Seen

One of the recent activities that many of our colleagues have to do is the OSLER assessment with our final year students.

(For those who are not familiar with our system, OSLER is a kind of practical test for our students. We bring each student to see a real patient, observe the process of history taking and physical examination, follow by a short viva voce.)

The process is, by and large, rather boring to us. This time, one of the students was not doing that well. He spoke perfect English, had excellent bedside manner, could bluff on any topic - but knew close to nothing. When the examination was done, I sighed, "Boy, this is no good. Although you could pass by the skin of your teeth, you really have to study hard."

"Sir, I'm sorry to make you disappointed, but I must say I have not seen such a case before..." he said apologetically. (He was correct. The patient that he saw was not common - I have such a case once or twice each year. Nonetheless, the disease is life-threatening but potentially treatable. That's why it is important to make a correct diagnosis.)

"That's not an excuse if you miss such a case and come up to the court," I shook my head, "But, the more important lesson is, if you can only learn something after seeing it, you could learn very little!"