Read the articles in this month’s Life and Times and try reflecting on them. Go on. I dare you. How are you — and how is what you do — changed by what you have read? While the mandatory reflection that haunts medical education and appraisal in the UK creates a sense that this is onerous, intrusive, or frankly boring, reflection has an ancient and respectable pedigree. Born in 551 BC, Confucius was a Chinese teacher and philosopher whose principles can still be applied. He argued, ‘By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.’

Nada Khan channels GPs’ collective trepidation when faced with a patient who arrives clutching a newspaper (with a health story) and asks for a new medication …