The End of Study Discussion

He does not know the present status, but Dr. Dev (Fictional Name) observed that in his time, most of the toppers of the classes from AIIMS, New Delhi, studying in the library, used to meet at the end of their study period in the library foyer. Sitting on the wooden benches in library foyer they used to discuss what they had studied that day. 

On investigation, it was found that those toppers who used to study in their hostel rooms also used meet at the end of the day (or night in most cases) in a room and discuss what they had studied before. 

The discussion can be on a common topic studied by all the participants or different topics studied separately and each one presenting a different topic or different part of the topic.

This end of the study period discussion is a great study and marks booster. 

Studies have shown that after reading some new material we start to forget it as soon as we stop studying. The rate of loss of memory is maximum in the first 24 hours; with some claiming that we forget 70 to 80 % what we had studied in the first 24 hours itself. Revision of the topics studied by discussion soon after or the next day among our fellow student slows this memory loss.

Saying the study material aloud, speaking it, activates other areas of the brain than just reading it. The material also goes in our brain by another sense organ, i.e. ear on hearing it rather than just thru our eyes by reading it. This leads to better memory and retention in our mind.

What we read or study is not remembered in our brain verbatim, i.e. word to word. Our brain converts the study material in concepts and facts. This is a blessing for students, as this enables the student to write a 2-page answer in the exam of a topic given in 10 pages in the textbook. The discussion makes us revise and express the study material as concepts and facts in our own words which will be useful in writing the answers in exams.

While discussing, if we miss some part of the topic or our concept is not clear, our fellow students may correct us thus increasing our knowledge and accuracy.

If the students are each studying and presenting a different topic, then the other students get to know the topic without studying themselves. This can be useful to cover or revise a large curriculum just before exams.

It is decided beforehand that what topic each of the person in the group has to study and what time they will they meet to discuss it. The individual student knows that he/she has to complete the given topic by the particular time deadline. This enforces discipline and systematic study. This planned, time-bound study automatically increases the student’s performance.

Another aspect of saying the study material aloud in a group is especially useful for preparing for oral exams and viva. Our stage fright gets removed and our verbal communication skills get improved.

For it multiple benefits, such as better retention of memory, better understating of the concepts, sticking to a disciplined study plan, covering a large amount of data in short time and practice for oral and viva exams, a post-study group discussion should be part of the strategy of the smart student.

So whether medico or non-medico, UG or PG, form a study group, plan your topics and start studying and discussing it with like-minded smart students from today itself.

But beware; the study group should be focussed on discussing only the study material. If the discussion turns to non-academic topics such as movies and trending videos, this can be a disaster for the academically oriented student and a great time waster.

 (Based on allegedly true incidents)

— ND

© Author. All rights reserved. 

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm. 

The Anatomy Atlas

There was a small Unit library, with various surgery books, maintained in Doctor’s Duty room of Surgery Unit III in AIIMS, New Delhi. 

The books there were donated by the doctors themselves and some by patients. The books were kept in an open locker which was accessible to all the doctors of the unit 24 x 7. Yet there was no pilferage or loss of books as all the doctors of the unit used to follow strictly the rule of the unit head Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji (Fictional Name) regarding the unit library. 

The rule was that under no circumstance the books from the library will be taken outside the Duty room, not even in the ward.

The library was a boon to the doctors as they can consult it even during odd hours, such as late-night when they were on emergency duties. Even the faculty members, including Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji, used to come in between operation or before going to Operation theatre to brush up or review the steps or anatomy of the operation.

For Non-Medicos: Anatomy is the basic branch of medicine which deals with the structure of the human body, such the various tissues, organs, blood vessels, muscles, bones, etc. Thorough knowledge of the anatomy of the part/region being operated by the surgeon is must to avoid any injury to important structure and perform the operation perfectly.

Dr. Dev (Fictional Name) who was a junior resident in the Surgery Unit III noticed a new book in the unit library locker. It was Giant Atlas of Anatomy (Fictional Name). The atlas had excellent diagrams and photographs of the anatomical structure of the human body. He found to it to be an excellent book to learn and revise the anatomy while on duty in the unit.

He noticed that even Dr. TK Chaturji consult the book in between cases and even otherwise. His respect for the book further increased after seeing Dr. Chaturji using the book.

After a few months, he noticed that the book was suddenly missing from library locker. As he was busy in the daily ward work he did not pay any attention to it.

