Trivial

Although I had some remarkable encounters with candidates during the licensing examination, the most remarkable story for me throughout the event was a conversation between our nursing officer and the computer staff of our admission office.

The story went like this: We recruit real patients to take part in our examination, and we always ask them to arrive at the ward by 7 AM. For medical legal reasons, these patients need to be registered as day cases under the hospital. However, for confidential considerations, the procedure of admission could only be done in the afternoon – after all candidates of the day reported to us, and we could keep an eye on them and make sure they have no chance of going through the patient list on the computer.

And there comes the dilemma: What time should the patients be recorded as being admitted? Is it 7 AM, or in the afternoon? This time, the spicy discussion came up because all parties agreed to use 7 AM in the past, but the admission office decided to use the afternoon one – when the admission procedure was actually done. (I must say I could understand the frustration of our nursing officer – the time 7 AM was originally recommended by the admission office.)

Trivial point, isn’t it?

I just think of a poem that my friend WB showed me some years ago:

蝸牛角上爭何事，石火光中寄此身。

隨富隨貧且隨喜，不開口笑是痴人。