Medical doctors as the captain of a ship: an analysis of medical students’ book reports on Joseph Conrad’s “Lord Jim”

PURPOSE: In South Korean ferry disaster in 2014, the captain abandoned the ship with passengers including high school students still aboard. We noticed the resemblance of abandoning the ship with passengers still aboard the ferry (named the Sewol) and the ship Patna, which was full of pilgrims, in Joseph Conrad’s novel “Lord Jim.” The aim of this study is to see how medical students think about the role of a medical doctor as a captain of a ship by analyzing book reports on Conrad’s “Lord Jim.” METHODS: Participants included 49 third-year medical students. Their book reports were analyzed. RESULTS: If placed in the same situation as the character of Jim, 24 students of the 49 respondents answered that they would stay with the passengers, while 18 students indicated they would escape from the ship with the crew. Most of the students thought the role of a doctor in the medical field was like that of a ‘captain.’ The medical students reported that they wanted to be a doctor who is responsible for his or her patients, highly moral, warm-hearted, honest, and with high self-esteem. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, we found that “Lord Jim” induced the virtue of ‘responsibility’ from the medical students. Consequently, “Lord Jim” could be good teaching material for medical humanities.