The day started with Dr. Cliff’s “railmen story”–Listen to the Rhythm. I was deeply impressed by Dr. Cliff’s kindness to, and caring for others, whom he does not know and may never know. Not only did he give extra notice to the things easily overlooked as a passerby, but he also carried out his caring despite the inconvenience to himself. I was thinking to myself what in the world could stop this devoted man from becoming extraordinary? He is so caring to the world outside of his expertise, then what level of caring does he pay to his field? I was also reflecting on myself on how far I am behind him as for the caring heart—-how often I overlook what’s going on outside because I am already quite full with my own business?
A fun thing for today was Teeter Totter Game. This was my first time playing the game personally, and I really enjoyed the moments when our team worked so closely for a common end. At those moments, I felt so supported, accompanied and comfortable to come up with and share ideas with my teammates to work out a better plan. We were successful, but it was not the outcome itself that is dearest to me. It was the process before, during and after that 10 minutes. I would say every team has achieved this process and experienced the similar feeling as ours.
The most emotional and thought-provoking activity of the day was discussing the film “The Story of Michael Skolnik”. As I said in the meeting, I am curious to know what measures have been taken in the past ten years to improve. What has been done to cut off the unnecessary incentives that make surgeons desire to do procedures and even induce patients to agree? What has been done to guarantee a second-point checker for the clinical decision even when patients themselves do not have the second resource accessible? What has been done to ensure that risks are thoroughly informed rather than partially? How well is the fact of surgeon’s expertise and experience honestly communicated to patients? How often does it still exist that assuring patient of one senior surgeon to win their signature but actually carrying out the procedure by his/her student? Maybe taping or video taping the informed consent conversation would help? Maybe a consultant meeting with everyone involved in the case would help? Maybe a written form of patient’s teach-back document files to the supervision level would help? Where are we getting right now?
The day ended with a recap on Dr. Cliff’s Listen to the Rhythm. What an inspiring day!