Lessons for Medical School

Today, hordes of brand new First Years arrive on our campus. Wild-eyed and bushy-tailed, I wonder if they hear the seniors murmuring, “Run now, while you still can.”

It was not too long ago that I was there… three years ago, I was a scared little kid, stepping into a world where the maturing process would be escalated far beyond my then-eighteen years.

Tomorrow, I will be giving the newbies and their parents a speech. I’m still trying to polish it, but I know that it must be short: I remember close to nothing of the Chairperson’s speech in my first year.

So I’ve been thinking a lot about what I would have liked to hear as a vulnerable (and gullible) little first year.

There are many things… but one thing sticks out:

Medicine will take so much from you. It makes you study longer and later than most of your friends. It works your fingers to the bone, literally. It places you at physical and psychological risk. It shows you things that the human psyche is not equipped to understand.

Medicine will take so much from you: cling to your little bits of individuality.

Cling to those things that make you, you. Cling to the things that remind you who you are.

I have a bright pink stethoscope – and who’s business is that? I like the colour and it makes me happy. It appears to make my patients happy too.

You want a neon stethoscope? Get one – make the decisions that remain fully yours.

When a clever doctor is a bad doctor

I had an interesting (read: infuriating) meeting with a professor this past week.

I will not indulge in the details, but it came down to this:

Professor: I get paid to teach [insert subject]. I do not care for the holistic development of students.

Me: With all due respect, after we graduate we will work in the community for at least three years, and we will be expected to act a leaders of the community-

Professor: I’m going to interrupt you there because I’m older than you and I know more about this than you do. When you go into the community, the only thing you need to know is a whole lot of medicine. Not leadership abilities.

I did not respond. I was shocked right out of my boots. I don’t think any response would have sufficed in any case.

What shocks me is that my university is so dedicated to the idea of a well-rounded student and eventually a well-rounded professional. Even our Rector and Vice-Chancellor are ardent supporters thereof. And then academic personnel say things like that. Do they not realise the damage they do?

I do not believe that someone with a medical degree should get to call himself a doctor. What does such a person do when faced with an illness that cannot be diagnosed? Or an illness with no cure? Or terminal disease? Chronic disease?

The WHO defines health as

A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease.

How does someone with no leadership skills empower their patients? How does someone like that teach a patient to live with HIV, or to prevent HIV?

They don’t. Because they speak Medicine, not People.

And how does someone who dedicates his life simply to academics, remain a whole person, a person who is well.

The answer is simple:

They don’t.

That professor, with his PhD and his acclaim in medical journals will not change his mindset, and he will continue to see me as a silly little girl with high ideals. But he is wrong; and he does not belong in an esteemed place like the University of Stellenbosch.

Rural Gems of the Western Cape

I don’t think I ever officially announced it here: my campaign for TSR chairperson 2011/2012 was successful. Yay!

Anyway, it was the new TSR’s team building and planning camp this past weekend. We went to a farm near Greyton, a tiny village in the Overberg region.

Having grown up in the Eastern Cape with a love for the old Transkei, I have a soft sport for small towns.

Greyton is an absolutely amazing place to visit. We attended the Saturday morning market. Everyone there is friendly and happy and were very eager to get to know us. We made particularly good friends with this lady who makes and sells the most delicious pesto, “Loret’s Pesto”. More here.

Loret's Pesto and some TSR members

We then visited Genadendal, a township just outside Greyton. Genadendal is the oldest mission station in South Africa and was started by the Moravian Church.

The Moravian Church in the Village Square

The church bell in the Village Square

There is also a Museum which is said to be a lovely experience, but we unfortunately did not have time to go there.

Although living conditions here are still harsh, the village’s historic significance is well-preserved. The people are also amazing and everyone that sees you, will greet you.

We lost our hearts here...

One day, when I grow up…

Day 25 of Calliope’s blogosphere summer camp was: What did you want to be when you grew up? Why and/or how did that change over time? I really wanted to write for that day, but things have been rather crazy back on campus. So I shall be answering it now.

I was one of those kids who wanted to be everything. Imagine my shock when I entered my final year of high school and that had not changed.

While I was certain that a 9-5 office job was not for me, I wanted to be a teacher, a lawyer, a fighter pilot, a diplomat, an engineer… oh, and a doctor of course.

What compounded the problem was that, honestly, I could probably be any of those if I wanted to. My marks and interests were correctly aligned for all of them.

Yes, I eventually gave up a scholarship for Law at Rhodes University to study Medicine where I am now. It was a last minute decision and was largely based on feelings of doing good, and reading a book called 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa.

