As a med student on surgery, I had to go to this lecture after my seven straight hours of ambulatory. I was exhausted, my neck was killing me, and the only thing I had eaten all day was a couple of handfuls of peanuts. Still, I went to this lecture.
Only when I got there, it was in this small classroom and there were no available seats. There was this resident sitting in the back and I tried to ask him if there was a seat next to him, but he was unresponsive.
Then another surgery person came in and the resident actually got up to give that guy his seat, still pretending that I didn't exist. I was more than irritated at this point, but I couldn't leave, so I sat down on the floor. The resident had left his coat in the room and as he was reaching to get it, something fell out of his pocket and landed behind my back. I didn't know what it was, but I quickly moved backwards so that he wouldn't be able to retrieve it without asking me to move.
The resident disappeared for a minute and I checked what he had dropped. It looked like a laser pointer. I stuffed it into my pocket. Subsequently, another female medical student came in and had to sit on the floor also.
Then the resident returned with a chair! I thought, "How nice, is he trying to get us chairs?" But no, he just brought the chair for himself.
And I got to watch the bastard searching through his pockets for his laser pointer when the lecturer called on him to read a CT. Yesss! It was a drug company laser pointer anyway, the sellout.
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Sounds like the resident got his just deserts. Just remember folks: karma is a bitch!
ReplyDeleteLove this. I've seen residents be real douchebags to med students, so go you!
ReplyDeleteIn other news, I really want to submit a funny story, but I'm not very funny. o.O still thinking!
You don't have to be hilarious, you just have to make me smile. :-)
DeleteHe was probably overworked, over stressed and abused.
ReplyDeleteThat is being said; surgeons can be mean
I wrote this when I was a medical student, and I've actually been waiting for somebody to say that I was a brat. In retrospect, I'm not sure the resident did anything wrong. Maybe he was a little rude, but I'm sure he was a lot more tired than I was. But I'm still not sorry I took his laser pointer.
DeleteThis is why people don't trust docs, well another reason. You don't eat your own. These people are to help having your backs and who wants someone like that to have their backs?
ReplyDeleteThis is a false generalization. Plenty of residents are very nice to med students. There are a few assholes in every field. Maybe I got somewhat lucky but my residents at a program on the East Coast were always really nice to my classmates and me. My surgical residents were so fun to be around I misguidedly considered going into surgery for a short while, even though I likely would have been unsuccessful as a surgeon as I need my sleep.
DeleteI tried to be the same kind of resident for my students and even got a few thank you e-mails for the effort I put in to teach. My co-residents were similarly well-liked by their students, so I don't think I'm an outlier.
Just remember: all generalizations are gross.
DeleteYeah, you're not an outlier - I really had a good experience with my residents and attendings, both in clerkship and in residency, pretty much for all rotations (with the very big exception of OB! HATED OB!). My surgery and internal medicine residents were probably my favourites throughout both clerkship and residency, though I didn't end up going into either of those fields. And before you assume that I'm just a huge keener who was looking to get into Optho or Derm or something, I actually always wanted to match to primary care, which is where I am now, happy as a clam!
DeleteI'm a bit confused.....there were no available seats, but you tried to ask him if there was a seat open beside him. Was there a seat open and you couldn't get to it or could you not see if there were seats available? Or were you trying to get him to share his seat? ;-)
ReplyDelete~Jasmine
I'm writing a grant application to explore micro aggressions and micro inequities at the Medical School I work at (I'm a social scientist, not an MD) and this post, (that I randomly stumbled upon) just provided me with yet another example of such behaviour towards women. My favourite had been the classic "call the female physicians by their first name, while calling their male colleagues DR" and the ever popular "ask the female doctor if she is the nurse", but I think this one is worthwhile mentioning too. Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteAs a trainee, I've certainly had experienced similar to the story above. Though these were few and far between. As a female physician, I do often get called by my first name by fellow team members (made up of all areas of medical care) - but only ever after having asked them to do so. In fact, I find that many don't use my first name even after being told to use it until they get to know me (& sometimes not even then). I dont think that for those colleagues who are comfortable using my first name would not do the same with a male physician who told them to call them by their first name. And indeed, I have many male colleagues who speak with many members of the team on a first name basis.
DeleteAs for the fact that female doctors get asked if they are the nurse, I also firmly believe that the vast majority of the time (and possibly all of the time) when this occurs it is not a reflection of any micro aggression or micro inequality. Typically it only makes sense - today in the hospital the members of the care team often cannot be distinguished by apparel. On many units everyone is in scrubs. In other areas everyone is dressed in business attire. Regardless of their role in the team. Given the fact that in any given unit there are many more nurses present than doctors and that both historically and currently there is a higher percentage of women in nursing than men, it is not at all surprising that one might assume the woman in scrubs is a nurse.
Yes, there are still gender inequalities (on both sides). However, I don't believe that someone assuming the woman in scrubs is a nurse in a situation where there may be 20 nurses on and 1 or 2 doctors present and everyone is wearing scrubs is an example of this. It's simply playing the odds - if 90% of the women in scrubs you see on that unit are nurses, of course your first assumption would be that the woman in scrubs in front of you is a nurse.