A recent article in Neurology discusses the information revolution in medical education (yay, finally someone gets it!):
The democratization of knowledge. Additionally, traditional hierarchies may have less significance to today’s trainees due to the democratization of knowledge. With availability of information to all on a handheld device, medical students, residents, and even patients have as much data available on rounds as highly experienced clinicians. Rather than information flowing only downhill from attending to resident to medical student to patient, information may flow up the chain of command, as well.38 Everybody will need to adjust to the new possibilities this entails, but it is likely that the greatest challenge, as in most revolutions, will be for those who are accustomed to being at the top of the hierarchy. There is already evidence that competence declines with time after training; studies have provided evidence that there is an inverse relationship between time in practice and quality of care delivered,48 though some have questioned these findings.49 This decline with time could accelerate as the pace of scientific and technological change increases, further augmenting the differences between the generations. In the future, it is possible that each generation will offer complementary skills in educating the others to provide optimal care.
via Teaching the next generation of neurologists — Elkind 72 7: 657 — Neurology.
The conflict in the medical workplace that triggered this recent dialogue on professionalism is between the Baby Boomer Generation and Generation X. Baby boomers define professionalism predominantly in terms of hours worked and “complete” dedication to the job. Dedicated to life balance, Generation Xers do not aspire to be like baby boomers. They believe baby boomers are hypocritical and susceptible to early burnout. In fact, having been raised by absentee, workaholic baby boomers, their priorities are very different from their parents. Their focus on caring for themselves and their families is a positive attribute of Generation X.
via ScienceDirect – The American Journal of Medicine : Medical professionalism and the generation gap.
But what about Generation Y (or the Millennium generation)?
An awesome new site – AcademicEarth.org – joins the library of MIT’s OpenCourse videos in providing education to all. I can’t help seeking out the fiery literature of the 60’s:
When [Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters] came to Vietnam Day at the Berkeley campus, Kesey addressed assembled people and he said turn your back on the war and say, “F*ck it”. These were a group of people that were intent on doing something to stop the war, and this was Kesey’s response. That moment for me embodies this tension, right at the the center of the 1960’s, the tension between counter cultural self-development and an ethos of play, drop out, tune in… Essentially, leave the institutional life of America, that means school, government, politics, and create disorder, and do that as a way of finding what’s true of yourself, do it in the company of others, it had this communal aspect for sure. [...] Ken Kesey is looking for that internally directed, playful response to the oppressive order of the word, and then there’s this political response. Pynchon lets us see both, and he’s parodying both responses in this novel, and in this sense, this novel is very much of its time.
Amy Hungerford – Yale / English
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
via Academic Earth – Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49.
Generation Y is focusing on personal life values over a traditional work ethic. This may be because of culture clashes, diminishing protestant work ethic, gender equality, economic prosperity, and interestingly, as the writer in the article below points out, a realization that we can not depend on a bright, sunny future, so we should enjoy today. So what is the outlook?
Never mind that they often need an entire team – and a couple of cheerleaders – to do anything. For some of them the concept “work ethic” needs rethinking. “I had a conversation with the CFO of a big company in New York,” says Tamara Erickson, co-author of the 2006 book “Workforce Crisis,” “and he said, ‘I can’t find anyone to hire who’s willing to work 60 hours a week. Can you talk to them?’ And I said, ‘Why don’t I start by talking to you? What they’re really telling you is that they’re sorry it takes you so long to get your work done.’”
via Attracting the twentysomething worker – May 28, 2007.
One thing I like about biology is that there is no pretense of anything else being of comparable importance in life…
[C]hoose a career based on your assessment of other people in that career. Your next step is to focus on social relationships, because in terms of happiness, job satisfaction is very important but social relationships are most important.
And by social relations, most researchers mean sex – with one, consistent partner. So consider giving your career aspirations a little less weight than you give your aspirations for sex. For those of you who like a tangible goal, David Blanchflower, professor of economics at Dartmouth College says, “Going from sex once a month to sex once a week creates a big jump in happiness. And then the diminishing returns begin to set in.” He adds, to the joy of all who are underemployed, “It’s true that money impacts which person you marry, but money doesn’t impact the amount of sex you have.”
via How much money do you need to be happy? Hint: Your sex life matters more | Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist.
