Setting: ICU, Sunday afternoon. Dr. Jay, newly hired medical attending, is seated at the nurse's station, discussing a patient with one of the medical residents. Dr. XY, a surgical resident, walks up and drops his hand on Jay's shoulder. Jay is a bit surprised but says nothing.
So, what are they planning to do?
We're concerned that her blood pressure is still too low, and we're going to place a Swan-Ganz catheter to see what's going on.*
OK, then, sounds like she's still too sick to go to the OR.
I'd say so.
Great! Well, honey, why don't you call me when you're all set up for the procedure if the medical attending doesn't get here.
{smiling broadly} I'm sorry, we haven't met. I'm Dr. Jay. I'm the new member of the medical faculty.
{XY removes his hand from Dr. Jay's shoulder and his entire body from the ICU. Rapidly.}
{Nurses applaud}
____
*This reflects archaic medical practice. See date in title.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
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5 comments:
good lord, a resident?
also, you weren't wearing a white coat?
Anna, I was wearing a white coat, with my name and rank stitched on the pocket. I was also wearing a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, since it was Sunday. I sure wasn't dressed like a nurse, which is what he thought I was. I do have breasts, though, so that probably confused him.
Note to resident. Never, repeat, never make assumptions.
Aztec-rose, the footnote to that note is "and don't treat the nurses that way, either".
Yes, the date makes all the difference. I hope. I graduated from med school in 1987, and slightly over half the students were women. This was a major school in the US, and those statistics were typical. In the years following, I watched the display of nasty attitudes and prejudice decrease. So I would hope that by now the troglodytes have at least gotten the idea that they need to be careful about their assumptions. As for the treatment of nurses, it still looked pretty bad sometimes ten years ago, when I had to leave my practice for health reasons. In addition to sexism, you could also see a sneering condescension coming from doctors, including female ones. I hope that as physicians have had to accept somewhat reduced power (because of insurance companies, etc.), they are now more understanding toward their subordinates.
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