Hats off to the young computer
scientist Katie Bourman, whose work helped bring us the amazing picture of a
black hole last week. She is just 29
years old. Just six years ago, she was a PhD student at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT). There she led on the creation of an algorithm
that could take the masses of astronomical data collected by eight radio
telescopes and produce one coherent image. The eight telescopes, located across
the world, ‘acted’ as one telescope, the so-called Event Horizon Telescope. It
was this telescope that brought us the picture of the black hole and opened up
a whole new stream of scientific questions to be answered. It was a truly amazing moment. In anyone’s
book, Katie Bourman is a remarkable person, and she was part of a fantastic
team.
Last week, I was also privileged
to meet two other remarkable people. It happened on Thursday, as I chaired a
selection panel hoping to recruit a new Consultant in Acute Medicine. It was
the first time I had been part of such a panel and I wasn’t sure what to
expect. On my side of the table were four consultants, one of whom was the
Medical Director, the Chief Executive and a representative from HR. It was a
formidable interviewing panel. After we rearranged the Board Room tables and
chairs to make the room look less intimidating, we started on the process of
deciding who would ask what questions, and in what order. My role turned out to
be almost ceremonial. I was there to chair the interview, explain what was
going to happen, who would speak and when, explain how we would let the
candidates know the outcome of the interview and generally try to ensure a fair
and equitable process was undertaken. I was allowed one question, more of which
later.
Although we had several vacancies,
there were only two candidates - a man (Tom) and a woman (Joan) - (not their
real names!), both of whom were already consultants. However, one had 18 months
experience as a consultant, and the other almost some 11 years. Joan was
interviewed first. Now I might be getting older and everyone looks younger than
they did in my day, but Joan looked amazingly young to have already developed
her career in clinical practice and medical education. She was a breath of
fresh air. Self-confident, assertive, knowledgeable and able to draw upon her
experience in responding to the questions.
I was surprised that there were
no actual medical questions asked. It appeared that Joan’s qualifications, of
which there were many, stood as a given testament to her clinical knowledge and
experience. Instead the questions centred around team working, ethics, avoiding
heroic interventions, health economics and managing scarce resources, improving
patient flow and commitment to research and development of acute medicine. None
of the questions fazed her at all. She even took on the Medical Director and
challenged him over the different approach they would both adopt in dealing
with a complex case.
My question was the last one
asked by the panel. I asked, ‘can you give us an example of a time when you
were kind to a patient?’. There was silence. That complete, and to some, an excruciating
silence. Just as I could sense the Chief Executive leaning forward to intervene,
Joan started telling us of an elderly patient she had been looking after. The
patient had a terminal illness and was being provided with end of life care.
Each day, Joan would talk to the lady on her ward round. One day she asked
whose was the cat in the picture that she kept on her bedside table. The
patient told Joan it was her cat; a cat she had looked after for many years,
and here in hospital she missed holding and stroking the cat. Despite protests
from her Infection Control colleagues, Joan arranged for the cat to be brought
in, so her patient could spend some time with her again. Soon after the lady
died.
It was the panel’s turn to be
silent. But not for long. I said thank you and that her story resonated with
all of us on the panel. Back in 2014, we were also providing end of life care
to an elderly lady. She had kept horses all her life and had mentioned to one
of the nurses how much she missed not seeing her favourite horse every day. You
guessed it, the Deputy Director of Nursing arranged for the horse to be brought
to the hospital and the patient to be taken outside in her bed to meet her
horse. The horse clearly recognised the patient and walked up to her and
nuzzled her face. The moment was captured on someone’s smartphone and the picture
and the story went viral over the following 24 hours.
Tom’s interview followed a
similar path, and although his response to my kindness question was more
situated in the realms of compassion, it was an equally compelling story. Both
Joan and Tom, in different ways were remarkable people. Like Katie Bourman,
they understood what effective team work could deliver. All three of them brought to life the notion
that often in life it’s the little things that can make the biggest difference.
And yes, subject to the usual
checks, both Tom and Joan were offered posts in the hospital.
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