"Hey Dr. M! You've been sitting in the same place for a while now. What are you doing?"
"Reading," I replied.
"Reading what?"
"Reading up," I said.
"Reading up on what?"
"On my patients." I didn't even look away from the computer screen when I said that.
"Like a paper or doing a literature search or what?"
"No. Just background stuff. And literature searches. And more. I don't know what's wrong with a lot of my patients. So I'm reading."
"Wait, what?"
"You heard me."
"You don't know what's wrong?"
"Nope. I like, don't. So I'm reading. So I can."
"But you're an attending. You're supposed to know what's wrong with everyone!"
*silence*
"Dr. Manning? Dr. Manning!"
"SSSSHHHHHH!!!! Can't you see I'm reading!"
"Oh, okay. Sorry."
Hey students and residents! Newsflash: We DON'T know everything. And guess what? When we get home we grab some dinner, wash the dishes and then read up, too. Just like you. The only difference is that the exam is somebody's mama, somebody's daddy or somebody's child.
Higher stakes, yo.
Alright. Let me get back to reading, okay? I have a test tomorrow.
***
Happy Humpday.
Who was the eager soul trying to pry you away?
ReplyDeleteA med student. Ha ha ha ha.
DeleteHere's something really odd//funny: When Mr. Moon and I were at the neurologist's yesterday and he was doing the EMG on my husband, he suddenly, OUT OF NOWHERE, started talking about how med students just don't have to go through what he went through and how the attending doesn't want to "embarrass" the students and so they're not learning as much. Etc.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was baffled- why was he discussing this? And THEN, he turned to me and said, "I'm not sure you agree with me on this." I hadn't said a word! I mean...what would I say? He's my husband's neurologist! And I've never been a med student.
But I did say, "Well, I read the blog of an attending physician who works at Grady and I know that she really works hard at teaching her students."
And then he says, "What would she say about this?"
I hemmed and hawed and said, "Well, I think that she took from her own residency experiences what worked best in her learning and tries to use that with her students."
Which meant nothing, of course, but at least it gave me something to say! So thank you!
In every picture that I see here, you have on a different pair of glasses. I don't know if I'm comforted or alarmed that my doctors Google this stuff too.
ReplyDeleteYes I have a million pairs of $14.99 readers!
DeleteI like the one shaped like hearts
DeleteI'm always reading too
ReplyDeleteI'm an ID attending and we see some tricky stuff most days