👍Not at all surprised that "My language abilities sit in the 99.7th percentile (not a shocker, perhaps, given that you’re reading this), which is to say that out of a hundred people selected at random, I can expect to be operating at a level above 99 of them." But when they say "language abilities" presumably they mean WRITTEN predominantly? I haven't taken any official tests as an adult, but from my earliest school days I wrote poems, plays, long stories & was years above my age in reading comprehension - but verbally? Ok in "friend groups" who gave me time & space, but not spontaneous debate as opposed to reading out my written, pre-thought & finely crafted, arguments 🤷 (not to mention the "trivial" subjects my peers wanted to talk about such as clothes, & pop-stars, and BOYS!) "English" teachers (as in subject=reading, writing proficiency) enouraged me & in most jobs I have ended up drafting letters, submissions, explanatory articles etc. in the voice of "the boss", & even quasi-legal arguments in helping people who couldn't afford legal teams in employment complaints. I have put it down to late-recognition of being on the Autism spectrum.
🤔But to the subject at hand - OF COURSE there should be accommodations for medical graduates who would be safe & effective practitioners - and why CAN'T we actively train "part-time" Drs? WE ALREADY HAVE THEM! I know of several practices where there are Drs who only work certain days (& not because they are off to work in private hospitals on their days away, although I know of them too! but because of personal reasons) . Also some have a "specific needs" Dr who comes in once a week/month or on demand i.e. Mental health specialty.
Recently it was raised in a discussion on the funding of the Health system that the employment conditions for Jnr Drs (limiting their hours to avoid burnout & mistakes just as you mention) means we need MORE DRS to cover the same shifts, (which is a legitimate budget increase for hospitals IMHO) so it is already recognised with non-"disabled" medical staff that "accommodations" are possible and necessary. Unfortunately with this Coalition-of-Cruelty I don't have much hope for even the existing training/staffing in public health, let alone expanding to allow for accommodations to increase the opportunities for Drs of varying challenges 🤷
🧐This discussion also builds on what I thought after watching the Aotearoa doc with Dai Henwood about his journey to date with incurable bowel cancer - his oncologist asked him if he would speak to medical students & let them ask questions, and I thought at the time what an invaluable opportunity the students had to hear from "the other side" without the burden of it being their own patient & having to make decisions affecting their life/death. And that leads to this subject - how invaluable during medical studies if/when you are talking about endometriosis, or ADHD, or any number of things, if your fellow students could share insights from someone who KNOWS? Let alone when said med students graduate & face it in their patients & can say "I understand..." 🫂
👏Great & valuable article - I hope you gather them together & publish an e-book 👍
In closing, being pessimistic about this lot doesn't mean giving up - I like that saying about the journey of 1000 miles starting with 1 step - it also means taking the next step, and the next, and convincing others to come along with us 🙏
It wasn’t a thorough test on language abilities and I’m not always entirely sure which aspects of which tests informed specific traits (there was like a general knowledge type quiz that I think informed it, for example, but I’m not sure how much). The things is focussed on were adhd-specific sort of issues too. The part that tested my ability to compute numbers for example didn’t want to know how much maths i knew, but was very concerned with my working memory as much as my mathematical ability because that discrepancy in ability is very indicative of ADHD.
Honestly I’d love to someday chat with someone who’s knowledgeable about ADHD psychometric tests, it was incredibly interesting but also a bit of a blur now, there was so much going on!
Your language history sounds a lot like mine, so autism seems a likely answer.
It seems there’s accomodations people are willing to go to for doctors who become disabled (I found a few wheelchair bound doctors practicing post-disablement that were used as examples of how someone with a disability could still practice, but it’s hard to see that being accommodated during residency when they are less “valuable” as a professional), but it’s entirely a different kettle of fish for anyone starting out disabled.
And you hit the nail on the head, money is the big presser. There’s been huge criticism of the hours junior doctors are expected to do in recent years but we already don’t have enough doctors, so giving them less hours is impossible without the health system falling apart. Which is why a new med school should be such excellent news!! But it’s coming with the slashing of costs in public health and while money spent on staffing is insufficient to attract doctors but which the governments won’t raise.
