Here’s an email I received from a surgeon who asked that his name be withheld. I have edited it for length.
I practiced general surgery for 16 years before becoming
fed-up with the paperwork, the hours, the unpaid call, the unpaid operations,
the contracts, and, eventually, the patients. So, I turned toward teaching
anatomy at a medical school.
Over the past 3.5 years, I become increasingly disillusioned
with medical education, too. Having lived in a world of "arrogant
doctors" being berated by hospital administrators as disruptive, I've had
an interesting reflective experience here.
If I hear, one more time, from a PhD, who has never seen,
treated, or managed an acutely-ill patient, that "The students need to
know THIS (this = piece of anatomical, microbiological, or pharmacological
minutiae), I am going to go ballistic. This week, my "colleague" in
anatomy said, "It's my job to teach doctors the anatomy they need to know
to become doctors." I said, "No, as an MD, it is my job to teach
doctors the anatomy they need to know to become doctors. It is your job to
LEARN that clinically-relevant anatomy that you need to teach them. It is not
my job to re-learn minutiae of anatomy never used in 20 years of practice
because "you" know it. This isn't grad school. We're not creating PhD
anatomists. If you want me to re-learn, and to teach the anatomical minutiae
I've long since forgotten, it isn't going to happen. You're in MY world. I'm
not in yours. Go teach at a grad school for a PhD program if you want that. We
are training medical doctors. And, you, my friend, have never practiced
MEDICINE."
