Favorite Quotes
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." - HL Mencken
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"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." - Confucius
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"The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease" - Sir William Osler
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" The best test of a person's character is how he or she treats those with less power." - Bob Sutton
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"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them - well, I have others." - Groucho Marx
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
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"It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them" - Friedrich Nietzsche
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"Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple." - Charles Mingus
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"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein
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"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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"This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around." - Talking Heads, Life During Wartime
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"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it." - Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a
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"You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing." - Thomas Sowell
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"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup." - HL Mencken
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"If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." - Abraham Maslow
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"A great teacher is one who realizes that he himself is also a student and whose goal is not to dictate the answers, but to stimulate his students creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers themselves." - Herbie Hancock
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"There are no facts, only interpretations." - Nietzsche
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"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't." - Anatole France
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"In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ====
Nov - 15
Dec - 19
Jan - 21
Feb - 8
Mar -
Work hours – medical student perspective
5 Nov2009
Monday night I had dinner with 7 medical students (5 4th year students and 2 3rd year students). Three plan on doing general surgery, one radiology, one internal medicine, and the 2 third year students (leaning towards medicine and med-peds). One of the 3rd year students asked me about night float, work hours and continuity.
This led to a spirited discussion of the idiocy of work hour rules. I was amazed, and pleased by the discussion. These students have high goals. They want to become great physicians. They are truly worried that their training is being compromised by the bureaucratic nature of the work hour rules.
The students going into surgery are worried that they will not get enough surgical experience to gain expertise. The medicine crowd worries about hand offs and believe that is a greater concern than work hours.
I generally agreed with them, and took great pride. I do not remember discussing this issue with my students, yet they expressed the values of professionalism that made my smile. They worry about patient care in the short run and the long run.
Many medical pundits worry about the future of medicine. They fear Gen X.
As I recall, we have a long history of concern about the younger generation. They worried about my generation.
The students with whom I interact have great values. They care deeply about patients and becoming great at their profession. They show professionalism.
They worry about the structure of the health care system, but they love patient care. I often tell them that payment and bureaucracy may impact our income, but once you go into the room (either in the clinic or the hospital) it becomes you and the patient. You cannot explain the reward of caring for patients to those who have never done it. Our students understand that.
We have an obligation as physicians to remember that all the other stuff is just stuff. We became physicians to help patients. The students really do understand it.
Related posts:
- More thoughts on work hours
- Duty hours, the ACGME and the surgeons
- Graduate medical education and the Long Tail
- Adapting to work hour restrictions
- In which at least 2 commenters miss my point
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
- In: Medical Rants
2 Responses to Work hours – medical student perspective
Patrick Baroco
November 5th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Just to nitpick–the older Gen X'ers are pushing 50, and us younger ones are mid-30's or nearing 40. If people are still scared of us, they should be reassured that we've all given up flannel and most of us have jobs. Still love Nirvana, though…
cory
November 6th, 2009 at 5:42 am
It's not the younger generation we have to worry about. It's those people teaching them and making the rules.