Jerold Loh, Associate Consultant at National University Cancer Institute, Singapore, shared on LinkedIn:
“In teaching others, you often learn something yourself.
This saturday, I was invited to participate in 2 teaching events: the NUH Mock PACES examination that we regularly conduct to prepare our residents for the grueling exam, and the inaugural ESMO-DukeNUS-NCCS Asia Medical Oncology Workshop for Medical Students. The former I had organised when I was Chief Resident, and have since attended many times, the latter a novel experience.
No matter how many times I help out with the Mock PACES, it still marvels me the amount of preparation that the current Education Chief Resident and Associate Chief Resident (Christopher and Natalie) and the administrative team go through to make it run like clockwork (completely beyond their own full-time duties). I am also equally heartened by the kindness of the patients who come back to help us, as well as my fellow examiners (many of whom helped me prepare for my own exam).
The ESMO-DukeNUS-NCCS Workshop gathered bright-eyed medical students from many different countries for an eventful 2.5 days learning opportunity hoping to give them the bird’s eye view of the huge and rapidly expanding world of clinical oncology. Like most of the speakers, I was blown away by all the attendees not just the breadth of their knowledge, but even more so their curiosity and their willingness to just ask questions and learn as a collective. I started the session worried that it would be too overwhelming, and left wondering if it wasn’t as stimulating as I could have made it.
Being able to attend a dinner afterwards and just able to chat with students from all over the region and hear their vastly different experiences was a highlight. So many of them are forced into levels of clinical maturity purely from circumstances, in ways I can’t begin to imagine. It made me realise that being able to learn (and teach) medicine in Singapore is a privilege, and something I think we should try not to forget in the sometimes unforgiving pace of clinical work.”
Other articles featuring Jerold Loh on OncoDaily.
