There’s so much that I wish I’d been writing, but logging in online is so arduous and I have yet to register MarsEdit, chiefly because I think it’s overpriced by about $10. But I had to share this nugget. Granted, I didn’t hear this first-hand, someone told me about it.
One of May’s new general residents has seen it all and knows it all… he thinks so, anyway. The surgeons teach via Socratic method and hence enjoy asking all kinds of questions. It’s always okay to say you don’t know. It’s not a good idea to bring up what you saw during your adult surgery rotation. It’s not a good idea to try and teach an old dog new tricks, especially when you’re only in your second year of surgery. This resident breaks these rules of what not to do all the time. As they were closing, he disagreed with the way the surgeon, known as Breakneck Billy because of his speed, wanted him to close and continued to try and talk the surgeon into doing things his way rather than shutting his mouth and allowing himself to learn from a man who’s been doing this longer than the little upstart’s been alive. Instead of getting angry or screaming or yelling or ridiculing, Billy finally said, “Son, are you a Republican? Because you keep trying to make me believe things that just aren’t true.” If you knew this man and the way he has of speaking, you’d be on the floor laughing.
Today (this I heard), he asked the resident, “What do you do if you cut the vas?” Of course, this resident knows everything right, or at least he tries to sound like he does and lives in the hope that maybe the surgeons won’t be able to tell. He started on a long explanation on how you could try and sew it back together though you might not be able to in someone so small. Billy said, monotone as ever, “The right answer then would be ‘I don’t know.’ ” The Republican continued. You have to admire his tenacity though it’s completely misplaced. He began saying something like he’d been it done by urologists in the adult world. Billy broke in, “So I wasted my time with the extra training to be a pediatric surgeon?” I laughed. I couldn’t help it.
Today, the Republican told me he felt this particular surgeon was “condescending sometimes.” I told him to get over it. Where do people get off on thinking they know everything when by definition, they’re students and they’re there to learn? It makes for some hilarity, though.
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