{"id":16809,"date":"2019-05-16T09:30:01","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T23:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gums.org.au\/site\/?p=16809"},"modified":"2019-07-08T13:34:07","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T03:34:07","slug":"bachelor-in-pbl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gums.org.au\/site\/bachelor-in-pbl\/","title":{"rendered":"Bachelor in PBL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gary Oldman once said, \u201cReality TV, to me, is the museum of social decay\u201d. While I couldn\u2019t agree more, I have to admit that social decay makes for great TV. From catfights to golden one-liners like \u201cumbrella of ambiguity\u201d or \u201cso much chemistry it\u2019s like seeing the whole periodic table\u201d reality TV is entertainment at its finest. Sitting in PBL one day, I realized that although the calm, respectful exterior of PBL is a stark contrast to that of reality TV, if you dig deep enough, there are some remarkable similarities. These parallels are most striking when compared with Bachelor in Paradise <\/em>(BIP<\/em>),<\/em> so buckle up readers, you won\u2019t look at PBL the same after this.<\/p>\n

For those of you well-disciplined and tasteful souls who have not succumbed to the wiles of BIP<\/em>, let me just educate you on the basics. BIP<\/em> gives ex-contestants of The<\/em> Bachelor <\/em>and The<\/em> Bachelorette<\/em> a chance to continue their eternal quest for \u201ctrue-love\u201d on the sparkling sands and in the azure waters of Fiji. They also have rose ceremonies every week or so, mediated by the legend himself – Osher G\u00fcnsberg. These ceremonies involve contestants giving a rose to someone that they have made a \u201cconnection\u201d with or see prospect in. Throw in some tears, a few love triangles and an abundance of emotional fickleness and now you know exactly what BIP<\/em> looks like.<\/p>\n

PBL, a similar group activity, comes with its own goals, process and incentives. Students are placed together in the glassy rooms of G40 with one objective. It\u2019s not true love we seek, but instead, a medical degree. Dates are replaced with cases where connections are made not with people, but with a learning objective (LO). Each LO gets courted for a while before the final proposal- end of year exams and anatomy spotters. After this we might Instagram about an \u2018amazing experience\u2019 and what a \u2018journey\u2019 of \u2018growth and inspiration\u2019 it was. Classic Bachie move.<\/p>\n

At the centre of not only BIP<\/em>, but the whole Bachelor<\/em> franchise, is Osher. It is unfortunate that no PBL facilitator can ever achieve the incredible standards of hair set by this man nor has any facilitator been greeted by the excited, slightly tipsy squeals of their students as they walk into PBL. However, the power that facilitators hold and the respect they receive is the same. They are often the bearer of bad news: \u201cThere are 27 DKHI LOs\u201d. Or the bearer of great news: \u201cLet\u2019s start PBL at 9am instead of 8.30am this week,\u201d or suggest a 10-minute break after a particularly taxing report-back session.<\/p>\n

Speaking of report-back, these are essentially our own rose ceremonies. The extreme heights of stress and confusion experienced by contestants during rose ceremonies are comparable to our own emotionally fragile states during report back, especially when we\u2019re told that we can\u2019t use our notes. Whiteboard markers replace roses as we attempt to justify a connection with our designated LO. Although some of these connections are genuinely strong and filled with understanding, others are simply forged to survive. Connections made one week rarely survive until the following week when the next, fascinating case saunters in. You\u2019re lucky if it doesn\u2019t bring with it a needy, high-maintenance LO that returns, like contestants, season after season, even after you amicably parted with them weeks earlier (I\u2019m looking at you blood pressure regulation LO).<\/p>\n

Another key part of BIP<\/em> is the drinking culture. Contestants spend most of their day sipping daiquiri after daquiri, which surely can\u2019t be conducive to them finding \u201ctrue love\u201d. But who are we to judge? PBL may not have alcohol, but we spend a great deal of time gorging ourselves on an array of MSG-laden, high glucose goodies, all the while saying how patients ought to eat healthier \u2013 this surely can\u2019t be conducive to our health, but what would PBL be without it.<\/p>\n

I can hear you saying \u2013 what about the Bachie \u2018villains\u2019? The Bachie \u2018villians\u2019 are ever-ready to provide snide comments and possess an uncanny ability to stir the pot. I do admit that calling someone a villain in PBL would be quite a stretch. However, there\u2019s always someone who did their whole undergrad on that one LO and so takes their \u201cconnection\u201d too far, or, someone who spends most of their time flexing their extensive clinical knowledge. Bless their souls.<\/p>\n

BIP <\/em>often ends with contestants leaving the sands of Fiji optimistically and full of hope as they think they\u2019ve really found \u201cthe one\u201d this time. But after the finale is aired, media outlets soon reveal how the couples we rooted for didn\u2019t make it in the real world. Similarly, the connections made in PBL likely stay in PBL, crumbling outside of the idealistic learning environment as reality takes over. Perhaps PBL and BIP<\/em> aren\u2019t so different after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gary Oldman once said, \u201cReality TV, to me, is the museum of social decay\u201d. While I couldn\u2019t agree more, I have to admit that social decay makes for great TV. From catfights to golden one-liners like \u201cumbrella of ambiguity\u201d or \u201cso much chemistry it\u2019s like seeing the whole periodic table\u201d reality TV is entertainment at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":16812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[219,221,217,191,190,196,189,188,222,220,207,225,200],"class_list":["post-16809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications","tag-bachelor","tag-funny","tag-gold-coast","tag-griffith-university","tag-medical-blog","tag-medical-school","tag-medical-student-blog","tag-medicine","tag-pbl","tag-reality-tv","tag-relationships","tag-satire","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gums.org.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gums.org.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gums.org.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gums.org.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gums.org.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16809"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gums.org.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16811,"href":"https:\/\/gums.org.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16809\/revisions\/16811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gums.org.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gums.org.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gums.org.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gums.org.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}