Tell me ..I forget Involve me... I learn

If you are passing through Waterloo Station in the next few weeks and a swarthy bunch of middle aged men looking suspiciously like Middle Eastern secret agents suddenly pop up and do a swift rendition of Row Row Row Your Boat, clattering coconut shells in accompaniment, then I can notch up another milestone in my medical career.  

Mystified ?  Just practice the singalong and I'll explain ..

I've taken two days off for education - Continuing Professional Development (CPD) being an essential part of every doctors remit these days.

We have to collect as least 250 CPD points over 5 years which can be quite a tall order.  Ideally I would give priority to clinical courses - updates on disease areas like "The latest thoughts on treating pneumonia in the Crimean War Veteran" or "Screening tests for dye allergy in women who enjoy a blue rinse" but courses can be expensive  - a weeks salary for a days course - so free courses laid on by the Deanery have a certain appeal.   I wasn't particularly looking forward to this one but it offered 10 free CPD points, so I gave up a day and a half of my "spare" (writing) time to go. And, suprisingly, it was very good (thanks to a great teaching team including Dr Simon Cooper, a consultant physician working with the elderly in Taunton). 

Based on Confucius's words :

Tell me - I forget

Show me - I may remember

Involve me  - I learn

.. we were shown how to teach effectively by involving our students using all sorts of techniques, one of which was a 10 minute "micro-teach" session that we all had to try out.

Choose something non-medical to teach was the advice. I could have got them making a nice cocktail but 10 in the morning seemed a little early for Death in the Afternoon, and most of you know my kitchen skills are dangerously limited. More importantly the rest of my group, who I was to teach, consisted of overseas doctors, predominantly middle aged Muslim men well versed in surgical microsuction in the middle ear or the challenges inherent in replacing a hip joint.  It was hard to guage what other interestes or knowledge they might have but undoubtedly mid-morning alcohol was not a good idea. 

So in a sudden brain wave I decided to teach them how to perform as a Flash Band  

("Why ???" you are no doubt immediately rising in your chair to wonder - the tutor examining me thought much the same - and assumed my microteach was

doomed from the start.)

Fearless, I made my pitch. First I introduced the concept - none of them had a clue so I used my ipad to demonstrate with a YouTube clip or two : 

A flash mob song ?

A Flash Dance ?

or even a flash freeze ?

  

Suitably impressed with the idea, we then spent a minute brainstorming what we would need :   

SINGERS

INSTRUMENTS

LYRIC SHEETS OR MUSIC

  

plus a Bandleader/Conductor .. and a big heap of guts !!


By now I was sweating and shaking - would they understand what to do... could they play the simple percussion instruments I had borrowed from my children...  would they even sing in front of their colleagues ?

To my astonishment, the guys delivered - with enthusiasm and gusto !! We had a couple of shaky verses at the start (my poor direction), a brief hiccup as I rearranged them into pairs when they looked nervous about singing alone, and then we took the world of rivers and rowing boats by storm.   Forget scalpels and stethoscopes, these doctors have new skills, so watch out Waterloo ! 

Quite how I (and they) are going to put this to further practice in the hospital isn't quite clear though ..