The LTMMC also known as Sion Hospital conducted the 4th workshop for DNB students. Again there were 35 students today and my lecture was after Dr Supe’s and Dr Mamta Manglani’s. I went in during the last 20 minutes of Dr Manglani’s lecture and while the contents may be more or less the same as usual, it is always a delight listening to her, as she weaves in life stories and keeps the students laughing often, so that they enjoy the sessions. This time I loved the way she said “many people read the Bhagavad Gita (or any spiritual reading) after they retire. Reading about how to live, after living most of your life is really no use. Do remember you need to live your life every day, and only when you do such reading or learning, you will live life and actually be a better doctor and a better human’. That was something really important for every student. I hope each of them remembers this lesson!
The questions I got this time, after my session were more about Reference Management tools, because I just mentioned Mendeley and Zotero at the end of the talk. Students got very interested in those and wanted to know more. I do feel that this should also be included in the workshop. Both literature searching and reference management tools save huge amounts of time that can be used more efficiently for the actual reading and research.
In fact (and I also made this point in my talk today) – while everyone highlights the need for students to see a statistician before starting their research, they need to also add, that students should learn and constantly interact with a search specialist before and during the research work. QMed hopes to see these changes soon.
