© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 3
T.S. Köhler, B. Schwartz (eds.), Surgeons as Educators,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64728-9_
“See One, Do One, Teach One?” A Story
of How Surgeons Learn
Anna T. Cianciolo and Joseph Blessman
It is November. The skies have grown sullen and gray, and a bone-deep chill suffuses
the air. A young surgical resident, seeking to impress his girlfriend, has decided to
cook her a pot roast, a favored comfort food of his family for generations. As his
roommate looks on, he carefully cuts a quarter inch off both ends of the roast and
places it in the pan. “Why did you cut off the ends?” his roommate asks. The resident
pauses, looks at the knife and strips of excess beef, and shrugs. “My mom always
did it that way, and I learned from her.”
The dinner date was a success, but his roommate’s question nagged the resident’s
mind. The next time he spoke to his mother, he asked, “Mom, how do you cook a
pot roast?” His mother proceeded to explain, adding, “You cut off both ends before
placing it in the pan.” “But why?” the resident asked. His mother replied, “That’s
how your grandmother did it, and I learned it from her.” At Thanksgiving dinner a
few weeks later, the resident, still curious and unable to find an answer online, asked
his grandmother, “When you cook a pot roast, why do you cut both ends off the
meat?” Before she could answer, the resident’s grandfather piped up, “I never could
get a pan big enough for your Nana’s pot roasts, so she trimmed the meat to make
them fit!”
Versions of this pot roast parable are shared to convey the importance of critical
thinking to awareness, adaptability, innovation, and change. In surgical education,
stepping back from the pursuit of simple, straightforward training prescriptions to
ask “Why?” and grapple with “What’s going on here?” leads to seeing learning in
new, more insightful ways and opening up possibilities to take trainee development
A.T. Cianciolo, PhD (*)
Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Department of Medical Education,
913 N Rutledge St., PO Box 19681, Springfield, IL, USA, 62794-
e-mail: [email protected]
J. Blessman, MSII
Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA