Neutralising Neurophobia

Abstract

Medical students are being trapped in the void between basic sciences and clinical facts. Of greater concern is that the chasm is widening with the progressive decline of the basic sciences, which require years to master. Meanwhile we expect our doctors to disperse quickly and start righting the wrongs. Teaching laboratories are becoming more sophisticated in order for students to be able to intubate and put up CVP (central venous pressure) lines unsupervised. Cardiac murmurs are digitalised, recorded and replayed. Mitral valve prolapse is an electrical oscillation of red lights and not the whooping of a white dove. The experience is made as real as possible and becomes ever more surreal. Medicine becomes performance based and frozen. The patella hammer rests on top of the book.