Double Vision
Roles are reversed in the blink of an eye. Literally in my case, as I found myself sitting on the other side of a slit lamp from a fourth-year medical student, one of my medical students as I am the dean of students at his medical school.
In the waiting area, I sat worrying about my left eye. Two days earlier I had seen a brief flash of light, and the following day a large, dark floater obscured my vision. I ruminated on the worst outcome—permanent vision loss. A smiling and familiar face appeared. Seeing someone I knew in this terrifying situation was comforting. He took me into a room where he dilated my eyes, tested my vision, measured intraocular pressures, and was present both for my diagnosis of retinal tear and for the laser treatment that followed. He was calm, reassuring, always sitting at eye level, explaining what he could and assuring me that his preceptor would explain more.
This experience brought to mind a vivid scene from years ago when I visited a former residency director in the hospital after her treatment for breast cancer. The door to her room was ajar, and I saw her leaning forward engrossed in the words of her oncologist, who had been a resident with me in her program.
We practically pounce on first-year medical students to impress upon them the importance of professionalism. We want them to grow up in front of our eyes and understand their new role as physician-to-be. They often come to us wearing their flip-flops and backward baseball caps. We hope that by steeping them in pathophysiology, applying white jackets, and engaging them with patient-centered care, they will become the professionals we would want for ourselves or our family members. In our hearts, we know the journey from premed to professional is a process with fits and starts that takes time. Performance on objective structured clinical examinations is a surrogate marker for the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that we hope they will accumulate and practice, but we may never know for sure.
One day, however, we will walk into a room feeling vulnerable, needy, and scared, and see a student or former student or a colleague's former student in front of us. At that moment, we must believe in the process and put ourselves in his hands.
Vision II
Roles are reversed in the blink of an eye. Literally in my case, as I found myself sitting on the other side of a slit lamp from a fourth-year medical student, one of my medical students as I am the dean of students at his medical school.
In the waiting area, I sat worrying about my left eye. Two days earlier I had seen a brief flash of light, and the following day a large, dark floater obscured my vision. I ruminated on the worst outcome—permanent vision loss. A smiling and familiar face appeared. Seeing someone I knew in this terrifying situation was comforting. He took me into a room where he dilated my eyes, tested my vision, measured intraocular pressures, and was present both for my diagnosis of retinal tear and for the laser treatment that followed. He was calm, reassuring, always sitting at eye level, explaining what he could and assuring me that his preceptor would explain more.
This experience brought to mind a vivid scene from years ago when I visited a former residency director in the hospital after her treatment for breast cancer. The door to her room was ajar, and I saw her leaning forward engrossed in the words of her oncologist, who had been a resident with me in her program.
We practically pounce on first-year medical students to impress upon them the importance of professionalism. We want them to grow up in front of our eyes and understand their new role as physician-to-be. They often come to us wearing their flip-flops and backward baseball caps. We hope that by steeping them in pathophysiology, applying white jackets, and engaging them with patient-centered care, they will become the professionals we would want for ourselves or our family members. In our hearts, we know the journey from premed to professional is a process with fits and starts that takes time. Performance on objective structured clinical examinations is a surrogate marker for the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that we hope they will accumulate and practice, but we may never know for sure.
One day, however, we will walk into a room feeling vulnerable, needy, and scared, and see a student or former student or a colleague's former student in front of us. At that moment, we must believe in the process and put ourselves in his hands.