I've complained a lot about my co-residents during residency, but some of them were really great. Notably, there was a female resident named Gina that I was working with on a VA clinic rotation who was probably the most considerate and hardworking resident I've ever known. In spite of the fact that she seemed to hate residency.
For example, my daughter was just starting daycare then and I came down with a really bad stomach virus. I came to work looking completely green, throwing up between patients, and nobody sent me home (of course). Anyway, the next morning, I had clinic and Gina didn't, so she called me and preemptively said she was going to cover my clinic, so I could stay home and rest. Isn't that nice?
I tried to do my part by being considerate back to her. An attending noted that he'd never seen two residents work so well together.
Actually, what he really said was that he'd never seen two residents argue over who will see the next patient. Considering many of the patients at the VA pain clinic were kind of unpleasant and neither of us actually wanted to see them, the only reason we argued over this was to be considerate to each other. It was sort of like:
"Oh, I'll see this demented, alcoholic, homeless guy with back and neck pain."
"No, it's okay, I'll see him."
"No, I don't mind, really. You have a lot of dictations to work on."
"No, it's okay, you have epidurals in an hour and I want to make sure you have time to eat."
It's really nice working with someone who is genuinely considerate.
I'm sure you would love my peds rotation. There's so much to do, they just didn't have time to schedule lunch for the med students! (Why do med students need lunch? I don't know.) There's not even enough time to grab a cup of soup or something in the cafeteria. I'm surviving on cereal bars.
ReplyDeleteI confess: if someone was that considerate to me, i'd be a liiiitle suspicious about that person's intentions.
ReplyDeleteThen again, I work with horrible colleagues so that'd never actually happen to me...
Pluripotent: Is lunch ever actually scheduled when you're a med student?
ReplyDeleteFNC: I can tell you three years later, this resident did NOT have any questionable intentions. She was just a genuinely considerate person.
I'm on out-patient for the month. This is the only rotation I've had where there are things scheduled till noon (clinics), then noon lecture, then clinics start at one. Usually, lunch is not explicitly scheduled, but the residents (mostly) understand that, human metabolism being what it is, even med students have to eat. This week I'm on nursery, which is at a different hospital 15 minutes away, and the rotation requires us to drive back to our med school at noon to attend noon lecture, then drive back to the hospital that has the nursery.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Fizzy, since when is lunch (or any break really) scheduled for anyone besides the nursing staff?!
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if male residents would be willing to show this level of cooperation... with their female counterparts. I am a male BSc student and I can hardly be nice to women in the lab etc. because it just feels weird/they might think I am being nice to them because I like them.
ReplyDeleteBut it's good to know you had a co-resident with a 'soul' :P
Lulz at scheduled lunch for nursing staff...
ReplyDelete