Examples of bafflingly awful/annoying med student behaviors I observed in residency:
1) When I'm writing a note on the computer, leaning over my shoulder to watch me write the note.
2) Showing up late every single day. In the case of our last med student, showing up an hour and a half late every single day. And we don't start that early.
3) Interrupting me mid-sentence to ask the patient a question about a slogan on their T-shirt.
4) After observing me take a history and do a physical on a patient, attempting to take the chart away from me to present the patient to the attending herself.
5) After being told to look up a topic at about 10AM in the morning, leaving clinic and spending the entire day looking up articles on that topic (instead of seeing patients). When an attending says to look up a topic, that means look it up on your own time, at home.
6) Not showing up to one lecture in a month rotation.
7) Going in to examine a new patient without asking permission.
8) Staring at me while I dictate.
9) Asking too many personal, inappropriate questions of the residents.
10) Making an excuse to leave early every single day.
These examples of general rudeness, lack of respect, and bad behavior exist everywhere in society. Maybe these social issues were never corrected by parents or teachers at an earlier stage in life. How these people get as far as they do is nothing short of amazing.
ReplyDeleteChronically showing up late and leaving early for a rotation should be reported to the student's Dean of Student Affairs; likewise for vanishing a day to look something up (Dr. Google is always on call). Unless the student is autistic, the other behaviors merit a time out with a talk by the attending.
ReplyDeleteBecause I'm not a Medical Student and never will be, perhaps this is jealousy talking, however, I cannot imagine behaving in this manner. I would think it would be a privilege to be a medical student.
ReplyDeleteI will never understand the urge to watch me write notes on the computer. It drives me crazy. They could just wait 5 minutes and read the finished note when I'm done. One of my biggest med student pet peeves.
ReplyDeleteI think this is really selfish and unfair. Only ONE TIME has a resident ever given me more than an obligatory cursory view after finishing the note (and I always ask). That was probably because she recognized that, seeing as this was maybe the tenth note I ever read on that service and not the zillionth, it takes me longer than half a millisecond to read it.
DeleteWhat's that?? We should look at the note later that day, on all of this alleged free time we have? Then what happens when the attending pimps us on the patient during rounds and demands to know why we havent gotten to "know the patient" better?
My institution uses an EMR, so my medical students are able to review my notes immediately and for as long as they want/have time for. I don't expect them to read and digest things in milliseconds. They typically are responsible for 2-3 patients whereas the residents m ust be knowledgeable for the entire service.
DeleteRe: watching someone write notes -- I have done that on occasion as a 3rd yr med student, albeit after asking the resident if it bothered them. It just seems more conducive to discussing how to document certain findings, rather than waiting for the note to be finished, and then referring to it to ask questions. That said, I get that having someone watch over your shoulder is annoying, and don't frequently do it and certainly won't if the resident seems annoyed by the idea.
ReplyDeleteAs for the other behaviors in your list....common sense isn't so common, it seems.
Welcome to the world of millennial medical students.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter, a second-year Ob-GYN resident, came up with this list, pending publication on KevinMD.com. It's too long for the comment field, but made up mainly of common sense approaches to being a student. The most important thing is for the medical student to help the resident help the student! What a concept.
I hate when I am in the middle of seeing a patient and they just walk in the room. This either requires me to ignore the student making an awkward situation for all involved. or stop what I am doing, introduce the student to the patient, and explain who the patient is and what I ahve already done.
ReplyDeletei really do not care if you are late, I fugure you are paying for this you can decide how to spend your time, but if you are late, wait outside the room until I am done.
Ooh! Can I play too?
ReplyDelete11. Changing the settings on an IV pump
12. Resetting alarms on a cardiac monitor without telling anyone
13. Using the phrase "just a nurse" in any context whatsoever
Wow, the comment "Just a Nurse"...so agreed. I think Nurses are amazing!
ReplyDeleteI recenty had a med student who observed me doing a diagnostic procedure. She kept asking me questions, including what I thought about the diagnosis, while I was doing the procedure. I briefly explained what I was doing and what I was looking for, but she pressed on, naming specific diagnoses with bad prognoses. I sort of evaded having to answer that but she didn't pick up the hint... Unfortunately she isn't in my department and she left after the procedure so I didn't have the opportunity to give her the feedback that asking questions is OK unless there is a patient in the room. I get that you want yo learn but it is really uncomfortable if you ask 'is that a tumor' etc.
ReplyDeleteIn defense of 1 and 8:
ReplyDeleteCome on. We're med students. It's our JOB to observe you. And at least the first few times, it actually is pretty interesting seeing you use the jargon in notes and dictations. In fact, I didn't even know dictations were a thing until clinical rotations. And also, if I'm not right there keeping tabs on what the resident is doing AT ALL TIMES, usually one of the following happens:
-The resident is seated in the only free seat and I'm awkwardly standing in the middle of the nursing station. I move a couple feet over off to the side to skim my pocket medicine, and literally a second later, the resident has disappeared. Gone. To go start an A-line or admit a new patient or whatever it may be, without letting me know they finished or where they're going. So I have no idea how to find them without paging them and them getting all annoyed.
-The resident sees that I'm doing something else and tells the attending I'm "not showing interest."
It's not fair. There's no win.
*slow claps* All that said, I'd echo one of the anonymous replies above regarding asking permission/telling reasons for this watching, and if the request is denied, so be it.
DeleteI always have said 'mind if I look over your shoulder' … and it's few and far between. I try to come up with something else to look busy besides reading someone's note writing. … All the other things, agreed, egregious. … On the other hand, it is awkward as heck being a medical student. We are always new EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME. Expectations change minute by minute, attending by attending and our role is often undefined.
ReplyDeletePretty sure one of our med students was on the autism spectrum, and we were really confused about how he made it to the end of third year with his behavior. He would not only hover no further than 6 inches from us at any time, but he also memorized a script of what to say. Every person that walked into the room (including janitors or people coming to hand us a paper), he would launch into his "I am John Doe. I am a third year medical student. I am on my outpatient subspecialty pediatrics day today." I took him into a patient room to observe, and I got out "Hi, I'm Dr--" before he stepped around me to launch into his introduction. He also made all of our young patients cry and all the parents of teenage girls angry because he would go in and immediately lift up their shirts to listen to their hearts.
ReplyDelete