Theory

There is, in fact, a division in opinion on (what we should do with) our house officers' delinquent behaviour. By the law of nature, two schools of thought emerge - conforming to the traditional teaching by ancient Chinese philosophisers.

One group is the keen followers of the conventional Confucianism (actually the theory of Mencius) and believes human beings wish to do good. In other words, if the department provides a satisfactory environment and gives sufficient incentive or reward to the graduating interns, they would do their best in return.

The others are believers of Xun Zi (荀子) and concludes that conscience is not reliable. We must put up disciplinary actions in order to ensure houseman doing their job right.

Which one is right ?

I don't know. But I'm sure human behaviour has nothing to do with the amount of teaching in ethics and professional conduct in the medical curriculum.

PS. To begin with, I tend to think an increase in supply of house officer (as compared to the number of MO vacancy) would improve the performance. That's certainly a naive idea: interns who have fixed up with their future job would continue to pay no attention to things at hand, while those who could not find a job would have a low morale and use the time to secure their future.