ABSTRACT
The application form that students fill in has sections for recording their achievements in the practice of the professional dispositions that they will have learnt at the medical school; there is a space for prizes and distinctions and for university or medical school activities. Students’ applications for particular house jobs depend on several factors: their own assessment of their chances of success and practicalities like location, but particularly the personal value they place on the sorts of job available. There is no ceremony about new housemen going to the laundry and getting their first long white coat, a change of dress indicating their new Status with their assumption of Responsibility, which is much more significant than the academic robes hired for the graduation ceremony. The first aspect of Responsibility, ownership, has been understood by housemen since their first day on the wards as clinical students.
