----- Original Message -----
From: "A S Lockey"
Subject: Re: Decline of Anatomy
> take a basic example - intubation. The students may not fully comprehend
why
> the blade of the laryngoscope is shaped as it is, despite your best
> monosyllabic (sorry - couldn't resist that!) explanation. If they've
already
> seen the skill demonstrated, they can put your explanation into context a
> lot more readily as it seems more applicable to reality. Probably a poor
> explanation and example but it is early in the morning.......!
Indeed, and I seem to be on Pacific time zone again Andy! (My colleagues at
the "Free" will confirm I'm always on this time zone.) OK, maybe piano
playing and touch-typing are also poor examples. What about hand-tying of
surgical knots? A good surgeon will throw two half-hitches to make a reef
knot in around 1.5 seconds. I watched them for years as a student but
couldn't understand how they did it (there are 8 moves to make the reef
knot). It was only when I read Jerry Kirk's book that I was able to
comprehend what was going on (that's RM Kirk of the Royal Free, an excellent
teacher still, long after his "retirement"). To return to driving, I would
be appalled if my driving instructor drove me round the block for 10
minutes - silently - at the beginning of a lesson just to show me how it's
done! Maybe that's not such a good example, I learned to drive when aged 13
when I stole my father's car...
What I'm getting at, is that you guys don't seem to question your received
"wisdom". There doesn't seem to be any room for lateral thinking, and any
attempts at innovation are stifled. I don't think your techniques are
necessarily bad, it's just that ALS won't allow any other teaching methods.
This rather strikes me as odd. Surely the point of these courses is to
improve resus abilities; their primary purpose is not to be some sort of
impressive showcase for educational techniques. Why should it matter how
it's taught as long as the message gets across? I'm happy to let you guys
get on and teach it any way you like, but I, and many others like me, was
driven out as my teaching techniques were not deemed to be acceptable by the
"faculty".
Doc Holliday wrote:
> I believe that on
> this sort of list there are probably a few dozens of people with A LOT
more
> knowledge and experience in teaching and medicine than I have and the last
> thing they would wish to see is a prolonged debate on this.
Sorry Doc, isn't this what acad-ae-med is all about? If not for debate then
what's the point of it? Oh sorry, maybe you mean we shouldn't be debating it
because you find it "distasteful" or otherwise "unpleasant". OK, maybe I'm a
cantankerous old bugger, but I was reminded only today, in the BMJ of all
places, of one of my heroes George Bernard Shaw who said: "The reasonable
man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to
adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the
unreasonable man." If we don't question our practice we'll never progress.
We are starting to shake emergency medicine up in this country by "turning
it on its head" in order to find better ways of working. All I'm asking is
the same approach to education, not closed minds and deafened ears.
Adrian Fogarty
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