We were having coffee in the morning when the hospital’s longest serving house officer in a department (more than a year?) shoved the morning paper into our faces.
NO ROOM FOR IGNORANCE IN HOSPITAL WARD by A Doctor, Seremban
It was an angry letter, the sort I’d written a million times in my head when mediocrity among my colleagues overwhelmed me. It was also the sort I would never publish in my website or send to editors of newspapers.
Firstly, because my road in the MOH is still long, and I have no desire to suffer the penalty for a passionate outburst and lay to waste all the good efforts I have put in.
Secondly, while I’ve on rare occasions been guilty of pointing out the weaknesses in my workplace, I believe in the end we’ve done some really good work to the best of our abilities, and thus washing one’s dirty linen in public does leave a bad taste in many people’s mouths.
There were no specifics nor identifiers mentioned in the letter, but it did read like a day at work in my hospital. We do have our share of incompetent house officers, some with potential and others who are lazy and irresponsible. Some complain that they are not getting enough teaching in the wards, but their basic knowledge is so atrocious they shouldn’t even have been allowed to graduate.
If you care enough, you reprimand them, so that they’ll become better doctors. Or you could just not care less, for having one more useless doctor around will make you stand out as a better one.
I think we’re looking real good.
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:49 am
yeah sounds familiar.. i feel that complaining is at times good, but too much of it will make us feel lousy afterward
December 23rd, 2008 at 8:58 am
So how is the reaction of that HO?
December 23rd, 2008 at 3:02 pm
hmm…. dont know what to say…
December 23rd, 2008 at 7:46 pm
So, it wasn’t you! They thought it was ME who wrote it (but like you, my dear fellow physician - and I do mean the ‘dear’ part with much affection, I wouldn’t write such a piece) because they said it sounds like me writing it. Fact is I am forever indebted to the more junior doctors under me for the superb work they do. Without them, work will not get done and patients won’t get better.
So, it’s not and it’s not you….oooOO…who could it be?
And the witch hunt goes on.
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Yenjai, the HO who pointed out that piece of news to us was from another department. Will never forget the smug look on his face when he said, “Must be about YOUR department”
The HOs implicated probably had no access to newspapers since they were too busy being abused
Jimbo, I’d like to think that my writing would be more refined and peppered with sarcasm rather than outrightly “angry”…plus a lot of my animosity would be directed at the MOs, not HOs
But of course everybody, ’tis the season of giving and forgiving so Merry Christmas and God bless you!