A Useless Lecturer...and a Great Teacher

Haha, time for me bitch abit, let off some steam after a tension-filled exam week.

Recently got told off for smiling and apparently "laughing" at a patient during class by one tight-ass of a lecturer. What more, in front of our fellow elective students, wah, dem freakin embarassing. Outta de blue he looked to me and said, "Why are u smiling? I've seen u smilling all this time. Do u know ur disturbing the class? Whats so funny about the patient?"

He then spent the next 3.5 hours calling authors of various books, "not clinicians, they never go to ward..all that is wrong..." and correcting the dosages of TB medications in the CPG. Wow, he's suddenly smarter that the whole MOH commitee who made that CPG. Ah, i could have been doing better things, like studying desperately for my exams, rather than listen to someone brag about how great his knowledge is that it surpasses all textbooks. I list 2 interesting points he insisted that he was right:

1. On percussion, pleural effusion is dull, while solid masses are stony dull.

2. An empyema is a pleural effusion.

Apparently, we also heard that he criticized one of our previous lecturer who we always looked up to. And using our lecturer's name as well, during class in front of students. Dats the biggest med ethics error to make: criticizing a fellow doctor (haha, that makes two of us!). Tsk tsk tsk, bad move, it may have been during just one class, but the whole uni knows about it edi. And of course, as with all rumors, it gets twisted up and added on to along the way, so it wasnt surprising how evil a picture was painted of him at the end of the receiving line.

Amazing, I've rarely met doctors who u can learn what NOT to be. What an arrogant tit. Ah, take ur damned degrees and shove it up ur stenosed butthole.

I believe every academic doctor has a heavy role to play. Not just to teach, but to inspire their students. Very hard to find such teachers, and I shall now give one of them their due appreciation here.

I still remember, back in sem6, i was walking up the stairs and bumped into this doctor with a waist pouch at level 4. Amusing to see doctors walking around with a waistpouch, reminded me of mum and dad. I always saw her eating at a place i eat across the street. Well, there was a piece of rubbish on the floor, and before I could pick it up, she bent down to pick it up and threw it into the bin. I was touched by such a simple and humble act. A doctor doing such thing in front of a medical student? Quite unheard of. Later, when I found out how big this "little" doctor was, i was even more touched. Funny, its the greatest teachers up there who are the humblest people of all.

True, she may have made many stinging comments, and we all fear her case presentation sessions (we'd stay up like mad trying to cover every patient in the whole ward), but every of her sessions was worth more than the RM31,000 we'd pump into every semester. Two things I gained during her sessions that have stayed with me till now.

1.
She inspired us on how to take an intelligent history, not just for the sake of presenting during class. How to carry out a very rigorous physical examination, and not having to take too much time. Practice, practice and practice. What you dont know, quickly go back to the textbook to reference, then return to the patient. Then, use ur history and PE to come to an intelligent diagnosis, not just shotgun ur way with a long mindless list of differentials. I found out that was a very effective way of studying medicine.

2.
And she demonstrated humility when in front of patients, treating them as true human beings, not some "case" for presentation. I was impressed by how she turned from a high-ranking doctor to a fellow human being when dealing with a patient (and how she turned back to being very, very sharp when turning back to us naive students :o).

I may have screwed up Paediatrics (i still hate it), but i think thats the most precious lessons i got from the posting, how to take a powerful history and do a thorough PE, and how to be humble. Everytime we met for class, she would always correct our techniques, trying to fine-tune our skills. Seldom have i bumped into a lecturer who would take great pains to raise us as future doctors.

Its rare to find such teachers. Best to learn as much as we can from them and be inspired. I'd bet 75% of all the knowledge we get here at med school we'd forget, but its the character that we've built thru being inspired by such great people that'd stay for the rest of our lives. Now dats worth all the RM270,000 our parents have invested for, to see their children grow up to become powerful characters.

I leave u with 2 of her quotes that have been my favorite:

"I fail u in exams for ur sake. I fail u in the finals for the public's sake."

"We as doctors are both scientists, and humanists."

And, yeah, examz are over, holz are here!