I’m an NHS doctor who stammers. English isn’t my first language and when I first came to the UK it was really hard getting to grips with the fact that I can’t hide my stutter anymore. I hadn’t even met anyone else who stutters in my life and had no role models to look up to. So stuttering openly was a massive shock. I always stuttered back home, but it was always covert. I soon joined the British Stammering Association and met with other doctors who stutter and realised it’s just a neurological condition and it’s crazy that we’ve been conditioned to feel “ashamed” about it. I mean, would someone with cerebral palsy feel ashamed of their disability? Hell no, they’ll demand the same respect we all deserve. In fact the stuttering movement here in the UK is closely linked to the Disability Rights Movement. Whether you consider your stutter to be a disability to you or not, it IS a disability for lots of PWS, and we benefit from the same protections under the various “freedom from discrimination based on a disability” laws that most developed countries have. So now I stutter openly. I tell my colleagues when I join a new department that I stutter and that it’s my normal way of speaking and they all get it. I talk a lot, I stutter even more, and it makes zero difference to anyone if they need to wait a couple seconds longer for me to finish a sentence. No one’s ever been rude to me, and if someone were to be, I’d bring the whole damn system on them for harassing/discriminating against me based on a protected disability. I suggest having a look at the book Stammering Pride and Prejudice by Patrick Campbell. He’s a UK doctor who stutters and is heavily involved in the stuttering pride movement. It’s helped me have so many epiphanies and start to develop a sense of pride in who I am as a person who stutters. Best of luck. If I were back in med school, I’d focus more on my studies and rotations than my speech. There was never anything I needed to change about it. What I had to say was always more important than HOW I said it. I’m just glad I know that now.