Posted by alexandra_k on August 19, 2017, at 17:11:05
In reply to Re: Walking..., posted by alexandra_k on November 27, 2016, at 20:24:41
Feeling a bit down after my public health test.
I was thinking... I don't feel like the public health people want me to do well. I don't mean that it is personal. I just mean that they seem to take some sort of quiet enjoyment in tripping people up. They genuinely don't seem to want their students to do well.
The whole testing situation is weird. I mean, if you are trying to bring out the best in people then you give them a surplus of time and so on. Like the cell biology and biochemistry people do. Then pick up the pace a little later after people have had more time to consolidate things. If you are trying to trip people up then you do things like... Have different coloured books (not just cover pages the whole test script (stroop-type interference anyone?) or write big letter A, B, C, D version numbers on the front and make that the answer to question number one (grade-type priming interference anyone?) and then provide lots of irrrelevant details and a lot of time pressure... The whole thing just seems designed to trip people up. To randomise things.
Regression to the mean. I suppose that is it. They want to see how the top people do when they regress to the mean through no fault of their own.
It doesn't even matter, you see, because you can take an 8th paper (statistics, usually) so the grade for this one doesn't matter.
I think it really is just designed to trip people up.
Perhaps that's like the public health system.
Anyway... There were thirty-something questions for 15% of the grade so one question wrong is only the loss of 1/2 a mark... Whatever... Just keep on keeping on. The thing to do with it, really, is to nail the formula definitions then skim the text (like a computer would) only searching for keywords that tell you where to put the numbers. Read it meaning-blind, in other words. The analysis (even the 'critique') is formulaic. Meaning-blind, again. The ability to do what you are told when you are told because you are told. Or something...
I keep thinking about this short clip I saw (on the news, I think) about this surgery simulator thing they were running up at Tamaki. There was this training exercise and it involved things taking an unexpected turn for the worst. They showed the clip where the surgical trainee just got out of the ER. He looked upset. Visibly. Beads of sweat on his forehead. Distressed look on his face like things had gone badly and so on. Then this blurb on how it was designed to teach him a lesson in communication. Because at the start of the scenario (before he came into the room) 2 of the support staff were given pieces of information that were crucial to the success of the operation. What he needed to have done, you see, was to focus less on the patient and the patients vital statistics, and to focus more on extracting information out of support staff.
I don't know how intentionally witholding they were vs how many times they freely offered the relevant information. If it's the later (and they weren't constantly streaming their irrelevant thoughts so he habituated to their pratter) then - fair enough. The trouble is... I could see it being more of the former 'to teach him a lesson'. Then glee when things start turning bad. Then joy at his distress.
And I think that somewhere along the way... The point gets lost.
Sometimes there is this whole thing of 'well, if they can't handle this then they can't handle that'. Only, that isn't the case. How is skill working with belligerant staff who are trying to stabotage you going to help you do better at working with cooperative staff who are similarly focused on getting the best possible outcome for the patient?
There really is very little medicine in public health. It's just a training ground for medicine, is all. Who bears the cost of people learning to practice medicine? The people who approach the public health system for help. I wonder how many people who approach the public health system for help have first party car insurance. Home and contents insurance for their rental property / their own home. How many are saving for retirement. People who think that the government / other people should provide healthcare for them while taking responsibility for other aspects of their life without complaint.
ACC (accident compensation authority) says a person should drive the 'safest car they can afford' where safety is measured by how well you fare in a head on collision with another car. Who should bear the cost of my learning to drive / my driving?
And then there are the people who don't have the means. Who have no choice. And they are forced to take company with the richer people who choose to live badly and the poorer people who choose to live well or choose to live badly it makes little difference when you are poor. It really is about having the means to get away. Do your time in the public health system. Wear the scratchy uniform with the pockets in the wrong places so the staff can have a snicker. Put up with them gossiping about how you don't care about their gossip so nobody needs to engage in hand hygeine since they can't see germs, anyway. Nod and smile and smile and nod... And maybe one day you get to practice medicine with a team of people who are simliarly focused on the practice of medicine for people who actually care about their health. I guess that is the idea. That's the dream.
And other people... Instead of embracing that dream, that ideal. Instead of doing what they can to develop themselves to be on that team... They decide to enjoy the power they have over people who don't have the power to get away. Do your time in public health. With all the managers... All the people who didn't do well at molecular biology or biochemistry despite everyone doing everything they could to help them succeed. Basically, people who are more focused on controlling / managing other people than on... Well... For me... Medicine is about flourishing. The power (knowledge) to live a healthy life. Many don't have that due to ignorance or not having the financial means to do what they should. But then all these people who have the power to live short nasty brutish lives. For themselves and also for those in their care...
I don't know why I get it into my head that it would be nice to be able to offer medicine that to more and more people irrespective of their income... Only there are special interest groups with a special interest in terrorising the poor so I don't know that that will be allowed...
I think this social media stuff is scary because it entrenches people. I remember reading stuff on how dissociative fugue became an option with the birth of the identity card in France. Something about how it was now an option to travel without an identity card. Then somebody asks to see your card and you can't produce it and can't remember who you are, you see. That's how to present with dissociative Fugue. Then you get hospitalised for a while while the doctors help you try and remember because otherwise they wouldn't know who you were, you see.
But now... Even if you personally opt out of Facebook other people will photograph you and tag you and upload you, anyway. So Google and all the other software programs are being trained to recognise your face so it is easier for people to know where you are and what you are doing 24/7. A combination of being able to see and hear everything in the vicinity of your phone from any time and being able to see and hear everything in the vicinity of anyones phone who was around you. Even if you are careful with your privacy what is the chance that the Hitler Youth are careful with your privacy? Increase the amount of spam and you train people to hold their phones up to their faces (with both cameras potentially uploading) on demand.
And these are the times we live in.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1093190
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20160906/msgs/1094522.html