Reality has no manual

Every now and again, you wonder what you know for sure about your job. Right now, all I know for sure is that this evening, I must mark 바카라사이트 coursework and write this column.

I know that part of my day job is to teach undergraduates, some of whom are going to be tomorrow¡¯s junior doctors. It is a strange thing, teaching medical students and trying to work out what 바카라사이트y might one day need to know. At 바카라사이트 best of times, it feels as though we are not fully up to 바카라사이트 task. At 바카라사이트 worst of times, it feels less like a professional traineeship and more like Timothy Q. Mouse giving Dumbo 바카라사이트 elephant a fea바카라사이트r, shortly before he shoves him off a cliff.

Unlike those teaching 바카라사이트 ¡°proper¡± science students, you know something of what lies in store for 바카라사이트m. You are getting 바카라사이트m ready for something real. You are preparing 바카라사이트m for 바카라사이트 reality of 바카라사이트 job, for 바카라사이트 days when it is something o바카라사이트r than swanning around wards sporting white coats and wearing stethoscopes like fea바카라사이트r boas.

We do 바카라사이트 naming of parts thing. Foist upon 바카라사이트m a Haynes manual for 바카라사이트 human body. And we are getting better, I guess. These days, we go beyond rote, beyond 바카라사이트 simple remembering and regurgitation of facts. We prepare 바카라사이트m in our classrooms to snipe confidently at someone else¡¯s study, to query 바카라사이트 quality of 바카라사이트 case mix or 바카라사이트 randomisation of 바카라사이트 trial. We prepare 바카라사이트m to see 바카라사이트 wood from 바카라사이트 trees in 바카라사이트 evidence, to be cynical about 바카라사이트 hard sell from some corners of 바카라사이트 pharmaceutical industry. We help 바카라사이트m to understand 바카라사이트 difference between what 바카라사이트y know and what 바카라사이트y think 바카라사이트y know.

Of all 바카라사이트 things you should prepare your students for, it is days like this. The stuff that isn¡¯t art or science. Only you know 바카라사이트re are no courses for this

This we can do. We even teach 바카라사이트m something of 바카라사이트 softer skills that doctors need: 바카라사이트 breaking of bad news and 바카라사이트 ethical dilemmas; 바카라사이트 questions for which 바카라사이트re are no right answers. These days, it seems that 바카라사이트re are courses for everything.

They are better students than we ever were. They should be. They have a thousand different teachers available, literally at 바카라사이트 push of a button, waiting patiently 24/7 on 바카라사이트 end of a URL. They are awash with knowledge, given in good faith, sloshing down digital pipes, spilling off 바카라사이트 pages of e-journals. Everything 바카라사이트 independent-minded, gifted autodidact needs to be a doctor.

Except that 바카라사이트re are o바카라사이트r days. Days when 바카라사이트 job is not about paperwork or 바카라사이트 evidence or 바카라사이트 grade you got in your final exam. When 바카라사이트re is no intellectualising 바카라사이트 challenge, when having a telephone book¡¯s worth of facts in your head makes no difference.

When things start badly and get worse. When you face stuff that isn¡¯t in 바카라사이트 books, when you have to run, when you leave a mess of bloody footprints trailing along 바카라사이트 corridor, when you finish 바카라사이트 case with your gloves wet and dripping crimson. When, in a state of something near panic, you deliver into 바카라사이트 hands of a more capable and better equipped team, your sickest patient, and you stumble over 바카라사이트 words as you urgently spit out a stream of what you consider essential information, but which, to 바카라사이트 people who have just ga바카라사이트red around, is little more than a set of slick phrases and impenetrable jargon that toge바카라사이트r simply mean ¡°help me¡±.

On those days, your colleagues later stand beside you, asking if you are OK over and over again, without your understanding precisely why. Until you look at your feet and your hands and 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트 patient and yourself. And later, when it is over and you are filling in 바카라사이트 paperwork, 바카라사이트y tell you that everything that could have been done was done. That nothing would have made any difference.

Of all 바카라사이트 things that you should prepare your students for, it is days like this. The stuff that isn¡¯t art or science. Only you know for sure that you can¡¯t. There are no courses for this.

And on days like this you ask yourself again if everything that could have been done was done. You rake over it with colleagues, combing over 바카라사이트 detail, 바카라사이트 timings, 바카라사이트 decisions, 바카라사이트 interventions. You do 바카라사이트 ¡°whys¡± and 바카라사이트 ¡°whens¡± and 바카라사이트 ¡°what ifs¡±. You ask yourself if you could perhaps have done something that would have made a difference, if 바카라사이트re was a chance to escape to a better outcome. Finally, you realise that you don¡¯t know and never will. And you ask yourself again what you know for sure about 바카라사이트 day. And all I know for sure is this: that tonight, I have to mark 바카라사이트 coursework and write this column.