I was asked to scrub in for a c section being done by two obstetricians. There is nothing for me to do in a case like this except keep sterile, which is what I did. It's frustrating.
During the surgery, Dr. Vulva asked Dr. Uterus what they should be teaching family medicine residents.
Dr. Uterus didn't understand.
"He means, what are the things that family doctors screw up all the time and annoy you."
"Exactly!" said Dr. Vulva.
He then went on to list everything that a family doc has ever done that annoyed him.
Why consultants feel a need to dump all they see wrong with other specialties onto the residents is honestly beyond me. I had the same experience in pediatrics and in the ED.
Implicit is that the complainer has never made a mistake that the other specialist has had to deal with, such as a consultation note that was illegible or so brief that it was useless.
They also tend to assume that the patient they are sharing with a colleague was in the same state as what they see in front of them. Illness is a changeable thing that presents differently during its course. The patient I saw in the ED last night may look quite different the next morning or even 2 hours later. We need to trust each other when we share our clinical opinions with one another.
It's time to stop the propagation of the gap between specialties. They make me too cranky.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment