Thursday, January 22, 2009

Has It Been A Month?

I've been slack in posting because I have, over the past month, been sucked into the administrative side of academia.

A month might not seem like a long time but believe me when I tell you that a months involvement in medical school administration can teach one a life full of lessons. I wouldn't have believed it myself before experiencing it, so take my word on this.

In the past month I have learned:
  • how to defend myself and my students without being defensive. This is huge.
  • how to defend medical students who need defense without defensiveness.
  • how to stop defending medical students whose only defense is defensiveness.
  • when to admit that a medical student should just fail. Full. Stop.
Over the past month I have been part of ending three medical students' careers. I've been a little busy.

2 comments:

#1 Dinosaur said...

I, for one, am proud of you. If more substandard students were weeded out earlier in the process (or not admitted in the first place; excuse me while I swoon at THAT thought) it would lead to far less heartbreak at the other end of the process.

Gregory House, PA-C said...

It sounds like it was a confusing month. Well, at least I'm confused by it.