Medical Lesson #1

Patient: Have you done this procedure before (asking about the central line he's about to put in).
Surgeon: No, but I did stay at a holiday in express last night
Me: almost spit out my non existent drink laughing (cause a drink would be unsterilized...stupid surgery)

If you're going to work in medicine humor is a necessity. You will constantly deal with things that you just can't handle without making light of situations or changing the mood. However as were running through our rotations at each specialty the one thing I've noticed is that reading a patient is key. Today for example we were with a surgeon who is an absolutely hysterical guy and laid back as can be when it comes to the surgeon types. He is constantly joking around with patients. However the one thing he lacks is changing his approach around patients who obviously don't care for the song and dance. In other words he only has one gear and doesn't understand the value of shifting.

As a doctor your goal is to make the patient feel at easy in any way shape or form. However not all patients are fun loving smiling people. In fact most are bitter, angry and scared for being in the hospital int he first place. Instead of trying to crack jokes and smile sometimes its just better to say, "hey I'm sorry this is going to hurt but it will help you in the end just bear with me" instead of cracking jokes.

So after about an hour of trying to put in the Central line on a patient with a past history of MULTIPLE central lines and three past port cath's put in he came to conclusion that maybe Jugular veins in his neck had become clotted off. He then called an anesthesiologist over to make an attempt. After the anesthesiologist failed they decided to just run a Doppler to find a viable vein and retry in the morning.

After we left the room the man started crying and the surgeon felt like a disappointment even though he did everything he could to start the central line (the subclavian and femoral were both clotted out as well). He then turns to us and says, "Dont ever let your ego get in the way of your patient. Most people wouldn't have called the anesthesiologist in and ask for help. I don't care about all that bullshit. In the end your goal is to help your patient. Don't ever let your ego get in the way of that goal."


Who said all surgeon are egotistical maniacs...


Till next....I have to say real medicine is a hell of lot more interesting then classroom boredom