Hard to see this one being solved the way we’re used to doing things… or the way these guys want to do things…
An ebook is something to consider. I wonder if anyone would read it… 😂 But thank you so much for your warm words on ALL my posts, it’s a huge encouragement! 😊
Everything feels pessimistic at the moment but the Aotearoa disability community have achieved massively incredible things in the past, so I’m confident that once we kick this lot out and start fixing things, this is something that can be improved on in future 👍
👍Not at all surprised that "My language abilities sit in the 99.7th percentile (not a shocker, perhaps, given that you’re reading this), which is to say that out of a hundred people selected at random, I can expect to be operating at a level above 99 of them." But when they say "language abilities" presumably they mean WRITTEN predominantly? I haven't taken any official tests as an adult, but from my earliest school days I wrote poems, plays, long stories & was years above my age in reading comprehension - but verbally? Ok in "friend groups" who gave me time & space, but not spontaneous debate as opposed to reading out my written, pre-thought & finely crafted, arguments 🤷 (not to mention the "trivial" subjects my peers wanted to talk about such as clothes, & pop-stars, and BOYS!) "English" teachers (as in subject=reading, writing proficiency) enouraged me & in most jobs I have ended up drafting letters, submissions, explanatory articles etc. in the voice of "the boss", & even quasi-legal arguments in helping people who couldn't afford legal teams in employment complaints. I have put it down to late-recognition of being on the Autism spectrum.
🤔But to the subject at hand - OF COURSE there should be accommodations for medical graduates who would be safe & effective practitioners - and why CAN'T we actively train "part-time" Drs? WE ALREADY HAVE THEM! I know of several practices where there are Drs who only work certain days (& not because they are off to work in private hospitals on their days away, although I know of them too! but because of personal reasons) . Also some have a "specific needs" Dr who comes in once a week/month or on demand i.e. Mental health specialty.
Recently it was raised in a discussion on the funding of the Health system that the employment conditions for Jnr Drs (limiting their hours to avoid burnout & mistakes just as you mention) means we need MORE DRS to cover the same shifts, (which is a legitimate budget increase for hospitals IMHO) so it is already recognised with non-"disabled" medical staff that "accommodations" are possible and necessary. Unfortunately with this Coalition-of-Cruelty I don't have much hope for even the existing training/staffing in public health, let alone expanding to allow for accommodations to increase the opportunities for Drs of varying challenges 🤷
🧐This discussion also builds on what I thought after watching the Aotearoa doc with Dai Henwood about his journey to date with incurable bowel cancer - his oncologist asked him if he would speak to medical students & let them ask questions, and I thought at the time what an invaluable opportunity the students had to hear from "the other side" without the burden of it being their own patient & having to make decisions affecting their life/death. And that leads to this subject - how invaluable during medical studies if/when you are talking about endometriosis, or ADHD, or any number of things, if your fellow students could share insights from someone who KNOWS? Let alone when said med students graduate & face it in their patients & can say "I understand..." 🫂
👏Great & valuable article - I hope you gather them together & publish an e-book 👍
In closing, being pessimistic about this lot doesn't mean giving up - I like that saying about the journey of 1000 miles starting with 1 step - it also means taking the next step, and the next, and convincing others to come along with us 🙏
It wasn’t a thorough test on language abilities and I’m not always entirely sure which aspects of which tests informed specific traits (there was like a general knowledge type quiz that I think informed it, for example, but I’m not sure how much). The things is focussed on were adhd-specific sort of issues too. The part that tested my ability to compute numbers for example didn’t want to know how much maths i knew, but was very concerned with my working memory as much as my mathematical ability because that discrepancy in ability is very indicative of ADHD.
Honestly I’d love to someday chat with someone who’s knowledgeable about ADHD psychometric tests, it was incredibly interesting but also a bit of a blur now, there was so much going on!
Your language history sounds a lot like mine, so autism seems a likely answer.
It seems there’s accomodations people are willing to go to for doctors who become disabled (I found a few wheelchair bound doctors practicing post-disablement that were used as examples of how someone with a disability could still practice, but it’s hard to see that being accommodated during residency when they are less “valuable” as a professional), but it’s entirely a different kettle of fish for anyone starting out disabled.
And you hit the nail on the head, money is the big presser. There’s been huge criticism of the hours junior doctors are expected to do in recent years but we already don’t have enough doctors, so giving them less hours is impossible without the health system falling apart. Which is why a new med school should be such excellent news!! But it’s coming with the slashing of costs in public health and while money spent on staffing is insufficient to attract doctors but which the governments won’t raise.
Hard to see this one being solved the way we’re used to doing things… or the way these guys want to do things…
An ebook is something to consider. I wonder if anyone would read it… 😂 But thank you so much for your warm words on ALL my posts, it’s a huge encouragement! 😊
Everything feels pessimistic at the moment but the Aotearoa disability community have achieved massively incredible things in the past, so I’m confident that once we kick this lot out and start fixing things, this is something that can be improved on in future 👍