Duty

While reading how a society should treat young criminals, I attended our department board meeting.

The hot topic this time was the low turn up rate of our students to bedside teaching. (Please refer to http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2014/01/blog-post_14.html and the subsequent posts for how this story began.)

As always, there were two sides of the argument. On one hand, our students may not be putting up the best of their effort to grasp the opportunity of learning. However, it is also possible that the standard of bedside teaching is highly variable and, as a Chinese tradition, our students vote by their legs. Unfortunately, we actually have very little say on what and how our students are taught (many of the teachers are government staff who help by good will), and a poor attendance may turn away enthusiastic helpers and inevitably jeopardize the opportunity of our students in the future.

During the meeting, one of my colleague said, "I'm not sure if attendance rate is a problem. We should try to make the bedside teaching attractive. Rather than forcing them to attend useless sessions, we should ask ourselves what we want to achieve."

I must say he was entirely correct. Nonetheless, I could not refrain from explaining an alternative view, "I think we should not consider seminars and bedside tutorials opportunities for our students to learn something. I see these sessions their duty. They may not gain anything by attending, but they have to do so all the same. If students could walk away from their duty because they see no benefit from the task, how could they become responsible doctors in the future?"