Boys in White

The transition from young person aspiring to be a physician to young physician skilled in technique and confident in one's dealings with patients is slow and halting. The difficulty of this process and how medical students feel about their training, their doctor-teachers, and the profession they are entering is the target of this study. The team of sociologists who carried out this firsthand research used daily interviews and observations in classes, wards, laboratories, and operating theaters. They capture the worries, cynicism, and basic idealism of medical students in what is considered a major experiment in analyzing and presenting qualitative data.