The sinking of a South Korean ferry (the “Sewol”) occurred on April 16, 2014. Of the 476 people aboard, 174 survived, 286 died, and 11 were missing at the end of June, 2014. While the ship sank, a teenage victim recorded an audio clip of an announcement inside the ship [1] that stated, “Do not move from your present location and please stay” [2]. The clip also recorded one passenger’s voice stating, “What’s the captain doing?” [2]. On April 19, 2014, the captain of the ferry was arrested on suspicion of negligence of duty, violation of maritime law, and other infringements [3]. While South Korean law explicitly requires captains to remain on the ship during a disaster, the captain had abandoned the ship with passengers still aboard the ferry. Upon hearing the news, we remembered Joseph Conrad’s noble story “Lord Jim” a 1965 film of the same name, based on the novel and directed by Richard Brooks. Specifically, we noticed the resemblance between abandoning the ship with passengers still aboard the ferry that carried 325 members of a school’s junior class and 12 of its teachers [4], and the Patna, full of pilgrims travelling to Mecca for the Hajj. As a medical educator and medical students, we wanted to determine how medical students conceive the role of a doctor, and what kind of doctor they want to be by analyzing their book reports on this novel. The aim of this study is see what medical students think about the role of a medical doctor compared to a captain of a ship by analyzing their book reports on Conrad’s “Lord Jim.”

The plot summary of “Lord Jim” is as follows. Jim, a young British seaman, becomes first mate on the Patna, a ship full of pilgrims travelling to Mecca for the Hajj. When the ship starts rapidly taking on water and a disaster seems imminent, Jim joins his captain and other crew members in abandoning the ship and its passengers. A few days later, they are picked up by a British ship. However, the Patna and its passengers also saved later, and the reprehensible actions of the crew are exposed. The other participants evade the judicial court of inquiry, leaving Jim in court alone. Subsequently, the court strips him of his navigation command certificate for his dereliction of duty. Jim is angry with himself, both for his moment of weakness and for missing an opportunity to be a ‘hero.’ Jim moved to a remote inland settlement with a mixed Malay and Bugis population, where his past can remain hidden. While living on the island he acquires the title ‘Tuan’ (‘Lord’). Here, Jim wins the respect of the people and becomes their leader by relieving them from the predators and protecting them from the corrupt local Malay chief. A few years later, the town is attacked by the marauder ‘Gentleman’ Brown. Although Brown and his gang are driven off, the son of the leader of the Bugis community is slain. Jim returned to the Bugis leader, and willingly takes a fatal bullet in the chest as retribution for the death of his son [5].

Of the 49 respondents responding to appropriate actions to take while the ship sank, about half chose ‘honor’ (staying on the ship) rather than ‘survival’ (abandoning the ship), while about one third preferred ‘survival’ over ‘honor.’ Since all respondents were medical students in the 3rd year of a 4-year program they had already completed undergraduate courses and held a bachelor’s degree. Thus, it is likely that they already had experience of University or social life and entered medical school by choice. Therefore, they were well aware of vocational ethics and emphasized the responsibility of their job. Although not statistically significant, males were more likely to pursue honor over survival than females. Males showed a romantic idealist character while females displayed intellectual realism. In addition, students with more than 5 family members were more likely to pursue honor over survival than students with under 4 family members although this was also non-significant. Thus, it may be that the more family members one has, the higher the opportunity to learn the social roles from family interactions. Therefore, it is hypothesized that honor, which is a social value, was preferred among this group.

Most of the 49 respondents compared the escape of Jim and the Sewol captain from the sinking ship. Twenty-one stated that the two are very similar, while 16 wrote they are quite different. Reasons for the similarity were that both of them were irresponsible in their basic duty or selfish. Since the students had recently heard about how the Sewol captain had abandoned the ship with passengers aboard, it is likely that students read the novel and watched the film with a critical view. Jim hesitated at a critical moment. Specifically, Jim could not display his heroic thoughts and basic duty during the Patna accident. However, later in the Patusan, he demonstrated heroic actions to compensate for his earlier mistake. Consequently, he demonstrated two extremes.

Most of the students thought the role of a doctor in the medical field as similar to a ‘captain’ of a ship because a medical doctor, like a captain, should demonstrate leadership, responsibility, and communication skills. After hearing about the ferry disaster, students seemed to carefully consider the role of a ship captain. As a result, it appears that they equated the role of a doctor in the medical field with a ship captain. Students wanted to be a doctor that is responsible for his or her patients, highly moral, warm-hearted, or honest. Thus, it is evident that students viewed the virtues of a good doctor as responsible, high moral, warm hearted, and honest. Among those responses, ‘responsibility’ was the first virtue doctors should have.

Therefore, through consideration of the ferry disaster and reading “Lord Jim,” students paid attention to responsibility and this was reflected in their answers to the question “What kind of doctor will I be?” in their book reports. After hearing about the ferry disaster, students paid more attention to the attribute of responsibility. In reading “Lord Jim” and writing the book reports, about half (46%) of the medical students wanted to be a doctor who is responsible for his patients. Consequently, we could state that “Lord Jim” induced a virtue of ‘responsibility’ from the medical students and could, therefore, be a good teaching material in disciplines related to the medical humanities.