Of Pretense and Persuasions

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Dr. Cushing, a student of Halstead, once wrote "the physician requires a special combination of head and heart; the surgeon of head, heart and hand- a rarer combination which comes partly by gift and partly by training."
Head
The best surgeons are those who make the best decisions. Excellence in surgery begins with disciplined thinking and sound clinical judgment. These are rooted in a thorough understanding of pathophysiology, and a deep knowledge of the basic sciences. Familiarity with scientific research is important because surgeons must understand how to interpret scientific data in order to inform their clinical decisions.

Heart
For the surgeon, the heart is separated into three separate but equally important components.

Compassion
  • Compassion is what causes a surgeon to make patient care his or her first priority, regardless of personal convenience. Compassion is the impetus behind long house on the wards or in the laboratory. Compassion is what inspires surgeons to donate their services when patients cannot afford to pay.
Resiliency
  • A surgeon's heart must be resilient so that he or she can persist in the face of setbacks.
Courage
  • And a surgeon's heart must be courageous, to allow him or her to carry out procedures that entail significant risk.

Hand
Cushing envisioned technical excellence involving a solitary surgeon laboring to perfect specific manual tasks. Surgical outcomes depend on making an entire process smooth, from patient transport and room turnover, to having the proper surgical instruments in the operating room. This is accomplished through teamwork. Thus, the hands of the team, working toward a common goal, are more important than those of an individual.

Excerpt from Gandhi's Experiments with Truth:

"Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to have control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will fine your doubts and yourself melting away."

Monday, July 02, 2007

- I ran 4.3 miles hard and steady
- I did my laundry
- I discovered a great website with good medical research
- I had lunch at Ahimsa [vegan restaurant]
- I got my book on Tropical Surgery from interlibrary loan
- I met with the dean of students who agrreed with Ninani and my proposal to do more Pain management stuff in the curriculum... we're gonna organize a symposium next march
- I met with the secretary who does student research stuff and she said I could still get a one year research fellowship next year and that i have time to apply
- I met this girl Eva while waiting to cross the street ... I told her I thought her haircut looked really good on her and that started this conversation about how she had spotted me earlier in the day and said that she did a doubletake because I looked like her sister [same outfit] -- and then we found out that her sister is a mathematician who is in Iowa; and she said she liked my outfit because my skirt was shorter than a librarian but longer than a cheerleaders' and that she liked that I wore flip flops with bright blue nailpolish on my toes.
- I got an email from this trauma surgeon at Wash U St louis who emailed me his research articles and asked me if diff eq's spooked me and I replied saying, essentially, "bring it on, man! i could derive yo' mamma from first principles if you asked me to! "

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