Friday, January 25, 2013

How to study Medicine?

Something unexpected happened today. I just couldn't believe my ears. 

To cut a long story short, a group mate misunderstood something and of course, the dr was so shocked that she even requested some time with him. The group mate was upset. He misunderstood it because once upon a time, a patient told him something and he just took it without analysing the details. When we were alone without the doctor, he started rambling away. 

"You see, it's all the system's fault. Why must they force us to clerk patient, to go to ward, to LEARN from patient? We have all the text books that we want and the text books' informations are accurate compared to those that were being said by patients. What sort of system is this? What sort of approach is this? Why can't we change the system? What's the point of talking to patients? To learn more mistakes?"

I was stunned when I heard that. After entering clinical years, I realised that it was patients' stories which taught me a lot. Text books may tell me everything but text book is text book, they only show us the fact but when it comes to real life, there'll not be a conversation bubble appearing on top of patient's head with the diagnosis on it. How is one supposed to learn without clerking patients and learn from them? 

True, he knows a lot of things, during the entire on-call, he kept on throwing up all the bombastic medical terminologies but it's sad to see his attitude towards patients. 

Perhaps he's seeing things in the wrong way or perhaps I'm the one who is foolishly learning medicine the wrong way. I don't know. He has his own principles and I have my own. Which is right and which is wrong? I don't know. Perhaps I'm just making a big thing out of a small issue.

But I still cannot accept this sort of attitude. 

2 comments:

Yam Yam said...

Hmmm... I crawled through the journey of med school throughout these years... but still I agree the words of Osler, "He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all."

Little Fish :) said...

True true :)