Biliary and Renal Colic

Abstract

Perhaps this ethos has always been so much beyond reproach that no improvement was needed.But I suspect that it was rather because it was taken for granted and, indeed, overlooked.Twenty years ago I remember several examiners remarking to me, " That man was unkind to his patient.I don't think he's fit to be a doctor.I shall fail him."Recently, I have not heard this.Again, I suspect this is because of the rule of the pedants: "You can't," they will say, " fail a man in his examination because he is unkind to his patients.That isn't what examinations are for.He knows his work."And so once more it is the attitude of the potential doctor to his patient and to his work that goes to the wall.It doesn't matter.Here let me say that one of the major endemic diseases in our society is that disorder that thirsts for examinations.Examinations are a rash or morbid eruption on the body of democracy.They are thought to be fair.The current thirst is to make them even fairer by making them so objective that they can be marked by a computer--the device known in America as the multiple-choice method.However, what is overlooked is that, like other tricks, this trick can be learned, and a high performance in such tests is not synonymous with profound knowledge.What the enthusiasts for such methods overlook entirely is the educa- tional function of examinations.If it becomes known that a sympathetic, understanding, and kindly attitude is also valued, and indeed required, then that attitude is the more likely to be forthcoming and indeed become a habit.Conclusion