 A few days later, Dr. MK (Fictional Name) a junior resident, who was senior to Dr. Dev, was assisting the senior resident in an operation in the operation theatre (OT). Other unit doctors were standing and watching the operation in OT. 

Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji suddenly stormed in the OT. Looking angrily at the unit doctors, he demanded, who has taken the ‘Giant Atlas of Anatomy’ from the unit library?

It appeared that Dr. Chaturji wanted to revise the anatomy related to a certain operation which he was to do later in the day. When he searched for the atlas of anatomy, he was surprised to not find it in the library locker. Knowing Dr. Chaturji strict rule of not taking any books outside even the duty room from the departmental library, everyone was stunned. 

All work stopped in the OT and everyone silently looked at each other, as if enquiring by their eye, who was the culprit of this felony?

After few seconds of silence, Dr. MK hesitantly replied, ‘I had taken the atlas to my hostel room.’

Dr. TK Chaturji angrily remarked, ‘Look at this creature. Taking the atlas to his room, when he does not study anything at all’ and angrily left the OT.

After Dr. Chaturji has left, the surprised unit doctors looked at Dr. MK and asked, ‘Why did you take the atlas to your room when you know Dr. Chaturji does not like the books to be taken even outside the duty room?

Dr. MK replied, ‘I took the atlas to my room as it was my personal book!’

It happened that Dr. MK had purchased the book during his second year of junior residency. As he was most of the time in the hospital due to heavy patient workload, he had placed the book along with the other books in the unit locker to read whenever he gets some time. 

When his third year of residency had started and he found more free time to spend in his hostel room, he took his atlas book to study in his room. Nobody had noticed his name written in the first inner page of the book and everyone assumed that someone had donated the book to the unit library.

So Dr. MK got scolded for taking his own book to his room.

If you bring some book, equipment, article to your office or workplace, better keep it separate from the official articles. It is not the just junior staff even senior employees and doctor may get blamed for taking their own things back with them outside their office building. See another example of senior doctor: The Slide Projector

(Based on allegedly true incident)

— ND

© Author. All rights reserved. 

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm.

The Three Anesthetists

In the government sector, the surgeons have few operation days in a week, while the anesthetists are daily in the Operation Theatre (OT). The surgeon also spends more time in contact with the patients in the preoperative (before the operation, i.e. in the ward and OPD) and postoperative (after operation) period. This leads to some change in the perspectives of the two important teams involved in the surgical care of the patient.

In most government sector hospitals, the OT working hours are fixed. It the OT runs beyond the fixed time the doctors and other staff do not receive any overtime for it. In contrast, in the private sector, the anesthetist may get extra money if their working time gets extended. Many are paid on case to case basis. So the monetary incentive to do more number of cases is a driving force for the anesthetist in the private hospitals.

A dilemma is sometimes faced by the OT team in the government sector. Suppose the OT working time is till 3.00 pm and the second last case on the OT list finishes at 2.15 pm. The next case is expected to last an hour. By the time the second last case is shifted outside to recovery room and the next case starts it will be 2.30 pm and then the last case will finish by 3.30 pm. 

At this juncture, the decision to be made is whether to stop the OT working 45 minutes early and cancel the last case or take the last case and work 30 minutes extra without any compensation.

Many surgeons request or pressurize the anesthetist to take the last case and extend the OT hours. There may be personal involvement, a feeling of doing the case for learning  purpose (especially by junior surgeons) or the surgeons see in the ward the inconvenience and hardships faced by the patients and their relatives if their operation gets postponed or fear of angry response by the patient’s relatives including abuses, physical violence, and complaint to administration. 

Depending on their response, Dr. Dev observed, different types of anesthetist while working as a junior and senior resident in AIIMS, New Delhi. 

One type of anesthetist will flatly refuse to take the case if there are chances that the OT time may get extended if they take the case. Some naïve surgeons do not like this fact while it for the betterment of all involved. 

The surgical team gets time to take a detailed round of the ward and the operated patients in the extra time saved in the OT. The surgeons get time for academic activities. The junior residents get time to have lunch when is it still daytime not in the evening. The nursing staff gets time to better wash and sterilize the instruments. The patient is saved from a hurriedly performed surgery by a tired team of surgeons and nursing staff all for a little inconvenience, some social and economic hardship to the patient. Such anesthetists are the true friends of the surgeons.

Faced with such type of anesthetist, the surgeon better work fast and complete the cases well in time, keep a short duration case as a standby at the end of the list or keep some cases to be operated under local anesthesia in the remaining time available.

