Page 131 - HKU Surgery 110 Anniversary E-Book

Chapter V. Embracing the Modern Age

A Different Kind of Learner

Mental Health Challenge

One of the key challenges of
recent years has been the changing
expectations and aspirations of Professor Niv Patil arrived in the night I get a call, they say ‘I’m depressed’.
students and trainees. As their Department in 1992, and he went on Instead of me saying, why did you wake
teachers and mentors see it, they to head the Centre for Education and me up? what is the problem?, the first
place more emphasis on quality of Training and be closely involved in thing I say is, where are you? Maybe
life than their predecessors. While education in the Department and the they’re at home or something. So, I say,
many young doctors appreciate Faculty for more than 25 years. He was can you come and see me now? I’ll go to
surgical training is demanding for often at the frontline in dealing with the hospital or the faculty to meet you.
good reasons, the shift in attitudes
has also affected readiness to join the trainee stress. Often what they then say is, ‘can I come
Department. and see you tomorrow morning?’ If I were
“Many times, interns are there practically to scold them, they may be on the 18th
The reasons for the greater focus on 24 hours or more and sometimes they floor of a building and feeling helpless.
lifestyle are a matter of speculation. get depressed and suicidal tendencies They may jump. This has happened.”
S ome suggest that unlike the Surgical skills training. happen. Sometimes in the middle of the
Department’s elders, whose parents life and mental health of doctors,
instilled a sense of sacrifice to achieve but most importantly, on their
goals given there were few safety ability to serve their patients well.
nets, younger people today might The European Union limits doctors,
have had a more secure and settled including surgeons, to 48 working
upbringing and see room for multiple hours a week; in the US it is 80 hours
priorities in their lives. Others have a week; the Hong Kong Hospital
pointed out that students now enter Authority falls in the middle at 65
medical school at a younger age, after hours a week. That is much less than
the government reduced the age of the hours put in by surgical trainees
entry to all undergraduate studies by in the past – up to 100 hours a week
one year, so they are not as mature including on-call periods.
as their predecessors were at the
outset. Moreover, there is a much The Department has responded
greater diversity in student ability proactively to these circumstances
and drive because far more students by adjusting its training framework
are admitted annually to medicine and incre asing b ond-bui lding
than in the past – over 300 students activities, as described in the next
today versus fewer than 200 in 2012. section. Fortunately, the desire to
take on challenging cases and pursue
External factors also play a role in excellence remains, because many Professor Niv Patil, Former Director of Centre for Education and Training.
changing expectations. Around the trainees nonetheless recognise that
world, it has become recognised that long hours, hard work and a desire
unrestricted hours can have negative to keep doing better are essential to
impacts not only on the quality of their development as good surgeons.

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