Focus on Healthy China School (First Health Report, Beijing, Reporter Kang Mei)
The following is the speech of President Wang Chen, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, at the 2024 graduation ceremony of Peking Union Medical College:
Dear Academician Chen Zhu, dear teachers and students,
Once a year, the graduation ceremony is a major node for graduates to think about their studies, careers, life and life: looking back on the past, feeling the present, and looking forward to the future. At this moment, as the principal, I would like to share some thoughts with you on behalf of the teachers.
Altruism, society, patriotism, love of the world, love of mankind
The real graduates of Concord must have a strong spirit of altruism, must be beneficial to the society, must love the country, must love the world, and must love mankind. This is the character of an intellectual, especially an intellectual studying medicine. A few days ago, in a conversation with Mr. Bai Yansong, he asked what kind of students are suitable for studying medicine, and we replied: kind, intelligent, and altruistic. Altruism is a noble spiritual essence that is of paramount importance to the students of Concord, a group of bright children. Altruism is the foundation of medicine, and patriotism is a must in everyone's heart. Since 2021, Union Medical College has pioneered an important ceremony in the graduation ceremony, which is the flag-raising ceremony that we have just experienced. I believe that when the huge national flag passes over the heads of the graduates, and the students raise their hands and touch the national flag affectionately, it will inspire patriotic feelings and think of their responsibility to the country. Patriotism cannot be vague. Our responsibility to the state is not empty, but is embodied in our actual state and concrete behavior. Bachelor's, master's, and doctoral graduates, what kind of relative level do you compare your status with the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees of the world's leading countries in science and technology? We certainly have our own characteristics and strengths, but we must also see our shortcomings and shortcomings, and think about how to undertake our country's academic undertakings at a high level and undertake scientific discoveries and technological creations. We are well aware that science and technology have now become the key, and even the most important, decisive factor in national rejuvenation and national prosperity. As a Chinese, a true patriot, in terms of academics, in the future position - whether it is a doctor, a nurse, a teacher, a researcher, a director, a head nurse, a dean, a principal...... compared with people in the same position as science and technology and economically developed countries, what is the level of our professionalism, literacy and ability? Is it enough to shoulder the historical responsibility of national rejuvenation? Only when we reach or surpass their literacy can we be up to the task. This is not a lie, it is what the school wants to tell you most on the occasion of graduation, and students must engrave their responsibilities to the country in their hearts and put them into action.
We love our country, the world, and mankind. Loving humanity should be the most prominent emotion of all medical students. Only with a genuine love for humanity can we concretely dedicate ourselves to every patient, every person, and group of people before us.
For the sake of human beings, we must also love all living beings and the planet. An important ideology and action jointly put forward by many organizations affiliated to the United Nations is "One Health", that is, "One Health" and the pursuit of "health and harmony". Human beings must know how to be responsible for animals, plants, the environment, and the planet, and do their best to maintain and be healthy together, so that human beings can achieve their long-term and fundamental well-being. This is also the concept and action pursued by the world's medical community.
Once again, the graduates of Xiehe should be one of the groups of people who represent the advanced nature of China's medical field, and the necessary qualities of this group of people are altruism, society, patriotism, love of the world, and love of mankind.
Medicine is a piece of "alloy steel"
On the occasion of graduation, let us revisit the academic ideology of Concord: medicine is more learning, human learning, and supreme learning. In other words, medicine is a piece of "alloy steel", a piece of "alloy steel" with a special mission and special qualities. Frankly speaking, there are still many things that need to be further rethought and improved in the current medical education system. For example, there are people who often think of medicine as part of biology or life sciences, or as "basic medicine" related to medicine, so that students mistakenly think that "basic medicine" is the basis of medicine, and so on. These are things that Concord does not agree with. Biology, life science, and biological science are indeed one of the important foundations of medicine, and we also admit that it occupies a very mainstream and core position, but the foundation and connotation of medicine are far more than biology, and medicine is not a part of biology. All human disciplines are ultimately in the service of man, and cosmology is no exception. Since medicine is the most direct in the ultimate interests of caregivers, it is said that "all learning returns to medicine", and medicine is the ultimate learning.
If medicine is compared to a piece of steel, it is a piece of all-factor "alloy steel" that is made up of a mixture of various elements and can undertake the ultimate mission of caring for people's lives and health. In addition to the elements of life science, this piece of steel also includes mathematics, chemistry, physics, geography, astronomy and other physical content, as well as engineering components, so that CT can be made and medicine can be made. Social sciences, such as economics, law, sociology, and political science, are also important foundations of medicine and an important element of "alloy steel", but they are precisely what is seriously lacking in today's medical profession. Social science talks about interpersonal relationships, interpersonal relations of production and other kinds of relations, and social science is the part of interpersonal relationships that can explain laws, explain reason, and sometimes even list equations, such as economics. With social science as the foundation, the medical profession can pool social resources, mobilize social forces, and generate social actions to care for health.
