I was pimped twice this last week.

Pimp (verb): to make use of often dishonorably for one's own gain or benefit. –Merriam-Webster OnLine

I was pimped twice this last week: once during lab and once during lecture. Pimping is an unwritten passage that ALL student physicians must come to terms with early on in their careers. Call it an initiation. But, also, understand, pimping makes physicians better physicians. Pimping is sort of a one-sided dialogue, a barrage of questions directed from the senior to the newbie or rookie or underclassman all the while putting the student on the spot under a floodlight in the stark of night. These questions are designed to find the edge of student's knowledge and then push the envelope a few notches. The effects are two-fold: 1) reminder of humility and 2) reinforcing continued education. Excellent physicians and surgeons keep true to both, i.e. humility and education. They go hand-in-hand. Medicine is a field of humility encompassed by in depth, continued education: those who can do for those who cannot with selfless actions built on years and years of training.