Yesterday Dr. M had told Annie to go to the pathology lab to "put a rush" on finding out the FNA results of one patient's neck mass. Annie had not gone b/c she thought it wasn't the place of a medical student to tell the pathologists which slides to look at, and this morning the FNA results came back positive for "colloid growth" that was most likely benign. When Dr. M asked Annie if she went to the lab to find out those results, and Annie said no, he asked why not. "I guess I'm not that ambitious," said Annie. That did not sound like a good response (certainly not something Dr. M wanted to hear), and after rounds Chris sat us down and told us that when Dr. M tells us to do something, we should do it. Annie responded that doing something that Dr. M told her to do for the sake of doing it felt fake, and that the pathologists would see right through her, whereas Chris was a real doctor and the pathologists would have listened to him. Chris argued that the pathologists like it when med students stop by and that they wouldn't have minded Annie asking about the FNA results. Annie said if it was a matter of life or death, she might have done things differently, but the neck mass had been present for ages so it was probably not a life-or-death thing.
Chris said that the key was to say something like, "Hi, I'm following up on a patient who got a FNA done today, and I want to see what the results are" without mentioning that you were there on the attending's orders. Knowing me, had I been in Annie's shoes, I probably would have blown my cover by saying something like, "Hi, I'm one of Dr. M's students, and I'm here to follow up with Mrs. C's FNA for him." Yup, I'm too honest for my own good. Annie and I discussed our fears about the residency application process with Chris and Keira (i.e. not matching), and our interns said we should be fine. Easy for them to say; we have no idea how competitive their scores were, so maybe the match was a piece of cake for them.
The rude general surgery intern struck again by leaving a progress note that offended Dr. M. The final comment: "Medicine consult appreciated." Dr. M got mad and said, "Is he being sarcastic?" before slamming the binder shut. Chris and Keira thought he was reading too much into it, but since Annie and I have seen that intern (whom I'm tempted to nickname "that a**hole") at work we kept our opinions to ourselves. *sigh* At any rate, I'm on day call tomorrow, but no complaints there. I did plenty of 12-hr day shifts in ob-gyn so I'm used to it. But night shift...that's something I can't get used to b/c I value my sleep. Andrew positively looked like a zombie this morning b/c he got no sleep at all (his team "capped" last night), but it turns out that was his doing and not b/c his residents worked him all night. Elizabeth said that his residents had joked about deducting points from Andrew b/c he didn't go to sleep when they told him to. Heck, if residents tell me to go to bed, I'll gladly go to bed.
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2 comments:
Hmm yea that's a predicament about the pathologist. I was told by Manov to go talk to the radiologists, cardiologists, and social workers for our teams patients. The interns have a full plate so it became the med students job to help follow up on results. I absolutely have to stress you get brownie points if you go talk to radiologists and pathologists it from your attending. Don't worry I agree with Chris the other doctors Paths, Rads know why you are there to see them. It not like you are going to be the first med student to check up on results.
It may seem intimidating at first to go ask for results but after you do it once you kinda know how to approach the others. You say it in the nicest polite way to request for information from docs.I think your partner was intimidated to do so and that it seemed "fake" to her. Its absolutely not fake, it shows you care and that your on top of your patients progress.
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