Duke University School of Medicine - Aesculapian Yearbook (Durham, NC)

Page 28 text:

really was not necessary for electrolyte determinations, and that blood would run through less than an 18 guage needle. We could have used this information earlier. In general, pediatrics was a happy quarter, taught by happy people. We all agree that the dominant clinical service at Duke is internal medicine, at least from the point of view of the medical student. Here is where we learned most, were stimulated the most, and were stressed the most. We did not have to look far for the reason for this, for the biggest learner, stimulator, and stressor of all sat at the center of the internal medicine web. Indeed, nothing of importance ever transpires without Him being present, either in body or spirit. We have seen young clinical investigators writhe in guilt before Him, as if lack of medical knowledge in certain areas was their own personal fault. It was reminiscent of 1984. We were amazed at this man and his staff and his department, and we are proud of their very important role in our medical education. Certainly, in the house staff years ahead, we shall have an unmatched storehouse of anecdotes for midnight meal conversation when it comes to talking about former teachers. The department of surgery was less student oriented than medicine, and it was a welcome relief in many ways. lt was nice to be able to do one's lab work and depart, and know that the house staff would not worry about our mental deficiencies. Many of us were impressed with the definitiveness of surgery and the rapid, action-packed course of most surgical disease. Many of us have chosen this area of medicine for these and other reasons. Others of us felt that time spent tying knots was time lost for other, more refiective activities. To each his own. Senior surgery was a sort of hop scotch across the surgical specialties, and these had appeal for some. Particularly beckoning was the thought of knowing everything there is to know about a subject, and this has lured some of 1960's finest into the surgical specialties. As can be gathered from this account and from examining the senior pages of this yearbook, we are a class with many varied interests. Almost all divisions of medicine will receive benefits from the class of 1960. We are especially proud of our several general practitioners who stuck to their ambitions throughout four years of specialist oriented training. By Christmas time of the senior year, all our plans were solidified, with the exception that none of us knew where we were going to intern. Consequently, there was a steady rise in the class epinephrine level until the day of the National Intern Matching Program, or NIMP to those in the know. The memorable day was Monday, March 1.4. There was much talk that morning about in- terning in Creedmoor or not getting matched at all. As it finally turned out, the internships we ob- tained were, without exception, superb. After that day, the symptoms of apathia terminalis be- came severe, irreversible, and beyond therapy. We were on the pleasant down hill slope of Starling's curve, and we decompensated all the way down to graduation. ln conclusion, let us state three firm convictions of the class of 1960. First of all, we are certain that medicine is the greatest profession of all, for our object of study is the most fantastic of creatures, the human being. Others may study mankind, but society allows only the physician the opportunity to take the full and complete look. We are aware of our responsibility to look and look well, not to do so would be to fail our patients, our profession and ourselves. The second conviction is that there has never been a more amiable, pleasant group of people than the class of 1960. Our relationships have been characterized by mutual respect, cooperation, and an amaz- ing paucity of malice. We are basically 78 nice people, and it is perfectly obvious that we do not mind if we say so ourselves. Our final conviction is a straight-forward one, namely, that Duke University School of Medicine is a pretty damn good place to go to medical school. PAGE 24

Page 27 text:

light into one's own eye, and how to avoid fracturing one's metaearpal bones when setting the tuning fork in motion. We also learned history taking at this time. Some of the eompendiums we recorded were indeed tributes to the endurance of modern fountain pens. Here too, we lirst became acquainted with the bright young men, the rising medical stars, the nouveau long coats. These folk talked in a peculiar tongue in which they exchanged ideas by referring to them rather than expressing them. This form of communication has been labeled journal jumping. Many of our class began to speak this language even then, it seemed to them to be the only thing to do. The second year was rounded out with a battery of lectures that was astounding. Preventa- tive medicine, public health, legal medicine, dentistry, MEND, Markle scholars, psychiatry, ob- stetrics, surgery, physiatry-all had their rather lengthy say. Our intake of knowledge was some- what limited because of severe gluteal fatigue. ln addition, there was that fairly non-descript entity, the sophomore elective. lt was so non-descript that it was forgotten entirely by one of our class, and he was forced to divide his time between golf and sleep. The class energy, which had been so well directed in the early part of the second year, had been thoroughly dissipated in at least 39 different directions by that year's end. We were ready for the clinical years. lt would be very diflicult to state how the class of 1960 reacted to serving on obstetrics and gynecology, since individual reactions were so different. One thing that is certain is that we in- deed did serve, another is that the teaching program given by the senior staff was excellent. Most of us managed to deliver at least one baby, and this cannot fail to be a memorable experience, even for one totally unimpressed by this area of the practice of medicine. We still cannot understand how it could be impossible to locate the medical student when the pelvic examination was to be done on his patient, yet when hemoglobin time rolled around, he was snared and spirited to the ward with IBM-like efficiency. Then there was the student who happened to come upon a mother giving birth to her baby in the dark recesses of Prevost, and who at this point found out that stu- dents were not allowed to call for precipitation trays. We are glad that OB 8: GYN is not given in the fourth year, for some astute, more perceptive than average senior might observe that running fourteen consecutive urines was of questionable teaching value and be tempted to point this out. All in all though, the quarter on OB 81 GYN was an entertaining and dramatic one, and perhaps the best part of all was listening to the captain of the OB team, a truly amazing man from any point of view. Our class was undoubtedly exposed to more psychiatric radiation than any other in the history of the Duke Medical School. In addition to absorbing the direct rays emitted from the quarter on psychiatry itself, we were also exposed to a marked increase in background spookery. thrown in while on other clinical services. Whether we admit or not, the effect has been profound, many irreversible cerebral mutations have been induced. Even those of us who consider psychiatry in the same realm as phrenology have been overheard making guttural, non-committal noises and thoughtfully repeating their patients' last sentence. Things such as chronic fatigue, low back pain, headaches, and history of hysterectomy point our diagnostic noses toward the psyche just as surely as dyspnea points it toward the hean. However reluctantly, we have learned our lessons well, we only hope what we have learned is true. Psychiatry is a field of great potential-some might say, all potential-and we are glad that our class will contribute several members to this area of medicine. As doctors, of course. Howland ward is the only place in the hospital that can compare with M-l IO in aptness of thought. It too has a big black fan that goes squeak, squeak, squeak without moving air. But all this is beside the point. We observed an incredible array of disease processes in this ward. any one of which would have been enough to send the average house officer on any other service into orbit permanently. The pediatric house staff is imperturbable, however. Why get excited about systemic nocardiosis when there is a patient in the next bed with hypertensive adrenogenitalism? Perhaps the most impressive thing about pediatrics was the violence with which the young folk get sick. Fever means 42 degrees, epilepsy means status epilepticus, heart trouble means murmurs that are audible across the room, eczema means no normal skin-children seem to be moribund or well, with little in between. Of incidental interest to us was the fact that a half pint of blood PAGE 23

Page 29 text:

4 Q : Z Z J X '55 W' px L ML xx .. f ' N XX 3 X f J J' 4 if 3 Qwfqigniff XAQZ A if W fbi? 3 fx llf QC H314 ff A X W gmwlxgj K, ,wg unf' QQBN fjfgs fi f AQ A1 EN, Q60 . Y 5660 ,,,f f I A