Call it what you want - an entitlement mentality, political correctness, liberalism is a mental disorder or just plain stupidity - but at some point, our society needs to recognize that we have entirely too much litigation going on.
A new mother who wants extra breaks so she can pump milk during a nine-hour medical licensing exam has asked a judge to settle her dispute with the board that administers the test.
Sophie Currier, 33, requested additional break time during the test, saying that if she does not nurse her 4-month-old daughter, Lea, or pump breast milk every two to three hours, she risks medical complications.
The exam allows a total of just 45 minutes in breaks, and the National Board of Medical Examiners has refused to give Currier the extra time she says she needs.
“If we are variable in the time that’s allotted to trainees, we alter the performance of the examination,” board spokeswoman Dr. Ruth Hoppe said.
Before you say, hmm, maybe it is reasonable to accommodate her request, read on.
She has been granted permission to take the test over two days instead of one, but is seeking an additional 60-minute break on each day.
That’s right, she’s already been given a huge break by the board. But that isn’t enough - is it ever enough? Apparently not. Read on.
Currier, who lives Brookline, Mass., also has a 22-month-old son, Theo, and has already received special accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act for dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The article didn’t mention what those “special accommodations” were. What could they be? The Boston Globe provides a little more detail.
Sophie Currier made it through MIT — brilliantly — in part because the school paid other students to read books to her and share their class notes.
By the time she was in graduate school, MIT provided computers that scanned books and read them aloud to Currier; she was also allowed extra time on exams.
She made it throught “brilliantly” because the school paid people to read to her and more importantly, give her their class notes. And gave her extra time on tests.
I don’t know Sophie Currier and I’m certain that she’s a smart person. But where does this nonsense end? Let’s hope she sticks to her plans to be a researcher and doesn’t interact directly with patients.
Can you imagine what would happen if she were in an operating room performing a vasectomy on you and her “attention disorder” caused her to snip the wrong thing?
25 Responses to “Would you want Sophie Currier as YOUR doctor?”
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September 12th, 2007 at 6:43 am
How can Sophie do research if she can’t pay attention to detail? Another fine example of a woman using the system. Wonder who will hire Sophie with her many requirements, oh wait, I bet the government! I am sure they have a dyslexia quota to meet.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:44 am
I think she needs to keep her legs closed.
She can barely function in a classroom but she’s cranking babies out at a rapid rate. Strange.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:48 am
Good GRIEF Charlie Brown!
some folks (well trained by Teddy Kennedy obviously) are absolutely shameless
September 12th, 2007 at 6:54 am
Do they give classes in ” how to manipulate all laws to ones benefit”? It sure seems a lot of folks are taking that class! I picture people giving a code knock on a plain old door, hidden in an alley somewhere. People slowly stream in, take their seats on old metal chairs, and listen to the ACLU teach them, how laws and rules are to be manipulated to their advantage.
September 12th, 2007 at 7:08 am
She missed her calling. She should be in law school to become a blood sucking leech.
September 12th, 2007 at 7:08 am
AW, didn’t you hear? Gaming the System is now part of the Home Economics curriculum. How else are you supposed to balance your budget?
September 12th, 2007 at 8:18 am
Umm, what’s wrong with pumping breast milk in advamce and storing it in nursing bottles in the fridge to cover the time the exam requires? Can’t somebody other than Sophie feed the baby that day? This is rocket science?
September 12th, 2007 at 8:39 am
i think I went to that doctor ONCE!
How the heck can she ever expect to do her job even as a research doctor. Medical research will require complete attention to the finest detail.
September 12th, 2007 at 8:40 am
As Bugs Bunny says - - - What a maroon
September 12th, 2007 at 8:51 am
I’d rather have the immigrant guy named Sanjay Gooptavishnapoootlapan that actually took the test in the alloted amount of time, playing by the rules.
September 12th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Gee, but it’s Harvard and Mass. Gen. involved here, the highest of the upper crust, world renowned, etc., etc., etc. Now if they think it’s ok, well who are we–mere plebians–to question it?(Sarcasm disabled)
September 12th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Plenty of doctors needed in Iraq and Afghanistan or even deep in Mexico. Time for us to send out some fine imports to our “friends”.
September 12th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Exports go out, sorry. Before I get hammered by the grammatical correctness gestapo.
September 12th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Actually, It’s not what she might snip but what she might forget to snip while performing the surgery. After all if she is subject of ADHD, a deficit or lack of attention not a surplus or extreme attention of detail.
