How to fail your exams and sue your University!

       I still have nightmares occasionally when I dream I am setting out for my final medical exams in Trinity College, Dublin. I already had a job lined up in a food canning factory in England so I could support my wife and daughter while studying for the exam re-writes. Then I wake up in a cold sweat for a few moments before I am flooded with the relief of realizing it is just a nightmare. For the record I did pass my qualifying exam on the first writing but I did gain some insight into how a falling candidate would feel, particularly if in the exiguous financial condition I was in. The option of blaming the University program was unimaginable.
Today, almost every student who gets into medical school graduates. In my day it was quite different. As far as I can recall about twenty percent of candidates dropped out and another percentage had to repeat part or all of a year. Nobody sued the medical school, nobody thought of suing the medical school or university.
    Even as undergraduate medical students, we realized that there was great variation between teachers, some were highly entertaining despite the fact they they were not great teachers, others were extremely erudite but so dull that half the class fell asleep and there was everything in between. Most of us realized early on whether our various programs had weaknesses and as responsible doctors to be, many of us learned how to compensate for the deficiencies of the program. Physicians need to be resourceful and even in the era before everyone had a computer in their pocket and access to all the knowledge in the world, we usually knew what we had to do to make up for the deficiencies. I went to a good school but I recognized there were area where I needed some extra help and sought some private tuition.
    The case in the news at the moment is of an Ontario physician suing Western University for $11,000000 because he contends that the medical school didn't give him the education he needed to become certified as a specialist in medical microbiology. This was a five year residency program which the doctor claimed deteriorated rapidly while he was enrolled in it. He failed his specialty exam three times , in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Then instituted legal proceedings and Western is seeking to appeal a judge's ruling that allows the law suit to proceed.
  In this age in which almost everyone considers themselves a victim of one sort or another, it doesn't seem to occur to the doctor that even if most he has to say is accurate, that HE is responsible for his education. This is not a naive young student, but a man who has gone through the rigorous educational system to get an MD degree. There were numerous remedial steps he could have taken including taking some of his studies at another institution (not an unusual solution in numerically small programs), arranging to work under the supervision of a recognized expert in the area, independently planned study perhaps in coordination with a colleague in a similar specialty. The doctor/victim seems to feel that he is just a victim who never had control over his plight.
    If the Doctor succeeds in his efforts the face of medical education and indeed, of University education may be forever changed. All any failure has to do is sue the University and he/she may never have to work again! Throw in a suggestion of racism, gender discrimination or ageism and maybe we can all be victims.