Dealing with the undergraduate students

If I were to choose one best word to describe how it feels to deal with undergraduate students, that word would definitely be: FUN. Well, not always, but mostly yes, fun is the word. Undergraduate students usually have had at least the basic knowledge for certain field (in my case, this thing), which means they’re kind of equipped to do some discussion. At the same time however, they’re probably not that well-aware of the need to balance between being as evidence-based-as-possible and being in touch with the ‘art’ part of the medicine. In addition, from what I learnt both from my own process and some ‘talks’ with some hundred undergraduate students these last few years, this awareness takes time to develop; and many just wouldn’t get there by themselves and end up practicing what one of my lecturer called “kedokteran pertukangan”. As I have been lucky enough to have mentors who have made me aware of this delicate part of medicine, at those times when I have the chance, to somehow return the favor, I usually try my best to get the students into the realization of this. I do fail at many times, of course, and as I said, it’s a gradual process that takes time so one time talk would hardly suffice.. but it always feels good to somehow feel like I’m the starter. Although maybe I’m just being self-consoling and delusional, I don’t know. And I should probably try to write in shorter sentences, but..

Anyway.

One reason why “FUN” is the best word for describing “dealing with undergraduate students” is because they ask good questions and they don’t give a sh*t. As with most ‘beginners’ who are recently flooded with new knowledge, usually they haven’t yet able to discriminate which persons who are able to answer which questions, so they just ask randomly based on whatever random things they might encounter along the way… and they can be f*cking curious, which is awesome! They could’ve just popped out some questions about genetics or molecular biology stuff nobody in the entire clinical world has ever thought of. They could also ask some very general questions that might require the whole day and night to explain like, “How do we do CBT?” and I have to think pretty hard to give an answer that would fit in a one-or-two-minute speech without giving the impression of “Oh. Just that? Think positively and just that?” no, it’s not just that, it’s more, that’s why you need to be committed to it. Some questions are also related to reasons behind some practical and ‘technical’ things that we –residents- in clinical setting sometimes just reiterate (do I use reiterate correctly?) without fully understand the reason(s) behind it, so it could also be a pretty tough questions, such as, “If we’re inquiring about suicidal thoughts, wouldn’t it give the idea to a patient who might not have the idea in the first place?” To answer that question, I have to ‘stitch’ knowledge about how cognition works, added possibly with the explanation about instinctual drive and that excitation vs inhibition system in the development of the nervous system, and if they’re even more curious, some explanation related to that Fre*d id-ego-superego thing. I could’ve talked all day, but to stitch that to fit a one-or-two-minute time frame, again, it’s a pretty tough challenge! Still, I like taking questions. While it is understandable that random questions might be scary as we might look bad if we couldn’t answer them, I find it more delightful than dreadful when people somehow help me to ‘refresh’ on what I know and what I don’t. In doing clinical work, it can be quite easy to be ‘trapped’ in a pattern of running things the ‘as usual’ way i.e. the way that we know. Trouble is, things are actually ever-changing and if we’re not aware of these changes, it could be dangerous. So yes, it’s nice to have some reminders that I should continuously learn to better fit the nature’s challenge each day :D

   

So. My typical discussion sessions with undergraduate students (and occasionally with clerkship students who just started their rotation in the department) usually starts with a self-introduction. Other than mentioning my name, this introduction also states my level of competence (e.g. I’m currently on semester *censored* of my education)… and sometimes followed by a little explanation with the stages of the residency. This serves twofold: 1) It helps familiarize the undergraduate students with the educational process of residency; hopefully it might catch some interest in the field as well; 2) It helps them to kind of know what I might be able to answer, and what not. I also state that we’re under the supervision of [insert supervisor’s name here], so suppose some unresolved problem arise during the discussion, they could refer to the supervisor for assistance, or even better, textbooks.
After the introduction, the opening sentence is usually something like, “Okay, today we’re going to talk about [insert topic here]; I believe you have read some or most of the material… So. Any questions about it, please?” It’s Indonesia, and being given that statement, the typical Indonesian students would just look at each other while mumbling, “Apa ya.. nanya apa ya..”  If there are some somewhat-atypical students who are just geared up with questions –and luckily these kind of students more often exist than not- then it’s my lucky day (I DO get lots of lucky days! Isn’t it nice?). They would start asking questions, and soon their friends would start asking questions too, then the discussion can proceed mostly nicely. When it’s not my lucky day, however, I usually continue by asking, “Okay so what have you learnt so far about this topic?” and I start pointing at people to give answers. If still no answer, I add, “There’s no right or wrong answer. I just wanna hear any thoughts, experience, opinions -or questions if you’ve now had one- about this topic.” So far, these steps never fail. Discussions can then proceed, and I can occasionally do my 'scientific blabber' with those students being some “willing ‘victims.’” Everybody’s happy. Haha. I don’t even need to be show-off-y let alone be defensive about some arguments, since I can always say, “I’m not too sure about that, but if you check the texts about [insert the specified topic here], you might find the explanation there. Well let me also check, and we’ll go back to that a bit later, okay?” and I keep my promise of going back to it. They mostly understand that limitation, and many times it stimulates them to self-search the answer, and later when they eagerly wish to tell about what they’ve found, I just need to dig through it and check if we’ve found the same explanation. Many times it was me who had learnt from them, not the opposite, so it’s nice J

  

Well.

I might have further say about this, but let’s just keep it for later; I have some ironing to do. Bye bye for now!