As a neurodivergent individual with diagnosed autism spectrum disorder entering a profession where communication is key, studying medicine especially at a prestigious institution such as Imperial College London was always going to be a challenge.Neurodivergent individuals have traditionally been grossly underrepresented in employment positions in the UK. GOV.UK estimates that only around 30% of working-age individuals with autism were employed. This is much lower in comparison to other disabled groups with around 50% of individuals employed.

Individuals with autism have likely found practicing medicine difficult for a few reasons. Communication and establishing rapport with patients is key to facilitate a healthy patient-doctor relationship in order to maximise patient care. Because of the differences in communication for those with autism, patients may struggle to understand and have the same trust in their doctors. As someone who tends to be very direct and say phrases without thinking too much, and as someone who becomes nervous in professional scenarios, this is something I have had to work on throughout medical school. Learning to adapt to perform to a good standard has been a challenge. I have found ICSMs communication skills sessions to be incredibly useful in this respect. Knowing that I struggled with these skills, I have tried testing different communication skills in these sessions out and have received extremely useful feedback on soft skills. I can’t stress the importance of these sessions enough- the focus of ICSM can be extremely academic and leave you with a lack of time to explore the communication aspect. In my opinion, there should be more sessions like this, especially considering certain groups like neurodivergent can be brilliant doctors if they can overcome these barriers. Another barrier an individual with autism has been my sensory difficulties, where I can be extremely sensitive to smells and noises, which was difficult when I first entered the wards. 

However, it is not all doom and gloom. Individuals with autism can present with hyper focused interests, and I have sometimes found this to be the case when talking about certain passions and potentially boring people! This can genuinely allow for neurodivergent individuals to be world leaders in fields such as research and academics. I believe sometimes there needs to be slightly more support. This is improving, with Imperial now sending lots of emails about Disability and Autism Support Groups to meet like minded individuals. I believe just a more sense of community needs to be fostered within these groups to make them successful. FEO Welfare have also been supportive and have enjoyed working with them as my role as Phase 3a Wellbeing Representative for ICSM. Whilst my journey at ICSM only has a section remaining, I would love for a greater community of like-minded neurodivergent individuals to come together as a community and achieve great things in the field of medicine.

Rohan Bhupal

Fifth Year Medical Student at Imperial College London