Experience

Attended another gangsters' meeting today. One of the items on the agenda was: Could we spare fully trained fellows to do regular ward round with their consultants ?

A senior consultant made a remarkable comment, "Do you think a doctor graduated for 7 years could offer a standard of care as good as a chair professor with 30 years of experience ?"

I hiccuped - human diaphragm would unavoidably develop muscle spasm if it tries to laugh and vomit at the same time. Regular visitors of this blog would know my answer to the above question is obviously no - it is at least equally possible that the younger doctor could offer a better care than the senior professor.

Yes, experience does count, but the relation is far from linear. Some physicians are thoroughly competent with a few years of training; a few others remain at a lost after decades in the field ...

... especially if the experience is spent with administrative matters and meetings.

But, I am against the argument raised by my senior colleague because of a more serious reason. I shall elaborate tomorrow.

PS. I would not describe the whole of the colorful discussion here. For medical legal reasons, the answer would be an inevitable negative. In fact, it often amazes me to see people handling problem of this kind: If there is an overwhelming factor in determining the decision, it would be very little point to waste time and discuss.

For those familiar with Chinese history, you may recollect that's how Du Ruhui (杜如晦) fixed up most of the (apparently) complicated decisions for Li Shimin (李世民).