1480. The two RI interns - Interns must deliver

Friday Aug 30, 2014

The two RI interns presented me illustration of thanks for internship. I was surprised. "Interns must deliver results," I had said to both of them during their 2-week internship. "Just like any service providers, including vets.

For example, in the case of the 15-year-old dog with facial cysts, I had to ensure that the old dog die not die under anaesthesia and resolve the problem of his coughing by correct diagnosis." This real-life case could have been a good illustration of "delivering results".

The following tips I gave to them:

1. Eye contact. "You don't see lawyers typing and looking into his screen while consulting," I said to one intern who uncles are lawyers. "You see Dr Daniel doing it. Some doctors in hospitals do that too to key in case records. More time should be spent on eye contact."  This is because one intern kept keying in rapidly the discussions into his smartphone. Obviously he lost the meanings of what we discussed as he focused on typing. He could not see the body language.

2. "Amateurs use multiple colours in the video production and layout of reports." One intern loves different fonts and colours in his text. 3 colours would be best. Headings should be consistent in size and colour.

3. "Rule of third and cropping" in digital photography. No point showing the wide area of grass land when we want to show the butterfly's beauty as the background will be distracting..

4. Being meticulous. "Mis-spelling is not good."  One intern typed "pyometra" as "pyomettra" and I was so angry that he was not meticulous.  "Don't disgrace the name of RI," I said. "Many interns don't edit before submission of the work to me."