I never want to be known as the stupid psych resident.
I know the stereotype is out there. That the psych resident only knows how to sedate patients, and that if a patient were to present with chest pain, we'd call it factitious disorder first before thinking of getting an EKG.
I like to think that there's absolutely no way that would ever ever happen, but I gotta admit, I'm only five months out from medical school, and because I've been in my very happy bubble of psychiatry and psychiatry only, I've forgotten a lot of stuff.
It's hard to remember all that medicine we learned in school, especially when I'm not using it every day. True story, last week I treated a patient's athlete's foot with a vaginal antifungal cream. Thankfully, it was indicated for both. I'm also very thankful that I didn't switch it up the other way around and give a foot cream for someone's vagina. That probably would not be very good. Or pleasant.
I know. I'm not doing much to dispel the stupid psych resident stereotype.
But today! Today I saw a patient in the med ER, and after I assessed her and put her on a hold for suicidal ideation, I let the resident know that we'd take over as the primary service as soon as they could give me some recommendations to teat her pelvic inflammatory disease, and as long as it wasn't via intravenous delivery, we could totally take care of it. The ER resident stared at me, "she doesn't have PID." "Oh, well she's endorsing some symptoms that sound like it might be PID?" I stuttered, unsure of myself, unsure if I actually remembered the symptoms correctly. The ER resident smiled at me patronizingly, and said that he would check it out again, but he was sure the patient was fine and could be transported immediately to our ward. I smiled passive aggressively back at him, and thanked him for this very interesting consult.
The patient finally came to our psych ER eight hours later. After she had been diagnosed with PID secondary to trichomonas infection.
Booyah.
3 years ago
