Miss Manning, but not if you're nasty

Sometimes, no a lot of times, my Grady patients call me "Miss Manning" - even though they know I'm a doctor. It used to seem a bit curious to me, but my good friend and fellow Grady doctor, Lesley M. told me that she sees it as somewhat of a term of endearment. I think I am starting to agree with her on this one. No one ever says "Miss Manning" with a nasty snarl or a roll of their neck. In fact in the countless numbers of times I have heard expletives in the hospital, never once was it paired with the infamous "Miss Manning." In my experience, folks who want to curse you out generally get the title correct. (Not that I am the target of frequent cuss-outs. . . .however, you will come to learn that in a sho-nuff county hospital, you could very well get randomly cursed out for just standing there.) Anyways. . . .Lesley is probably right on this one- kiss my *expletive* is almost always followed by "doctor."

And so . . . . this morning I was rounding on one of the patients on the inpatient service with an intern and a student, and as always, I reintroduced myself as "Dr. Manning, the senior doctor on the team." The intern went over the plan with our patient, and referred to me, Dr. Manning, several times. She even said, "Dr. Manning wants to examine you now if that's okay." We finished the encounter, which was quite pleasant. The patient asked a few questions which we patiently answered, shared a bit of small talk and then bid her adieu. We'd been in there around 7 or 8 minutes or so, and I even wrapped up the visit by pointing to my badge and saying "If you have any questions or concerns, my name is Dr. Manning." Sure enough, as we walked out of the room, the patient smiled wide, raised her hand, and hit me with a cheerful, "Thank you, Miss Manning!"

I love this job.