My first year sucked and for the longest time I was convinced that I was studying the wrong thing. Why else would I hate it so much?

Then, slowly, I started stoking the fires of my previous interests. I continued to write for YJI. I became the editor-in-chief for my campus newspaper, tMATIE. And last year, I was elected as a member of our student council, the TSR.

This I have realised: I was never meant to devote all of my time to an entire profession. Medicine will be the profession that drives me and feeds me, but it is in combination with journalism and politics that I will truly achieve all the things I hope to do with my life.

I am currently running for my second term in office, this time for chairperson. I believe I can do this well. And I do believe it will prepare me exceptionally well for one day, when I’m all grown up…

Protesting on campus

Tygerberg Campus is not the most politically active campus in South Africa.

Earlier this year, the student council organised something called “courageous conversations” in order to address concerns about homophobia on campus [courageous conversations can address any issues, though]. The audience consisted almost solely of the student council and the media.

This campus is one of the only university campuses in South Africa where the election of student government is not influenced by national politics; where a candidate’s political views will not affect the elections.

In light of this, it was surprising when the peaceful protest held on 18 October was attended quite well. My surveying abilities are poor, but I am going to guess about 200 students participated. That constitutes about 15% of undergraduate students.

The protest was against undue increases in student fees – for 2011, 11% and 14%. Take note that the South African inflation rate is currently 4.4%. ALSO, it has been made public that this university will be receiving a $10 million grant specifically for medical education. So the mass action was definitely with good reason.

Before the protest, I was asked whether I truly think that it would be a peaceful protest. “South Africans do not know the meaning of a peaceful protest.” Sadly this is not even an overtly pessimistic view. I cannot remember the last time that I heard of a peaceful South African demonstration.

While we walked through campus with red and black clothes – to mourn the death of intellectual development through tertiary education, due to unaffordable fees – students seemed way too relaxed to be protesting. I know I was talking and laughing away.

At a few points in time, students chanted things like, “Hell no, we won’t pay,” but they never lasted very long.

I loved the atmosphere, though. Not once did I feel unsafe. Also, we knew that we had support. The Faculty of Health Sciences met with students and committed to future co-operation with students as well as endeavouring to make more bursaries available to future students. We even signed a commitment document.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t an opportunity to ask faculty management questions and most students had been under the impression that they would be able to do this. That is probably one of the biggest things I would have liked to change.

While I thought that the Faculty tried very hard and did share a few rays of hope, I heard that a lot of people were disgruntled and felt that nothing truly new had been said. The feeling is that any new bursaries made available would still only assist a minority of students. Furthermore, students feel that they are simply paying too much and running up too much debt.

To be honest, I don’t have an answer to that. I do think that the Faculty is trying very hard… and that they can’t conjure money out of thin ever.

However, I also think that educational institutions often forget that they only exist BECAUSE OF students and so they should be much more considerate of their well-being than the levels which we currently experience.

Our campus has some real issues besides finances and academics. We are an isolated, far away from other Stellenbosch students. It’s a rather dull campus, aesthetically. Students here are often overworked, and thus often uninvolved. With this goes a tendency to be apathetic. Also, Tygerberg campus really struggles with establishing a tangible sense of campus unity.

These are always issues close to the hears of the student council, residence councils and other committees, but without the input of the average student, it has always been impossible to make a real change.

I think the protest was important for more than just the fight for more affordable education. I think it may have brought students just a little bit closer together.

It feels good, having participated in something political. I am not exactly apathetic or uninvolved – I have voted in national, provincial and student elections, I have been the editor-in-chief of a campus newspaper, I signed a petition against the Protection of Information Bill 2010 (see a copy of the bill in the box to the left of this page) and I am currently a member of student government…

But I never thought I would participate in a protest, mainly because of the bad reputation it has in South Africa. I would wager a guess that it was a first for many students. On Thursday, Main Campus on Stellenbosch will be hosting a similar event, and on Friday they’ll be marching against violence.

There was a really bad picture of me in Die Burger, but it is so bad that I can actually argue that it is not me. I would have that terrible picture taken all over again for this protest though.

In a year’s time, we probably won’t even talk about it anymore (that is the sad thing about non-violent protests), but I saw some students who hardly ever do anything besides study and work, standing up or their right; standing together for a cause.

And I thought that was immensely cool.

P.S: this is my personal opinion about the protest and yes, written rather crappily at this time of the morning… so don’t be surprised to see some edits later today!

Also, I will be adding a photo later, as well as a link to a more factual/objective article which I wrote for Youth Journalism International.

Edit: click this link to read the article on The Tattoo for Youth Journalism International.