No, they didn't train when we trained. Which means they weren't asked to stay up for 40 hours straight or sit in class from 8AM to 5PM five out of five days per week. Gross anatomy for them won't last an entire semester nor will they be falling asleep next to their cadavers with a probe in one hand and a stale bagel in the other. (Gross, I know.)
It means they have cell phones and the internet and a level of access to their professors that was unheard of in our day. They can download lectures on iTunes and run on a treadmill while listening to someone talking about the Kreb's Cycle at 1.5X the original voice cadence thanks to the magic of swiping to the right.
And, I guess, some think that without the hazing we endured that they are a generation lost. And okay, maybe "lost" is the wrong word. But whatever the word you use, if you think about what it is meant to describe, it wouldn't really be a good one that's for sure. No matter how hard they try, another generation ahead of them believes that achieving the level of accountability and competence that we have isn't attainable under the current academic regime. Too loosey goosey, the elders say. Too much commentary coming out of pieholes and not enough suck-it-up-ness going in.
Yeah.
And okay, some of that might be partially true at times. But the problem is that it suggests something stronger than just aggravating behaviors. It intimates that an entire legion of future healthcare providers somehow collectively care less. The damn that they give, if any, is somehow microscopic when compared to our massive one. You know, the one beat into us through sleep deprivation and near-patient-death experiences?
Umm yeah. That.
Well. I've said it here before and I will say it again. Shady and lazy providers existed long before duty hours reform and definitely predated the internet. And kind, empathic, dedicated and hardworking caregivers are as present today as ever. So sure, while this generation might have more permission to speak freely from the pieholes that we only used for wolfing down cold pizza and slurping tepid coffee in the middle of night, that doesn't mean they don't care. They do care. Truly and deeply they do.
I know because I get to witness it. Now you will, too.
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Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, I watch closely. I get to see the truth. And the truth is that there is nothing new under the sun. Caring is caring. Empathy is empathy. And people are people.
So go ahead. Grow old. They got this.
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Happy Sunday. And shout out to everyone in #generationwow
As a MUCH older student in classes with this generation (with access to every educational resource imaginable which I'm still amazed by), I find it interesting to reflect on how much better they/we have it compared to when I attended classes 30 years ago. And with very few exceptions, I thoroughly enjoy going to school with them, due in large part to the fact that the racial tensions which significantly marked my undergraduate days at a large Southern White university, seems to have been replaced by more willingness to work with people from different backgrounds toward a common goal. I also see a similar theme in the medically related activities I participate in too. Dare I say it that between the educational/technology advances and the more open-mindeness of students, I think I'll become a much better Doc with this generation that I could have become with my own.
ReplyDeleteI love your perspective.
ReplyDelete