Every medical doctor reading this essay shares something in common: you were once a medical student. You entered medical school fresh-faced and wide-eyed, enthusiastic and eager. You spent days on a ward and nights inside a library. You felt a strange mixture of embarrassment, unease, and pride when a patient first mistook you for a doctor, and you dreaded ward rounds with the consultant (the UK equivalent of an attending physician) who, let’s just say, had developed a reputation for being firm with students.