a typical medical student? Pouring over books late into the evening? Spending long days helping the medical team? I see someone on the ward getting in the way and trying not to be confused for a patient themselves, but that’s just from personal experience.
It is true to an extent, playfulness does not traditionally heavily feature in a medical curriculum, just like its relative absence across the majority of higher education courses.
If you squint into the past and think about those sessions where you lost your sense of time or those led by a particularly innovative or inspiring facilitator, the chances are that play will have been involved somewhere.