St. Matthew’s University School of Medicine held its seventh commencement exercises last Saturday at the Westin Casuarina Resort.
The 2005 graduating class is the final one to have begun studies in Belize before St. Matthew’s relocated to Grand Cayman in 2002.
University Executive Dean Dr. Gordon Green told the graduating students their work was far from over.
‘You are only now in the eye of the storm,’ he said. ‘What lies ahead are the challenges of clinical training and medical practice.’
Dr. Elizabeth Armstrong, the Director of Education Programs for Harvard Medical International, delivered the commencement address.
‘You have mastered the learning and taken the key initial step in practicing medicine,’ she told the graduates.
Dr. Armstrong said the new doctors would have to undertake two other necessary roles in their profession: those of teacher and life-long learner.
She said the best doctors teach with a two-way learning process.
‘Even if you always keep your knowledge up to date, you will have to say ‘I don’t know’ occasionally,’ she said.
Dr. Armstrong said that major technology advances would change the way medicine is practiced over the next decade.
‘When we develop medical school curricula, we know that half of what we are teaching you will be obsolete by the time you practice,’ she said. ‘The problem is, we don’t know which half.’
Dr. Armstrong urged the new doctors to sometimes ‘think out of the box’, saying that medical breakthroughs sometimes occur that way.
‘Vets knew peptic ulcers were caused by bacteria and could be treated with antibiotics for two decades before the rather recent discovery the same could be done for humans,’ she said.
Two awards were presented during the ceremony to Caymanian students.
Daaron McField received the Cayman Fidelity Award scholarship, while Tricia Oliphant was presented with the Jha Family Award.
University vice president Dr. Jerry Thornton congratulated the graduates.
‘This is a great accomplishment,’ he said. ‘Few realise the kind of sacrifice it takes to go through medical school.’
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