This is Eve. Sharp drop in UCLA ‘shelf test’ scoresThe announcement from the University of Washington, which is supposed to have an excellent medical school, was so shocking to IM Doc that he first sent out a lengthy email and then wrote a post, based on an article in the Washington Free Beacon, an overtly right-wing venue, that was republished by the Daily Mail and others.
The article included images of test results, so the underlying accusation is hard to argue with. The Beacon’s headline focused on the idea that race-based preferential treatment led to a drop in admissions standards. (To be fair to the article, the steep drop in test scores appears to have happened under the current dean, who has changed a lot of policy.) But the article also described changes to education, such as shortening the preclinical curriculum from two years to one.
First, from IM Doc’s email:
I encourage everyone in the US to avoid all students who graduated after 2010.
Yes, it is that bad. It is pervasive and it happens all the time and I see this every day.
The attached image is a screenshot from an article today exposing the fact that 50% of students at UCLA, once one of the most prestigious schools in the nation, fail the shelf exam. The shelf exam is a test taken at the end of each clinical rotation in the third year to determine competency in internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, etc. The test is difficult, and you can get a fair number of questions wrong and still pass. Failing this exam is a sign of very limited knowledge. In my day, it was one or two people on the brink of failure. As you can see in most rotations, the number of students who fail at UCLA is huge. In my day, this level of failure would have been catastrophic. The article claims that it is due to a failure in admissions selection that allows minority considerations to trump everything else. That may be true. I don’t think the corruption ends there.
He then detailed a refreshing experience he had with a white Ivy League internal medicine student on a rotation under an IM Doc. The assignment was a presentation about a patient the student had seen for 30 minutes. The patient had stabilized and was recovering from kidney failure. The student never mentioned kidney failure or any potential ongoing issues in the presentation, instead focusing on (I don’t think much of it) elevated blood pressure and blaming it on repressed homosexuality. Upon questioning, it became clear the student could not assess a kidney failure patient, could not read test results, or even understand the meaning of simple lab tests.
The IM Doc then made an enquiry.
I immediately called two former students who are now faculty at the school, and both told me the same story that you would never guess: after speaking with the program director, I was informed that this student had already failed two rotations, but would still pass and graduate. They no longer fail students, and it is an oppressive totem of the past.
It’s bad enough that so many young doctors are graduating despite low skills. But things are getting worse on the other side of the pipeline, as doctors and nurses leave the profession in increasing numbers. For doctors, there’s a background deterioration in working conditions, including fighting insurance companies and spending time dealing with medically counterproductive electronic health records, which are made worse by the corporatization of health care and the impact of the coronavirus. For nurses, many are quitting over the mandatory coronavirus vaccine.
According to IM Doc, a professor of internal medicine currently practising at the flyover.
This week has been a revelatory one.
First, there was a report that UCLA’s “half of students are failing.”
Here’s what Kaiser sent us (the recipient’s full name was posted on Instagram):
I am just astonished. As I have said from the beginning, when it comes to medical ethics, the COVID vaccination mandate was the most unethical policy decision I have ever seen. It was already clear that there were huge issues with efficacy when it was promulgated to the public, and the safety issues were already well known. It was an incredible time. But the problem is that Kaiser and many other large companies across the country literally destroyed themselves. It doesn’t get a lot of coverage in the news, but those of us in the industry absolutely know that so many staff, especially ancillary staff, saw this as a final blow and quit in droves. The medical field has not been the same since. But while the number of doctors and nurses who quit was much smaller, it marked the beginning of a significant implosion that continues to this day. I can’t tell you how many of my colleagues my age and older just threw up. It’s a stab in the heart for those of us who take things like ethics and compassion seriously to see the leaders of our profession behave in such a confused and careless manner.
So now the big setback begins, which is totally expected and totally embarrassing.
A former Kaiser nurse who was fired for not getting a COVID-19 vaccination responds to a letter from the HMO pleading with her to reapply.
Her response? “See you in court!” pic.twitter.com/UNDmh5rNdC— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) May 25, 2024
From the beginning, I’ve seen all kinds of young women who started having period problems soon after the injection. This is a real concern, especially for those who still want children. And then rumors started to spread. And this, more than anything else, was the driving force behind many of the resignations over time. First, the resigners were accused of being heretics and literally killing people by being vaccine-hesitant. Then, once things started to come out in terms of efficacy and safety, they were accused of not being team players. And now, come back with open arms. We need you. It’s all been a lot of fuss, don’t you know?
And this week, leaders are rushing onto TV shows to express their current thinking. Dr. Birx says she “thinks” the number of injuries will be in the thousands, not millions. Remember, this is the same woman who “thought” the vaccine was germicidal and “hoped” it would work. Former CDC Director Dr. Redfield said it was clear that only high-risk patients should get the vaccine because it definitely has side effects that can hurt people.
I think we should all remember that just a few years ago, doctors were censored, decertified, stripped of their licenses, and kicked out for saying the exact same thing. They were forcefully and clearly stating what was happening in real time to their patients, and they were punished in every way possible.
For these people, the axe is something they want to come quickly.
But something happened this week that I just couldn’t understand. Dr. Fauci’s right-hand man, Dr. Morens, went on Congress. Stacks of his emails were made public. Literally bragged about dodging FOIA and laughed. Lied, cheated, and followed omerta. It was quite a show. But my favorite bit was when he said, “I don’t know what the ethics office does.”
MUST SEE: This exchange between Fauci’s fixers and Rep. Mfume (D-Md.) is astonishing, as by the end Mfume appears shocked and speechless by what he’s heard.
Mfume: Why didn’t you report it to the ethics office?
Mollens: I don’t even know what the ethics office does. pic.twitter.com/DHWZJgISqO
— TexasLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay_) May 24, 2024
Dr. Morens, I can say this: The ethical framework that our profession has developed over time is sacrosanct. It is meant to protect not only patients but also physicians. Physicians who ignore ethics not only put their patients at risk, but their careers and their lives. I fear you will learn that lesson in public. And, of course, the head of ethics at NIH is none other than Dr. Fauci’s wife. Of course. What a joke.
While these people were behaving like this, doctors who were acting in good faith all over this country were being treated like star chambers and worse by medical associations and licensing boards.Again, the sooner this is abolished the better.
The healthcare industry has been dealt a fatal blow by these clowns. We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know this: We need accountability first before we can regain the trust of the majority of Americans. And time is running out.
