The Enhanced Doctor-Chapter 612 Director Xia’s Test

Liu Banxia was now quite familiar with Binhai Medical College, but he didn’t feel much of a sense of belonging here. After all, he only occasionally came here for a lecture, spending most of his time in the emergency center.

"Old Xia, hurry up and bring out your good tea; I have to give it a taste," Xu Chengjun called out in a familiar tone upon arriving at the student affairs office.

"Don’t think you’re getting anything for free; you still owe me two rounds of drinks," Director Xia replied, not standing on ceremony at all.

"Director Xia, hello. I’m Liu Banxia," Liu Banxia quickly introduced himself.

Director Xia nodded with a smile. "Sit down. Old Zhou has already called me. I’m quite interested in your plan to start the teaching and training program early."

"Old Xu did mention it to me, but he couldn’t explain much. If you have any ideas, share them with me. If feasible, we can try to promote it."

"Director Xia, you’re overstating things. I’m just worried I’ll mess up doing this for the first time and then get scolded by our director," Liu Banxia said with a wry smile. "It’s a case of the early bird catching the worm, I suppose. I thought we could communicate with the students first, to see if we can pique their interest in our emergency center."

"What are your specific methods?" Director Xia asked.

"Could you arrange a time for me to introduce our emergency center to the students in the auditorium?" Liu Banxia asked.

Director Xia frowned. "First of all, this idea is very good. In fact, many students don’t have a clear goal during their internships; they’re just trying to complete a task. And when it comes to choosing a hospital, they’re often quite aimless. Students with connections naturally choose to study at our medical college’s affiliated hospitals, and some with family contacts opt for internships near their homes. Although various situations may differ, there’s one problem we can’t ignore: all hospitals have a limited number of internship quotas. So, what about those students without connections?"

Xu Chengjun frowned slightly. Old Xia had posed quite a challenging question. How could Liu Banxia possibly answer that? These were obvious matters; even in the Second Hospital, it wasn’t something he, as a chief resident, could manage.

"Director Xia, Director Zhou and I have actually discussed this issue before," Liu Banxia said after a moment’s thought. "The internship quota is limited; that’s an objective reality. We can’t possibly open the floodgates and admit every student who applies. If there are too many students, it will definitely impact the quality of their internships. In that case, it would defeat the purpose of the internship and become a mere formality, a superficial exercise."

"I’m a general surgeon in the emergency center. Let’s not discuss the teaching and training evaluation for other departments for now; let’s just talk about my area. According to our director’s requirements, every intern must master basic emergency skills. CPR, non-invasive and invasive intubation, chest tube insertion, thoracentesis, and so on—these are mandatory. If they can’t master them, we won’t pass their internship."

"In other words, coming to our Second Hospital for an internship involves a significant risk. We won’t focus on the internship completion rate; instead, we’ll evaluate based on actual performance."

"Dr. Liu, are you really planning to do this? Won’t this put too much pressure on the students?" Director Xia asked.

Liu Banxia shook his head. "There are many hospitals qualified for teaching and training. As for their final year of internship, it’s up to them to decide whether they genuinely want to achieve the purpose of the internship or are simply aiming for a certificate or diploma. Our principle is lenient admission but strict graduation; this is a change Director Zhou wants to implement after taking office. And we’re not only targeting current students, but also working professionals and individuals from various organizations."

"We also have our own teaching goals: to build the Second Hospital into a high-quality teaching base within three to five years. When our emergency center’s departments become more developed in the future, we’ll also consider expanding the number of interns we train. But no matter what we do, we have one prerequisite: to ensure the quality of teaching and training. The benefit of this approach is that we can basically filter out those who just want to muddle through."

"Of course, even so, it’s impossible to completely prevent some people with connections from coming in to exploit the system. That’s too difficult to stop. No matter what kind of teaching and training plan is devised, evaluations are ultimately conducted by people, which means there will always be loopholes."

Xu Chengjun mentally gave Liu Banxia a thumbs-up. The answer was perfect; even if someone wanted to find fault, they wouldn’t be able to.

Moreover, he knew this wasn’t just a casual comment from Liu Banxia. He and his mentor, Director Zhou, must have genuinely discussed this before and were determined to implement it.

