Minimum

While I was discussing what are allowed and prohibited for our house officers, KL - one of our star professors and an excellent teacher - sent me an email.

Here it goes:

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Hi Szeto,

I was asked to give a 5-min talk on "What are the minimum essential practical procedures our students should be competent in and how do we ensure they are trained?" in the curriculum retreat tomorrow. Frankly, I feel uneasy about this question and therefore I borrowed your wisdom in my ppt presentation. I hope this does not constitute plagerism.

Best, et cetera.

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My friend was referring to two of my blogs in August (see http://ccszeto.blogspot.com/2010/08/parents.html and http://ccszeto.blogspot.com/2010/08/spoiled.html).

In return, let me play plagerism and show you a few slides of his, which explains why he was uneasy:

• Why do we need to ask this question?
• Are our students overwhelmed with practical procedures?
• If our students are incompetent, will setting a “minimum” improve outcome?
• If the procedures are essential, should there be a minimum?
• If a student fails to meet the minimum, will there be a “minimum” of the minimum?
• What kind of message or philosophy are we trying to deliver to our students?

• Our core curriculum: a bare bone - Aren’t we offering the minimum already?

• Our core curriculum: Still too much? (Is the bone too big or the doggy too small?)

• “minimum” + “essential” + “practical”: Isn’t it common (clinical) sense?
• If we agree this is common sense, are we undermining our students’ intelligence?
• Or… !?