Just Like Crossing the Road

Learning medicine is not unlike learning to cross the road.

When we were little, our parents held our hands to cross the road. When we were young, our parents told us to always cross the road when the traffic light turns green. We should look right, left, and right again to make sure there's no car. And then we cross. After growing up, we learned to jaywalk when there's no car. We even learned to cross a busy road just before the speeding cars could hit us.

When we were a medical student, the doctors carry our hands to see patients. This is how it goes: First you inspect. Then you palpate. Then you percuss. And you auscultate. As we grow up to become doctors and become more experienced, we start to go for only the important stuff and skip the irrelevant bits. As for the consultants? They are the jaywalkers.

I don't mean they are haphazard or reckless, of course. They know where all the cars are.