It was just like the current emergency center’s high standards and strict requirements for its medical staff; as long as they persisted, they wouldn’t need to fear medical disputes.

Zhou Shuwen was a very serious person; he wouldn’t just shout empty slogans. Once he set a direction, and with Liu Banxia—who could be rather single-minded—to execute it, they could achieve twice the results with half the effort.

This was because, in his career, Liu Banxia sought almost nothing.

Medical skills weren’t something others could give him; he had to explore and learn them himself. And with a teacher like Zhou Shuwen, he had nothing to worry about on that front.

Money? Did he care about it? With such a strong supporter as Qiaoqiao, would he care about a measly salary?

People like him could withstand pressure from all sides when faced with challenges. At times, he might even come across as a bit reckless. Who would want to pick a fight with someone like that?

Director Xia, too, was considering the changes Liu Banxia had mentioned, making his own assessment. However, he couldn’t yet tell if this was all just empty talk or if it would genuinely be put into action.

This was partly because he didn’t know Zhou Shuwen or Liu Banxia very well. He also felt a certain aversion to this "small request" from the Second Hospital for early contact with the students from Binhai Medical College.

Of course, he understood their real intention was to cherry-pick the best students from the college. But what about the other hospitals? If one hospital hogged all the warmth, the others would naturally feel resentful.

Truth be told, managing student internships each year was a major headache for them.

At the very least, they had to ensure that even students without connections were able to find hospitals for their internships.

This was a requirement in their academic program; if students didn’t even get the chance to intern, how could they possibly graduate?

"Director Xia, frankly, we are like the early bird this time," Liu Banxia went on to say. "I think that other hospitals, once they hear the news, will probably come and bother you as well. But ultimately, the choice lies with the students. Even if I paint a rosy picture, they might not necessarily be willing to come."

"Hahaha, you’re trying to trick me. I’ve heard too. The students are quite excited about your upcoming speech," Director Xia said unexpectedly.

"Ah... the news has already spread," Liu Banxia said, taken aback.

Director Xia nodded. "Students have already been calling to inquire; they’re all very eager. This also points to a potential future problem: if too many students apply, how will your Second Hospital choose?"

"Well, in that case, we can only select students based on their grades and performance at school," Liu Banxia said candidly. "Of course, another situation might arise: we might not recruit enough interns, as many students could choose to avoid us."

"Don’t underestimate our students. A significant portion of them genuinely want to learn real skills," Director Xia said. "We will consider this issue and find a time to meet about it soon. As you said, we should leave the decision to the students."

"Thank you, Director Xia. Now I can rest easy. At least I’ve accomplished my task for today," Liu Banxia said with a smile.

"No need to thank me. After all, we’re doing this for the sake of the students," said Director Xia. "We’ll also conduct a follow-up survey on our graduates, but currently, it’s limited to Binhai City. Being part of the medical system, our environment is relatively closed off. Based on the statistics from these past years, the quality of our graduates has, overall, declined quite significantly."

"Perhaps some students are under too much pressure at work and couldn’t perform to their full potential, unlike in the comfortable environment of school. Or perhaps other factors made them miss out on certain opportunities. But I believe these are just isolated incidents. Generally speaking, the situation isn’t good."

"We truly hope that all hospitals take the task of teaching and training seriously. The final year of internship is a crucial transition period for all students. If they can grasp this final opportunity, they can seamlessly transition into their future jobs and also contribute to our entire system. This is a good attempt, and we hope it gets off to a good start and achieves results that satisfy all of us. The students’ hard work over these years won’t be wasted."

Liu Banxia nodded. He, too, had been through this. Even though he hadn’t graduated from Binhai Medical College, the reality of the situation was much the same.

This was a massive problem, one that required the entire system to work together to solve. He couldn’t do it alone, the Second Hospital couldn’t do it alone, and indeed, not even all the hospitals in Binhai City combined could do it.

All they could do was make small changes, hoping to have at least some impact.

Liu Banxia didn’t stay long. After all, it wasn’t his day off, and he had to get back to work. Considering the outcome of today’s visit, it was quite successful.

It was normal for Director Xia to pose some challenges. After all, there was a significant difference in rank between them. If Zhou Shuwen had come instead, the entire interaction would have unfolded differently.