This woman may be a brilliant individual; however, if she has not grown out her learning differences/disabilities by the time she’s out of her teens/early twenties she should not involve herself in a profession where life or death can depend on making correct split second decisions.
Sure, she may profess to want to do research; however, she still would be a doctor first, a researcher second. She still would have contact with patients as she conducted her research.
I tend to agree she’s brilliant. Street smart enough to exploit the rules to her advantage. What man would stand up against a new mother with her new child in her arms and deny her from feeding said child? It’s clear she’s using the situation to facilitate an advantage. The unfortunate fact is her venue is the great liberal hotbed of Massachusetts where common sense was abandoned along time ago.
The operant word in granting reasonable accommodation is reasonable and it’s inferred that the person asking will ask only what they need to be competitive and not beyond that. In this case it was enough that she was granted extra time; however, it should have been academic and fundamental common sense for her to be ethical and not ask for “Nursing Time”. Doing so constitutes an unfair advantage. She should have pumped her breasts so that her husband/Boyfriend/significant other could feed the baby while she was taking the exam. Period.
September 13th, 2007 at 11:53 am
I think Ms.Currie is a marginal medical student (failed exam already once) who has been babied and coddled her entire life. When will she learn that the world does not revolve around her?
September 20th, 2007 at 12:43 am
Hmmm…I decided to go back to school in my mid-30’s. I will be 40 in January and will obtain my R.N. in the summer of 2008.
Family and friends have asked me why I did not go to medical school. My only response is ‘Do you want a dumb nurse taking care of you?’
Physicians tend to look at disease. It is very objective. You are not an individual…just a disease process. Nurses look at you as a whole person within the greater context of you life.
There are good doctors out there. Truthfully, physicians from overseas tend to look at you as a person, not a disease process like most American physicians do.
I’ve worked research, I’ve designed research protocols, I’ve taken care of patients, I’ve dealt with family issues. There are no breaks. You do what you need to do within reason. If the craziness is too much, come back later or rethink your life. I’ve spent 20 years making a career and putting off children. Putting a career off for 1 year or less is nothing. If you can’t deal with it, then you have no business in medicine.
Even if it is research. If Currie can not figure out how to feed her child, then she does not have the capability to be a problem-solving researcher.
September 20th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Obviously a lot of you folks are pretty clueless about breastfeeding works. She doesn’t need to express milk to feed her baby during the exam - she needs to express milk so her breasts don’t explode!!!! It’s extremely painful and risks infection if you put off nursing too long - normally you need to do it every three hours. Give this woman a break - she’s trying to do right by her kid by continuing to nurse even while studying and working. More than some moms even try to do!
September 20th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Gotta agree with Lauriemrl….
Educate yourself about breastfeeding/pumping, or better yet, come back and post after you have gone more than 5 hours without breastfeeding/pumping when your body is conditioned to doing this every 2-3 hours. It is not much fun my friend. I say she should go ahead and pump while she is taking the test…I don’t think it is any different than breastfeeding in public, which was legal the last time I checked!
YeeHaw!
September 20th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Absolutely, let her pump her breasts if she wants. But STOP with the special treatment already!
September 26th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I think all the breast feeders in this blog are missing the critical point.
Can this woman NOT do simple math ? I mean, if you know your going to be testing in a given month, adjust the date of your inpregnation, assuming of course she can control her urges. This is the result of HER bad planning, then expecting everything to shift to suit her needs.
Typical woman, it’s everyone else’s fault. What a loser.
September 28th, 2007 at 3:18 am
When she gets a job as a researcher. Will she still need someone to read to her the documents she needs to do her job? What about the experiments she needs to perform. Since her ADHD prevents her from focusing on her task, will she need someone else to do her work?
September 29th, 2007 at 11:46 am
It’s a good thing she already has a job lined up, because if I’m a potential employer, I’m putting her at the top of my “DO NOT HIRE” list. Breastfeeding issue aside, she really doesn’t sound like someone who has a mind for research. I have to agree with others - she’s already been coddled by MIT and given numerous advantages for the licensing exam (that she’s already failed!) - what’s next? Will she need breaks every 15 minutes because she can’t focus on one thing for that long? Will she need someone else to read research results and instructions to her?
Back on the breastfeeding topic, someone from the licensing board said other nursing mothers had found the allotted break time sufficient to express milk… just as a curiousity, I wonder how many nursing mothers have taken the exam without extra breaks and done just fine.
I’m very much a proponent of equal opportunity in education; every child and adult should have the tools they need for academic success. But a line has to be drawn somewhere.
