When I was doing an ortho elective during my residency, there was a med student also rotating with us named Chelsea. Chelsea had a lot going for her. First of all, she was really beautiful, not in an intimidating way, but in a really cute way. On top of that, she was also incredibly smart. She was probably one of the smartest med students I'd come across and she was from a stellar med school. She was only a med student and she knew way more ortho than I did. I figured this girl could do no wrong.
Interestingly, one afternoon, I heard two male residents talking about Chelsea while she was in the OR, and they didn't have good things to say. I was SHOCKED. I mean, here's a med student who's really smart and conscientious and eager and most importantly, HOT. Why weren't they drooling all over her?
The senior resident remarked that Chelsea was "weird." That when he addressed another resident to ask him a question about his patient, she would answer for him. That IS sort of weird.
The other resident remarked that Chelsea was "annoying." He was trying to interview a consult patient and she was tagging along, and she kept interrupting the interview to ask her own questions. She did that to me too and I found it really annoying too, but I thought it was a problem with ME, since she was clearly so awesome. It was a nice vindication to find out other people found her annoying too.
And in all the bitching about Chelsea, neither of them mentioned how hot she was. I have to say, I was impressed with those guys. I mean, they were orthopods.
I love hearing your old stories. They are so awesome. It makes me wonder why my experiences in medical school wasn't as exciting...
ReplyDeleteLol, your last paragraph hits the nail in the head. I would have been shocked, too, that they weren't talking about her beauty!
ReplyDeleteexcept that most surgery guys hate all females trying to hone in on their specialty
ReplyDeleteDid anyone pull her aside and told her about her behavior? I agree that she was "annoying" but hopefully someone helped her to become a better doctor.
ReplyDeleteSegments: Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteNirupama: So I guess their sexist tendencies were stronger than their superficial tendencies.
LBP: The thing is, even though she was annoying at times, I still thought she was a really good med student. One attending I worked with said that she was the best med student he'd ever worked with, even better than some of his residents. I think the qualities that made her sometimes annoying as a med student probably would serve her well as a resident and even more so as an attending. So especially considering she was a 4th year, I don't think she needed to be taken aside.
We tend to have really hot scrub nurses in the OR so no one notices anyone else since we get hot-overload.
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