Generalization

My wife Vivian attended the consultant interview recently. After that unsuccessful attempt, I asked her, "What did they ask?"

"Everything. Nonetheless, I was puzzled by one question."

"What?"

"They asked what do I think of generalization, that is, expanding the general training amongst, for example, basic surgical trainees."

"What do they mean?"

"They mean the plan of enhancing the knowledge and confidence of simple medical and surgical knowledge amongst junior doctors so as to cut down unnecessary consultations. For example, physicians won't consult us for lipoma, and our trainees will not consult them for a finger prick glucose level of 9 as in-patient. Alas, I know nothing about this plan - I only heard of it during the interview!"

"And what did you say?"

"Em... I said it's a good idea. We should pay more effort to educate the juniors."

I laughed and shoke my head.