Both the natural sciences and the social sciences fall under the umbrella of science. In addition to science, there are actually many human thoughts, knowledge, and behaviors, which are characterized by conventions, personal perceptions, and the subtlety of application, which are called "humanities". Humanity is also an extremely important element in the composition of "alloy steel". What is Humanities? Humanities are not sciences, and it is difficult to explain the laws, philosophy (including ethics), art, religion, literature, etc., are all humanities, and history is often attributed to humanities. Is all of this related to medicine? Not only related, but also closely related. If we don't look back at history, how can we know how medicine has developed to this day, and how can we have a three-dimensional, all-round knowledge and understanding of medicine? How to deal with a large number of phenomena in medical practice that are inexplicable and difficult to investigate? Humanistic qualities make medicine a doctor. A real doctor, a big doctor, the big doctor here does not refer to how high the status of the doctor, but refers to the doctor who has thoughts in the brain, magnanimity in the chest, emotions in the heart, knowledge in the belly, a position under the feet, and skills in the hands. Such a great doctor must be a person who has comprehensively grasped the connotations of natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities and applied them well. If you want to get the way of medicine, you must take comprehensive literacy, and it is by no means limited to "life science".
If someone says that medicine is a science, almost everyone will nod their heads, but the view of Xiehe, the birthplace of scientific medicine in China, is that medicine cannot be defined as just a science. In addition to the natural and social sciences, medicine has a lot of humanities content, and it is also deeply influenced by conventional cultures. The so-called non-scientific factors of humanities and culture play a crucial role in the practice of medicine and healthcare. Therefore, the salient feature of modern medicine is Scientific Medicine, which is an important or main foundation of modern medicine, but it is far from the whole of medicine. Medicine is not a subordinate concept of science and cannot be positioned as just "a science". Medicine is a unique, comprehensive, and vast system. Medicine is multi-learning, humanistic, and supreme, and its mission is to take care of the ultimate interests of human beings and the life and health of human beings. Medicine is so complex and vast that it is a piece of "alloy steel", and its bearer requires special qualities. How difficult it is to study, practice, and pass on medicine, and how much cultivation and forging must be passed to create a medical scientist. Just now, Mr. Chen Zhu talked about the requirements for doctors in the ancient teachings: those who are not close to immortals, and those who are not close to the Buddha cannot be doctors, which shows the excellent quality that a doctor should have.
The harmony that should be with the harmony that is true
When it comes to the school we all love and benefit from, Peking Union Medical College, which is highly respected in the medical community in China and even in the world. As people who are confident and deeply love Concord, we should be more soberly aware that Concord has profound accumulation and outstanding advantages, but there are also many problems. Any self-confident individual, unit, or school must reflect on itself and fully understand its own problems. We must know that there is a big gap between the actual harmony that we are facing and the harmony that we are pursuing, and we need to work together to improve it. Since Concord occupies the position of the national team and the national strategic scientific and technological force, the pursuit of its own quality and level should be endless. On behalf of the school, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the students for the inconvenience or grievances caused by the imperfection of the school, which has affected the students' education and the inconvenience or grievances caused by the poor care of the students' lives. We will improve it responsibly.
Concord is our common concord, and she is connected to us by blood. We must face and shoulder the responsibility of improving harmony together, and the same should be true for society and the country. Xiehe people should have such a bearing and deeds. The nobility of Concord must be reflected in simplicity. Among the four sentences about the spirit of Concord, I think the most difficult to condense and the most important thing for everyone to remember is "noble and simple". When nobility is produced on the basis of simplicity and expressed in form, it is truly noble. Showmanship, greasing, and beating gongs and drums are not noble. Xiehe people should take the road of "respecting science and helping humanity", hold the background of "noble and simple", have the ambition of "taking the world as their own responsibility", and have the action of "helping all sentient beings to seek well-being".
Those who endure hardships do not suffer losses
The students are about to truly enter the society, and I would like to tell you: "Hardship is not a loss". Did you suffer when you were in school? Eaten. Do you suffer a lot? Not much. In the past, you were cared for by the school and society as students, and you were mainly educated and nurtured, but in the future, you are workers and social responsibility bearers, which means that your hardships will increase sharply. Be prepared to endure hardship, and there will be hardships in life. Some people say that this suffering is a fixed number, and that suffering can be actively endured or passively endured. In order to avoid passively enduring hardships, we must take the initiative to endure hardships to face the future career, life, society, and life. We have said many times that one of the six competencies of doctors is "system-based practice". You will face the reality of society, units, leaders, colleagues, the environment in which you live is good and bad, convenient and inconvenient, reasonable and outrageous, but this is the reality, this is the "system" you are in.
The so-called "system-based practice", the first thing is to choose the system, and you have already made a choice when looking for a job; Second, it is necessary to integrate into the system, and when it comes to the unit, it must be truly integrated into the unit and become an organic member of it; Third, you must adapt to the system, and find your suitable position and way of survival and development in the system; Fourth, you must contribute to the system, you are a member of the system, you must have functions and contributions to the system; Fifth, we must improve the system. In this process, students should be prepared to endure hardships, avoid passive hardships by actively enduring hardships in practice, actively face the future, and achieve career, life and life.
On the occasion of graduation, I think that the eight-year students of eight years ago, the "4+4" students and nursing students of four years ago, and the master's and doctoral students of three years ago are very different from you then. You have completed your studies, your youth is just right, and your career is ready to go.
Best wishes to all!
(Editor in charge: Mint)