Having been a less than stellar intern, I find it very odd when interns now come up to me and ask me to teach them something. I'm used to medical students. In fact, I love teaching medical students. It's fun. It's just strange to think of myself as a repository for information.
I mean, honestly, it took me the better part of 6 months to figure out how to select an antibiotic. I mean, seriously, 6 months. 6 months of "My patient has a UTI. Can I give Bactrim?" or "My patient has pneumonia, should I give levaquin or ceftriaxone and azithromycin?" Even better, "My patient has MRSA. Should I start vancomycin?"
The fact that people come to me for information wows me every time. And I love to teach, I really do. I never thought I'd find something that I loved, but it's very strange finding something out about yourself.
The real truth about teaching though is that you have to know something really well. And it's surprising when you try to teach something to find out just how little you really know.
Teaching can be great. One nice thing about it is that you'll always remember the stuff that you teach, even if you don't think you taught it well the first time around.
ReplyDeleteHappy teaching!