December 9th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Some of the responders on this blog are very closed-minded and unenlightened. Dr. Currier has the right to appeal based on her situation. Criticizing her accountability based on her learning disability accomodation is ridiculous—she has an MD/PhD which is more than most of you writing I am sure. It is pretty obnoxious to see individuals who frankly are probably jealous of this woman’s intellect or equally accomplished, but bitter/obnoxious be so critical. I love the gender-bias completely shown by people that would write, “I think she needs to keep her legs closed.
She can barely function in a classroom but she’s cranking babies out at a rapid rate. Strange.”
That is quite an open-minded gesture (SARCASM). Lovely, lovely…
We are lucky that there are women out there like Dr. Currier, who continue to push the envelope and will continue to do so, much to your chagrin. It’s great to see racism (”doctors needed in Mexico and Iraq”) and sexism rampant in the Lone Star state. Keep up the great work all of you(SARCASM, again.)
-An Ivy-league trained woman
December 9th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
anotsosmartwoman,
The problem is that she wants special treatment, not that she isn’t smart. Please re-read the post.
She should delay her tests if she can’t handle not breastfeeding for the duration of the test. You avoid the central question, why should she receive special treatment? Until you can answer that, you have no right to say that those of us that have answered it shouldn’t complain.
Asking for special treatment is now called pushing the envelope?
December 10th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
I’d be curious if “bigjolly”, the polite individual who renamed me “notasmartwoman” (lovely, thanks so much for naming me as you see appropriate) is a man or a woman. I would also be curious if “bigjolly” has every pumped their own breast or faced breast engorgement. I would like to know if “bigjolly” is a doctor or just likes to comment on societal issues.
The legalities of the case based on the court proceedings are:
(1) whether breastfeeding women are legally entitled to a level playing field with men and non-breastfeeding women when taking an exam that controls entry into a profession.
(2) if they are, how much additional time makes the field level.
The appeals court decided that:
(1) discrimination on the basis of lactation is sex discrimination prohibited by the Massachusetts Equal Rights Amendment (the Lone Star state may not have Equal Rights, I have not researched it)
(2) Currier offered three experts who agreed on the amount of time necessary for the average women (not you, me, or Currier) to pump while the Board offered NO experts saying a woman could do it in less time. The Board offered NO experts at all on the issue of how much time was needed to pump.
Argument 1: The fact that Currier got extra time because of her other disabilities is irrelevant. That issue is a separate one around her disabilities and legally it must be assumed that she needs all that time for other reasons. With the test being 2 days long at 9 hours a day, it would require at least 3 pumping breaks (assuming I could pump immediately before and immediately after). At 20-25 min/pump, she would most likely need over 45 minutes and has argued that she does.
Obviously, not all women produce milk the same. Some can pump less often and others must pump more often. Some can be done in 15 minutes, while for others take up to an hour to empty. I have not seen anyone provide data that shows what the mean and covariance are on pumping times for women, but that would be important in creating policy–the experts in the case were present to discuss this issue.
This decision will affect all future pumping test-takers, most of whom will not have the extra time due to the disabilities. The fact that some people may have time in the breaks given to all to also do this extra thing she has been found to be legally entitled to do is irrelevant. She has an additional thing she must do and is legally entitled to the extra time needed to do it.
Argument 2: The break would be between sections of the test and that they would simply be longer so that she could pump. Therefore, she would not be able to read notes, think about questions, etc. She would just have time to get the pumping done and then go back to test taking.
Argument 3: Lactation is a physical issue of leaking and engorgement that can’t be controlled. I doubt that pumping is so relaxing (for most people anyway) that it would give a mother an advantage. I think that pumping during an exam would be stressful, something else to attend to and therefore not an advantage.
Argument 4: Given that medical field training is long and extended and often occurs during prime female reproductive years, the pumping accommodation should be made. Arguments that suggest that Dr. Currier “keep her legs closed” are absurd. Why should she delay having children or chosen not to breastfeed?
For professional women, there is not good time to have children. So the argument that she should have waited to have kids at another time is ignorant and inappropriate. If women wait until their training is completely done in their 40’s, they have serious fertility issues to deal with amongst other things. Suggesting that there are jobs that are incompatible with motherhood/breastfeeding deprives our society of some very talented contributions.
As a woman that is “smart”, I believe that I should be able to both pursue having a family and be a talented doctor. Dr. Currier’s efforts are leveling the playing field I would argue.