The second type of anesthetist is like Dr. Raageshwari (Fictional Name). When the residents of the surgery department, AIIMS, New Delhi, used to approach her to take the last case, she used to ask who is going to do the operation. 

If the resident assures her that Dr. Sunil Chumber, consultant surgery, AIIMS, New Delhi would operate the case she used to frequently take the case. Her logic was as Dr. Chumber was the fastest surgeon in the unit, the surgery will not be unnecessarily prolonged and she may not be delayed too much. 

So, the residents used to ask Dr. Chumber, whether he will stay back to operate the case before approaching Dr. Raageshwari. Or if the residents wanted to do the operation themselves for learning purpose, then it was better not to ask Dr. Raageshwari to take the case. Better to postpone the case and do it next time.

The third type of anesthetist was like Dr. Bindu Pandit. She was most flexible in extending the time limit of the OT in the patient’s and resident’s interest. 

Again when the residents used to approach her to take a case late in the day, she used to ask who will do the case. If residents assure her that they (junior and senior residents) will do the case and not by any consultant or faculty member, she used to frquently take the case for the training and learning process of the residents. 

Once, Dr. Dev, then senior resident in AIIMS, approached her to take a case when the OT time was almost over. When he explained that it was an uncommon case that he had never done before and it will take only 30 minutes. If posted in the next OT, the consultant may operate the patient and they will be denied a golden learning opportunity, she took the case. But when the case lasted an hour she got mildly angry at Dr. Dev as he had promised to finish the case within 30 minutes and took double the time. 

But being a great lady with great compassion towards the resident, her anger just lasted a day, and she kept on cooperating with residents even after this incidence. A word of thanks to the great anesthetist, Dr. Bindu Pandit, who helped so many residents get experience in the OT.

 (Based on allegedly true incidents)

— ND

© Author. All rights reserved. 

Just joking: The anesthetist plays a very important role in the safe conduct of any operation and deserves the respect of the highest order.

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm.

The Kashmiri Surgeon and the Goat (Bakra)

The media is abuzz with Kashmir and upcoming festival of Bakri-Eid. This triggered Dr. Dev’s memory of an incident from Surgery Department of AIIMS, New Delhi, involving a Kashmiri doctor and a slaughterhouse (he-goat) when he was a junior resident there.

Dr. Kool (Fictional Name), who was from Kashmir, was the senior resident in the Surgery unit III in AIIMS. He was quite a charmer with a taste for all good things in life. 

Once a patient got admitted in the surgery unit, whose emergency operation was done successfully by Dr. Kool. At the time of discharge from the hospital, the patient’s elder brother noted Dr. Kool’s mobile number and asked him what could he do for him to show his gratitude for saving his brother’s life. 

Dr. Kool offhandedly remarked him to bring 'bakra' (he-goat) the next time he comes to visit him. As Indians all know, the meat of Bakra or goat is most frequently eaten meat in India. 

One week later, Dr. Kool received a call from the patient’s brother, while he was taking the evening round in the D7 surgical ward. The brother said, ‘As requested by you, I have bought the 'bakra' for you. Where should I bring it?’

Dr. Kool, imaging it is must be 1 or 2 kg of cooked goat meat, asked him to bring it to the D7 surgical ward. The surgical ward was on the 7th floor of the hopsital building. After some time, the patient brother reached the D7 ward towing a large live goat with a rope tied around his neck and proudly announced, ‘Sir, here is the 'bakra' as requested by you.’ 

On seeing the live goat in front of him in the D7 surgery ward, a normally loquacious Dr. Kool become speechless. 

The patient’s brother had taken the literal meaning of Dr. Kool’s word of bringing a 'bakra'. He brought the live goat to Delhi in a bus from his village, then in an auto-rickshaw to AIIMS. On talking to Dr. Kool on his mobile phone from outside the hospital, he bought the goat through the private ward lift, normally reserved for the Staff and only private ward patients. When the guards tried to stop him, he countered that he is taking the goat to the surgery ward on order of Dr. Kool.

Dr. Kool explained to the patient’s brother that he meant goat meat, not a live goat when he asked him to bring ‘bakra’. The brother then took the goat to a slaughter house in Delhi, and then bought the meat to Dr. Kool’s residence. Dr. Kool’s wife cooked the goat meat and gave a big party to all the surgery unit III members at their home.

We should be careful about what we wish for. Someone may take our word literally and try to fulfill them taking unnecessary pain and hardship.

(Based on an allegedly true incident)

— ND
© Author. All rights reserved. 

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm.