I have seen students for more than thrity years. I have been upset over the changes that have occurred in their attitude towards medical education over the last few years. So much so, that I have stopped feeling good when I teach them, and even more so when I examine them. I avoid being University Examiner, because I hate to think of being in a position which would decide their fate. I don’t want to feel responsible for passing some, who in my opinion would be a menace to the society, but whom many other examiners would pass without a second thought. Unfortunately I have to examine them in their internal assessments, because it is a part of my job. They are even less prepared for these examinations than for their university examinations. So the process becomes quite traumatic to me. I understand it is traumatic to them too, when they do not get good marks from me, and get a warning instead to study more or their future may not be bright.
I was conducting one such examination. The candidates were reinforcing my experiences of past examinations, and I was looking forward to the end of the examination. Then came along a student, who was different. She was at ease when she answered questions. She answered all my questions correctly and without any tension. It sounded as if we were having a simple conversation instead of an examination. She answered questions that my postgraduate students do not answer, and that too with the ease that comes from clinical experience rather than reading undergraduate books.
“If you answer the next question correctly, I will give you 9 marks out of 10” I said. “I will have to cut one mark because you did not look at your watch when you checked fetal heart rate.” She took that challenge without any apprehension.
“If you have a patient at term in labor with umbilical cord prolapse, what will you do?” I asked.
She answered it logically, considering a live baby and a dead baby. I was quite happy. I had not heard that answer from many candidates while conducting interviews for appointment of Assistant Professors.
“If the baby is dead, I will start an Oxytocin infusion and deliver the woman” she said.
I could have said ‘gotcha’ or something similar gleefully, but that thought never entered my head. Here was a good candidate, and I just wanted to make her a little better.
“The fetus was in transverse lie. Your oxytocin infusion caused uterine rupture. You just killed a patient” I said. She looked grave. “No! We managed to suture the uterine rupture, and she lived” I reassured her. “But then she sued you for giving an Oxytocin infusion when the baby was in a transverse lie. Such a baby cannot deliver vaginally, which she said you ought to have known. Now she wants a hefty compensation.”
She looked less grave but apologetic for having blundered. It was all make believe, not a real patient, which we both knew. But she understood exactly what I meant. Suddenly I had a thought.
“Will you please show me your college identity card?” I asked.
She fetched her identity card and showed it to me. I checked. She was indeed a third year undergraduate student, not a senior pulling a fast one on me.
“You are indeed a third year student, not a Resident Doctor appearing for you” I said. “Your answers were accurate. You are good. I cannot say you will have a successful career, because it depends on a lot of other things too. But you will make a very good obstetrician.” She thanked me and went away happy. She probably did not know that I was even happier. I had lost hope that there would ever be any students who were good and interested in that subject. Now I knew I was wrong. I had found one and perhaps there would be more.
