Power Imbalance

The medical specialist I’ve known for more than two decades, who performed three surgeries on me over the years, is under review by the College of Physicians and Surgeons. His right to practise is at stake. A journalist friend who has worked for some of the biggest publications in the country is routinely forced to defend his judgment in front of a review panel. What do they have in common? They both teach at universities.  

Somewhere along the way, students acquired more power than their professors. Perhaps it was born out of a need to cap a prof’s power, so the truly mean ones couldn’t limit a budding career by giving a student a low mark they didn’t earn. But it’s out of control.

The Dr.’s troubles began when a medical intern missed obvious signs in the health of an unborn child and the baby could have died. The Dr. checked up on the intern’s assessment that the mother was fit to go home, three weeks before her due date, and noticed troubling signals that all wasn’t well. He focused on arranging and performing an emergency C-section, saved the baby and the day, and took the intern aside later to explain what had happened in a “teaching moment”. The student, fearing her career was at risk, filed a complaint, alleging the Dr. was a bully and treated her unfairly. The baby’s peril was forgotten. It became about the student’s (unfounded) worries about her potentially fatal mistake.

This was two years ago. He has been under investigation ever since. A student from ten years ago told the board that he saw the Dr. touch an intern. The intern had just been called “incompetent” by a surgeon during a C-section where the mother, father and the rest of the medical team were all present. She was humiliated and in tears. My Dr. was the next to see her and gave her a consoling hug in a hallway, in the open, as she wailed. This was the “inappropriate” touch.

This Dr. is beloved by his patients. I travel from London to see him in another city more than an hour away and wouldn’t think of replacing him with a local specialist. But he’s not the same man now. His easy laugh is gone, and his broad smile has tightened into a slight grin. His entire practise has undergone scrutiny. The latest review was conducted by the so-called “best in the country” colleague who just returned his verdict: this doctor has done nothing wrong. He’s awaiting formal vindication but knows that even once his name is cleared, an apology will never come.

My journalist friend is tired of the anticipation of what will happen when he hands out a deserved low grade. Some of his students expect to squeak by despite handing in substandard work, no work at all, or obvious plagiarism. If they don’t get the mark they want, not the one they’ve earned, they file a complaint and he is forced once again to defend it in front of an expert panel. It’s exhausting and it would be so much easier to just drop his standards and let everyone sail through. I suspect that’s what some – many? – profs end up doing. But he won’t do that and neither will the Dr. give up fighting for thousands of patients, past and present, who expect the best medical treatment.

Students should have a recourse against bullying professors but they shouldn’t be allowed to smear professional reputations when it’s not warranted. My Dr. will put this all behind him and continue to give the excellent care he is known for. My journalist friend will continue to teach, believing it’s his duty to ensure the journalists-to-be are prepared for the real – and shrinking – world of media. But it’s just all so unnecessary. It’s the product of insecure people who can’t bear the thought that the causes of their own troubles can be found by looking within themselves.

 

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