Physicians Emeritus

Teaching: A forgotten (or at least neglected) art

In the evolution of medical care and practice as performed by physicians, the emphasis has shifted gradually from teaching to technology.

Gradually isn’t the right word if we’re describing the rate of change, which was tortoise-like for a few centuries, then turned into a hare after the middle 1950s. Today’s doctor is a technonut full of knowledge, equipped with fancy tools, at times more likely to look at his computer than to look his patient in the eye. If an MRI doesn’t reveal something, it doesn’t exist.

Doctor Jones has a full waiting room, a clinic manager preaching volume, and would like to have a life which doesn’t always involve people with runny noses. He has no time to teach. At least he has no time right now, but may get back to us later.

Not all physicians are good teachers of unsophisticated students. Surgeons and neurologists come to mind here. Those who make their living “doing” stuff often don’t want to share all this with patients they are seeking to impress as well as cure. The best teachers are likely to be pediatricians and primary care docs who have honed their skills during years of explaining why the littlest among us aren’t potty trainable and when does a sore throat deserve treatment. Then they retire to something nonmedical like playing golf or throwing pots.

What a waste that is. Just when they got good at something, they quit doing it. Any such deep resource of knowledge and experience should be tapped if we want our campaign to improve health literacy to succeed.

So here’s the plan: We hereby invite retired or semi-retired physicians interested in teaching others what they’ve learned to join a program whose goal is improving health and medical literacy. We’ll give them the basic materials needed to teach health topics from basic to complex, plus, when needed, help with getting started in an elementary school or adult classroom. No lecturing is needed or allowed, since these are seminars, even when the audience is a class of 5 year olds. It is rewarding, very easy, and will be well received by anyone with an ounce of curiosity or eagerness to learn.

The name of this teachers’ corps will be Physicians Revitalized; Online For Students Of Health, or “PROFS Of Health”. For information, or to join now, contact me at (928) 684 0588, or email me - dr.tom@wickenburghealth.net