I cannot believe how the time has flown, and now our class is already 1/2 of the way through the didactic portion of the pharmacy program at Creighton University. The final (4th) year consists of 8 rotations, 5 weeks each, so we have just 1 1/2 years, 3 semesters, left of classes.
I have been asked if I am enjoying the program, and I always have to stop and think. It usually keeps me at full speed ahead and there's no time to really ponder whether I am enjoying it or not. It is definitely, at minimum, a full-time job in and of itself. I do not know how many of my classmates balance their lives as full time parents with young babies and toddlers or multitudes of kids to transport here and there, and care for 24 hours each day. Nor do I see how people are balancing this program with working full time, or anywhere near part time even. I am grateful that the classes do seem to build on each other, and we seem to revisit important information relatively often.
Definitely I remain in awe of the information we are learning, and will be able to apply in our careers. There is so much that scientists have discovered about the human and body and how it works, and are discovering all the time more nuances and intricacies, although I know that we will never be able to describe it all solely in a physical manner. I am almost in as much awe of what scientists have learned through the centuries as I was and am with the acupuncturists and herbalists in ancient China learning what they knew about energy, meridians, and natural medicines. I am eager to learn more about pharmaceuticals and how they work in the body to increase health, so that I can apply the knowledge I have gained and am gaining at Creighton. At the same time, I realize I have never worked my brain so much and so hard for such seemingly mediocre results, grade-wise. It has really been a matter of continuing to let go of the perfectionism I've carried with me all of these years, and hoped I'd balanced. I definitely felt I had to sacrifice what might have been a couple of sure A's to devote time and energy to the more difficult classes and maintain them at reasonable grade levels. Definitely a balancing act, and not one that included much balance in the rest of my life. Thankfully, I have a super supportive husband, and all of my kids are doing well off at college, and all of the drama from last year (big move, cats dying, having a high school senior to keep tabs on) was not this year. My acupuncture practice is small, as it needs to be, and I still enjoy treating people and helping them feel better on many levels.
A recent incident in our Pharmacology class definitely re-triggered memories from my time as a student in TCM school, and especially my time as Academic Dean in the same school. One of our pharmacology professors suggested a relatively lewd means of remembering a certain drug during the lecture, and one of the campus students took offense and wrote to the professor about his/her discomfort. The next class period the professor offered a survey suggesting that his comment was not out of line, and that he was justified in it if it helped us to remember the specific drug to which he was referring. He was obviously agitated, and was clearly not appreciative of the student's feedback, plus he took class time for the survey. It seems obvious that he could have handled the situation in a more professional manner, by acknowledging that someone in the class was uncomfortable and/or perhaps dealing with it directly with the student, and move on with his job of teaching us. A few weeks later we learned that this professor has been removed from our lecture schedule for next term. Many members of the class are in an uproar in protest of this decision.
The campus class president sent us all an email explaining the steps he has taken to try to reinstate this professor multiple times, and his lack of success in that endeavor. It is obvious the on campus class feels passionately about losing a "good" professor, with the head of department taking over his lectures. Plus many of the students are very angry at the single student who expressed their discomfort and put everyone in this position of a seemingly worse pharmacology class next semester.
My experience as an Academic Dean in a school where I had also once been a student has given me a very different perspective on the matter. I quickly learned as the Dean, that the students know only a fraction of what happens on the other side of the equation with the faculty and administration. The students only get a time-stamped glimpse, rather than an entire history, of ongoing issues with faculty, students, and administration. Students, especially when they are stressed and anxious, will often form uprisings about a particular issue without full knowledge of all aspects of a situation or the ability to see beyond the here and now. The students often do not understand how difficult it is to make an unpopular decision for the integrity and professionalism of the school. Unfortunately, in the school where I was dean, we struggled to keep instructors, so had little pull when it came to disciplining those who were outright unprofessional, and any action would take years to implement, at the cost of the students receiving less than ideal education for which they were paying plenty of money.
As the dean, I saw many of these petitions for change and uprisings and very very rarely did they amount to much because the school did not base its decisions on students' narrowed perspectives of how things had been run for eons. That was a bit frustrating as the dean, because I saw many things that I thought I'd have some power in changing that I saw as issues as a student, and really had none. What I ended up telling students is what I'd learned myself as a student in the school, is that what you put into it is exactly what you will get out. Ultimately their success was up to them. They were taught and given various perspectives and information, either poorly or phenomenally (mostly poorly though), and their input and energy into the information would determine the level of knowledge they would gain and take with them into the world of acupuncture practice.
I have definitely encountered worse instructors in that school than the pharmacology professor involved and far, far, far worse professionalism with instructors and didn't directly complain to the administration when I was a student. I also do not know this professor's history with student complaints, so cannot make a judgment based on that. I am glad that a student did express concern for the content of the remark, if it made them uncomfortable. Yes it might have been in a more professional manner than was relayed to us, but also the professor should not have taken class time for his "survey", and to express his obvious agitation. I am unsure of which act was unprofessional in the department head's eyes, perhaps both? Anyhow, again, I do not know the entire story, and I reserve the right to not judge or become emotionally involved. I certainly do not feel any anger towards any of these characters in this play, and I am actually glad to see that Creighton University has the ability to nip these issues in the bud before they devolved (either with this professor or others nearby who are observing) into the chaos I endured in TCM school.
My plan is to rest up this break, enjoy my boys coming home, and whatever is to come next semester (as rumor has it, it is the most challenging semester of the entire program - and if this is the case, I have a lot of work coming up to make it through and do well) be prepared and enthused and take responsibility for what I put into my education so that I can graduate and become the best pharmacist/acupuncturist I can be, regardless of who is teaching what course for what reason.
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