Today, I finally met Dr. Ho Ping Kong. Yet, after reading the previous posts on this blog, as well as hearing stories from my fellow peers, the experience somehow still wasn’t what I was expecting – it was better. As Dr. HPK’s years of practice will be officially coming to an end, his clinic had a completely different feel from the type of clinic I am used to, and it was a very refreshing experience. He had the time to chat with his patients about things other than their diagnoses and management plans, and you could tell that each patient really valued their relationship with Dr. HPK.

And then there was the teaching. Once again, this was a very different experience from what I was accustomed to. Rather than covering key teaching points between patients, Dr. HPK would probe us with thought-provoking questions, both during and after each patient encounter. If we had difficulty with a question he asked, he also enjoyed giving hints that often went right over my head. This made the learning fun. Additionally, I have always found that associating disease entities with specific clinical encounters made the learning stick better. By combining these methods, Dr. HPK created a very positive and effective learning environment.

Moving forward in our medical careers, my classmates and I will all have the unique opportunity to go from medical students who strictly learn, to medical residents who learn, but also teach. In doing so, we must all develop our own teaching methods, and a lot of this will come from what we have found effective in our own learning. Next year, when given the opportunity to teach medical students, I hope to incorporate some of Dr. HPK’s tactics, in an effort to keep learning both light and fun, while still ensuring I am imparting knowledge.

-AS