Okay, I'm finally back. The statement below comes from another colleague in our class who is willing to shed some light of our situation:
This is the very first time I've posted on SDN, but there is something I believe the entire medical profession should be aware of. I am a student at COMP. We are a DO school that supposedly teaches and prides itself in the essence of osteopathic philosophy. The events I will share with you all will prove completely contrary. Last week, one of our beloved classmates, I'll call him "Bob," committed suicide. For whatever reasons he decided to take his own life, be they school related, personal, or both, all of his friends can agree that school played some part in it. But honestly, school is hard for all of us…especially being in class from 8-5 with substandard faculty "teaching us." But what was different here was that Bob sought help from our administration, telling even the President of our school himself his dilemma. Nothing was done. Bob committed suicide last weekend, and so many of us were full of sadness, anger, and self-blame. Then on Monday our class was to take an exam, and the dean of our college came to speak with us at 8am, one hour before the exam, and stated that the exam was still to happen, and whoever took the test and failed…well…that was a risk to take. We did not have time to grieve for our classmate. As a side note, there were students around me crying as they were taking the exam. Luckily, our class pulled together and organized a bike/hike memorial for our overly athletic classmate. He would have loved the mountain we climbed…In addition, our class planned a memorial today 5-20-2002 at noon. At 1pm promptly, the formal part of the memorial had just finished. Classmates were hugging, talking about Bob, trying to bring some closure to this tragedy. NOW WHAT HAPPENED NEXT NOT ONLY SHOCKED AND ANGERED ME, BUT MADE ME REALIZE JUST HOW UNCOMPASSIONATE WESTERNU FACULTY AND STAFF ARE. One of our professors got on the microphone and stated that though he knows there is a memorial for Bob occurring, there was a make-up exam for a small number of students to be conducted in the same room the memorial was taking place. He asked us to disperse and when two minutes had passed, while tears were being shed and classmates were still hugging, the professor once again asked us to exit the room knowing that there was another free classroom just next door. I was appalled as I watched the flowers for Bob being carried away, the candles near his photograph being blown out…I have always stood behind my school when all my classmates had negative things to say about COMP. I would have something positive to say. I've run out of positive things to say. To make this point of the cold-hearted attitudes of the administration, a student in the class talked to the dean personally to let him know how we were forced to disperse in our time of remembrance. The dean had no sympathy and tried to draw parallels with Bob's death with working in the ER. I guess people die in the ER and we must "move on." Last time I checked, we are students at a DO school supposedly learning about humanism and medical ethics. I saw my classmate in tears after talking to the dean and listened to her story as she tried to compose herself after talking to the most uncaring man in the world. I am writing this because I don't know what else to do. We as a class have tried so hard to change things at our school. We've gone straight to the top, and nothing in terms of teaching and being an example of osteopathic principles is being implemented. The fact that our medical ethics course was only six hours long and our humanism in medicine class was only two, goes hand in hand with what our school stands for. With Bob's death, I have seen firsthand how unsympathetic and uncaring our school is. Think about this; when the New York 9/11 incident happened our dean said "We must move on." So of course, we took our gross anatomy exam the following Monday as planned. When another student in the 2nd year class died in an accident, the message from the president of the school was "This is a very valuable lesson we've all learned today." I'll tell you what I learned; our med school stops for no one. With Bob's death, we grabbed our number 2 pencils and bubbled in scantrons as planned. As an osteopathic medical student, life doesn't always happen as planned. I have also learned that humanity, compassion, and viewing the person as an entire entity, which includes emotions, depression, and grief as part of the differential diagnosis, is part of being a good doctor. I've learned this all from watching the majority of staff and faculty at COMP, and then striving to turn 180 degrees and emulate the complete opposite of anything that they attempt to teach by example. I want to end by saying that this weeks events have hugely impacted me and have shed light on COMP. The administration is so secretive about so many events that happen at our school, and they refuse to see that Bob's death had anything to do with school. They also refuse to admit the attrition rate at our school is grossly high, our school morale is plummeting lower and lower, and that they are teaching us by example to be cold, uncaring, uncompassionate doctors. Is that what being a graduate at WesternU will mean?
