Dr. Richard Coker
speaker
121 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 26 Jul
Dr. Richard Coker’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
I don't know about in Ireland, but in Britain, my understanding is that we don't spend a great deal of time interrogating prospective medical students on what sort of people they are, what their personalities are, what their character traits are.
Right.
And if you look at, I don't know, McKinsey or Bain or some of these very impressive consultancy companies, they spend two or three days, multiple steps of weeding out people who they think are unsuitable.
So we can spend an awful lot of time.
on figuring out whether people have got the smarts.
But what really matters, I think, in medicine is not actually having the great math skills.
If you had tested me intellectually on those scores when I entered medical school, I guarantee you I'd be bottom of the class or close to it.
But I actually think I was a pretty good doctor because
I think I had some other skills that were quite useful.
I'm not disparaging or dismissing all the surgeons.
I really want to be clear.
There are a multitude.
I mean, most surgeons I meet are absolutely lovely people and were drawn to medicine for all the right reasons.
But every now and then, obviously, you get some bad apples.
And there is something about some of the specialties that draws the heroes out.
And I have a little bit of a problem with hero doctors.
They tend to put themselves at the center because they're exceptional people.
Well, you've caught the nub of medicine, which is that it's neither a science nor an art.
It's both.
You don't want pure scientists and you don't want pure artists.
Showing 61–80 of 121 · page 4 of 7
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