Ability

Feedback after anatomy examination from a medical student:

"Dr. X taught us that the inferior tip of scapula is over T8. The answer of this MCQ is, however, T7. I look up in Moore ... and it is T7. How can Dr. X taught us such a wrong thing !"

My usual half-hearted motto is you cannot trust anything a man says. As a man I obviously know very well that you cannot trust anything a woman says either.

But this story brings my memory back to another incident some years ago, when a few colleagues of my department - including myself - were invited to share our experience with a group of new medical students. My talk followed the one by PS - a young lady endocrinologist.

I began my speech, "Don't think that I am very senior. Although I look aged, I am actually the junior of Dr. PS ..."

The students were all in a roar. After I finished with my talk and went back to the seat, JS asked - somewhat incredulously, "Are you really younger than PS ?"

"Of course not," I could not stop laughing. JS had his eye almost propped out. "But they are university students and should judge for themselves right and wrong. How can they believe everything told by the others - however senior and serious that person is ?"