Sorry for the radio silence the past couple of weeks, but I'm on my surgery clerkship and you know what they say: if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.
Blink blink.
Well, I'm about to say a lot of not-nice things, but what else is a blog for, right? So here goes. I have absolutely hated every single moment of my ENT outpatient rotation.
I know, I know - hate is a strong word. But, hand to God, that's how I feel.
The patients are nice, sure. They usually always are. But these are patients with allergies and chronic sinus infections. And so, it's not particularly exciting. Because you could argue that even if your attending is absolutely the meanest surgeon on earth, at least knowing that you're doing something good for your patients, that you're affecting their lives for the better, that it would be worth all the put downs and the sarcasm.
You see, my ENT attending just has this way of saying things to me that make me feel completely incompetent and useless.
But the patients come to clinic with these chronic allergies and these deviated septums, and I can find out all I want about their history and how long they've had seasonal allergies, and all the past antibiotic regimens they've been on...but 9 times out of 10, my ENT attending will come in and tell the patient that based purely on their CT scan, it's clear they need surgery. Period. And I just can't get excited about fixing people's deviated septums, when I'm not actually doing anything for the process.
And the way he says it to the patient makes the patient think that they've completely wasted their time talking to me about all their problems, when it's SO CLEAR on the imaging that surgery is the only option.
It got to the point that I saw a repeat clinic patient today, and the patient flatly told me that she didn't want to talk to me. Because I wasted her time last week, and all she wanted was to talk to the real doctor.
Thanks Dr. Attending sir, for making the patient feel like I'm a useless piece of crap that actually slows down your clinic, when in reality, it's because you spend 50% of your time sitting in the back room reading about baseball stats on ESPN.
But the worst is when he just looks at me and tells me, in more or so words, that I'm a complete idiot. For not knowing the proper medical terminology for "mucus-y crap in her nose," or for not knowing what a perforated septum looks like, or for not knowing to ask about recent sky diving. I'm sorry, sir. I haven't gone through 5 years of residency and then more years of NOSE fellowship, so no, I don't know what a perforated septum looks like grossly. Especially since I don't have your special scopes and headlights when I'm doing my quick physical exam. And also, if you want me to ask about specific things, tell me in the beginning, please. I had no idea that this seemingly rather boring librarian, whom you've known for years now, goes sky diving on a pretty regular recreational basis. I am just meeting her for the first time, after all.
Ugh.
Tomorrow is my last day of ENT clinic. And I really couldn't be any happier. So long, Dr. ENT Attending. Take comfort in knowing that you are the absolute worst attending I have ever had. You don't teach, you don't inspire, and you will NOT be getting a very good evaluation from me. You might call it passive aggressive, but I just call it truthful.
3 years ago
