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December 2009 News

  Learning: You VS Your Kids

The term andragogy ("aen-drê-gah-jee) was originally formulated in 1833 by a German teacher, Alexander Kapp, from the Greek words meaning adult-leading, distinguished from the more commonly used pedagogy (child-leading).

The five following assumptions underlie the andragogical model of learning:

1. The learner is self-directing. In this model adult learners want to take responsibility for their own lives, including the planning, implementing and evaluating of their learning activities.
2. The learner enters an educational situation with a great deal of experience. This experience can be a valuable resource to the learner as well as to other learners. This experience needs to be valued by the instructor and used in the learning process.
3. Adults are ready to learn when they perceive a need to know or do something in order to perform more effectively in some aspect of their lives. Their readiness to learn may be stimulated by helping them to assess the gap between where they are now and where they want and need to be.
4. Adults are motivated to learn after they experience a need in their life situation. For that reason learning needs to be problem-focused or task-centered. Adults want to apply what they have learned as quickly as possible. Learning activities need to be clearly relevant to the needs of the adult.
5. Adults are motivated to learn because of internal factors, such as self-esteem recognition, better quality of life, greater self-confidence, the opportunity to self-actualize, and so forth. External factors, such as pressure from authority figures or salary increases, are less important.

Pedagogy and its related processes are quite different from those that support andragogy and andragogical processes. In pedagogical orientation content is the focus and instructors are concerned about what needs to be covered in a learning situation, how that content can be organized into manageable units, the most logical sequence for representing these units, and the most efficient means of transmitting their content. The basic concern of an andragogical orientation is process.

Now you can dazzle your children with your knowledge of learning models.

  Upcoming Meetings

January 14-17 VA Winter Retreat, McCall, Nancy Williams, 422-7643
February 26-28 ACMS Winter Clinics, McCall, Don Bich, 336-2930
February 18-19 Idaho Perinatal Conference, Nampa, Sarah Johnson, 381-4174
March 12-13 Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics - Family Medicine Residency of Idaho, Boise, Mary Ball, 367-6041

  Wednesday, 8:00 a.m. - Anderson Center

  MEMBERSHIP:

NEW ACMS PHYSICIAN MEMBERS THIS MONTH: Travis Kemp, M.D.; Marcel Goldberg, M.D.; Matthew Sericati, M.D.

The Young Monk's Christmas Present A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks copy the old canons and laws of the church by hand to be given to the Bishop as a Christmas gift. He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies. The head monk says, 'We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point my son.' He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot… So the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing. "We missed the R! We missed the R! We missed the R!" His forehead all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably. The young monk asks the old abbot, 'What's wrong, father?' With a choking voice, the old abbot replies, 'The word was supposed to be Celebrate!!!

  January 2010

 1 NO CONFERENCE
 6 Idaho Epidemiology Update, Chris Hahn, MD
 8 Idaho Epidemiology Update, Chris Hahn, MD
13 Hoarseness, Ryan Van De Graaff, MD
15 Crowe Lectures in Dermatology
20 St. Luke's Children's Hospital, Grand Rounds, Pediatric Surgery: Pectus Surgery, Ellen Reynolds, MD
22 Epilepsy Update, Robert Wechsler, MD
27 Ski Injuries, Scot Scheffel, MD
29 Critical Care Case Conference, Denise Wurth, MD

Doing Good and Doing Well

Someone once said that we physicians start out wanting to do good and end up wanting to do well. There's more than a little truth to this statement. Physicians in general are attracted to medicine not only because of its economic benefits but because it gives meaning to the altruism which calls us into the profession.

After years of delayed gratification and mounting debt too often many of us have come to expect that the good life of large homes, fine vacations and luxury autos will happen without what Osler called the master word in medicine work. For many physicians the greatest challenge in their professional lives will be the challenge of a successful practice. It risks blurring the moral compass which we need to keep us focused for the long haul. I firmly believe that physicians should be well rewarded for their service and expertise and there are those among us who become so skilled at what they do they deserve whatever economic benefits come their way. Too often though some physicians after years of practice lose their enthusiasm for medicine and their altruism seems to atrophy. A certain ennui sets in and their professional life becomes routine. They no longer keep up with the literature or attend CME activities and they seem to lose their enthusiasm for the wonders of the human spirit.

Economic rewards will not be enough to satisfy most in medicine for their long journey ahead. One needs to develop a desire for lifetime learning and strive to be their very best to better serve their patient. Perhaps the greatest compassion is in making the correct diagnosis. Nothing is so satisfying for a physician than to be considered one of the best by his colleagues.

In these tough economic times sharing our own largess with those less fortunate gives special meaning during this season of giving and helps rekindle the flame of altruism in our professional lives. In so doing we will have done some good for ourselves and well for our patients.

John J. Mohr, M.D.

 

December 2009 Conferences

  Anderson Center, St. Luke’s RMC, Wednesday 8:00 a.m.

 2 Parasites of the Gastro Intestinal Tract, Dan Toweill, MD
 9 Chiropractic Manipulation and Cervical Artery Dissections: A Royal Pain in the Neck, Heidi Orme, MD
16 Medical History: Influenza Pandemic of 1918, David Lee, MD
23 NO CONFERENCE
30 NO CONFERENCE

  Winter Room, Mercy Medical Center, Wednesday 12:15 p.m.

 2 Parasites of the Gastro Intestinal Tract, Dan Toweill, MD
 9 Chiropractic Manipulation and Cervical Artery Dissections: A Royal Pain in the Neck, Heidi Orme, MD
16 Medical History: Influenza Pandemic of 1918, David Lee, MD
23 NO CONFERENCE
30 NO CONFERENCE

  AW Horsley, VA Medical Center, Thursday 8:00 a.m.

 3 Musculosletal Radiology for the Primary Care Physician, Shane McGongele, MD
10 TB Update, Dennis Stevens, MD
17 TBA
24 NO CONFERENCE
31 NO CONFERENCE

  McCleary Auditorium, Saint Alphonsus RMC, Friday 8:00 a.m.

 4 Idaho Health Data Exchange and Meaningful Use, Julie Foote, MD
11 Pituitary Disease, Ann Marie Yost, MD
18 Facial Pain, Phillip Berryhill, MD
25 NO CONFERENCE

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