Sitting On The Other Side

I spent the morning as an examiner for the medical students' clinical exams. Yes, that's right. An examiner, not the one taking the exam. What an odd feeling it was! After years and years, I find myself sitting on the other side now.

One poor flustered student managed to examine the wrong limb in the exam. Being such a neophyte examiner and him being such a neophyte student, I left it to the final adjudicators to decide what to do with his paper. It seems petty to fail someone for examining the left side instead of the right, especially if one is just a baby medical student. But most definitely if one were a surgeon and amputated the wrong limb, this would qualify as a Problem. So, not knowing whether it would be cruel to utterly fail him, I simply checked off all the things he did and noted that he did them, except that it was on the wrong side. I had a word with the adjudicators privately and they say they'll probably dock him some marks but he should still pass (and will likely as a result never make that mistake again).

I enjoyed being an examiner today. Only because most of the students I saw were trying very hard to be competent and professional. They train students well these days I think, to be kinder and more caring. In the past, in those "bad old days", doctors were trained to be like gods. Now they are trained to be humane first and foremost. Especially after it was discovered that the nice incompetent doctor is less likely to be sued than the nasty genius one.

Anyway off to my research project I go... I shall be glad when it is done. We've run into a little snag, being that my co-researcher is out of town and she managed to leave some of the data in her place to which I have no access.... wish me luck!