Medical Miseducation, Part 2

Initially appeared on doktorko.com 11/20/2005.

Dr. Despot said something INCREDIBLE (as in, not credible) at the beginning of Clerkship: that the student, because he (and his parents) payed ludicrous amounts of tuition, was the "customer" of the school and hospital.  As "the customer is always right," that meant that we could complain about what we didn't like and the system would conform to us.

We quickly learned that he was lying.

From the beginning, we were told that Clerks are the lowest form of life.  We would be expected to work hard and receive nothing in return.  We would (literally) slave through the 365 days in the year (good thing it wasn't a leap year) and not have any vacation time.  We would be berated and humiliated at every turn.  We would receive absolutely no respect.

Naturally, being students, we were inquisitive at heart.  On the first day, we asked about how to monitor, how to endorse patients properly, how to do prescribe, etc.  Imagine our shock when every question would be answered with either " Dapat alam mo na yan," or "Basahin mo at sabihin mo sa akin ang sagot."  We learned to keep our traps shut and not ask anything, lest we ourselves be asked.

The medical miseducational system is set up to penalize the learner for not knowing enough.  The morning endorsement was exquisite torture.  The history and physical examination being presented would be picked apart at every turn.  The assessments and plans were criticized harshly without any redeeming or educational value.  Students who "acted smart" were humbled under the onslaught of the almighty seniors.

And then there was the other kind of "endorsement," the more sinister kind.  A Clerk who was not liked by his seniors would be marked and passed on for shabby treatment to other departments.  It was not uncommon to hear " Endorsed ka na sa amin," before being given an exceptionally hard assignment or receiving a verbal beating.  Interestingly, the smartest students with "bad attitudes" (i.e. threatening to the Residents) would receive these endorsements and the heaviest workloads while the mediocre ones with "good attitudes" ( i.e. sipsip, mahilig sa gimik) or sexy bodies (especially in Surgery) would breeze through the rotation with flying colors and more than a few favors.

Sometimes we complained, but it was to no avail.  Dr. Despot would parry every complaint with "When i was a Clinical Clerk..." and launch into a story that underscored how much harder it was back in his day and how lazy we were compared to him.  Evidently, despite the pretenses, the customer was never right.  Understandable and maybe even acceptable if we studied in a state-funded University (like he did), but in a private school where you have to shell out just under 50k a semester?!

Putragis!  But we swallowed it all because we wanted so bad to be doctors