Do we ever tell our patients, that because we are still new, their risk of some catastrophe is multiplied by two, that they’d do better with a doctor of experience and skill than my grappling with ignorance, which could hurt them, maybe kill? Just because I’m training At a clinic or a ward, treating drunkards and demented, Poor and uninsured, should I undermine their confidence or deprive them confident air, explain how they are helping, make doctors more prepared? It’s for the good of medicine, the people as a whole, I hone my skills and practice on these retarded souls. The leg lost here in learning how to diagnose keeps ten well-healed and earning. That’s the purpose, I suppose. Perfection without practice, the best of possible care, must trump a learner’s lesson— an opinion patients share. Eventually they benefit But first a few are harmed— experience for progress— but they go away uncharmed.