On my schedule was one of my most "interesting" patients. He is a paranoid schizophrenic who came in with a chief complaint of "the scoots." He has all of the classic delusions full of conspiracy theories and hyperreligious themes. Instead of briefing this zealous resident ahead of time as is my routine, I decided to just let her take a quick peak at the chart and throw her in the room.
As ten minutes turned into twenty minutes I turned to my nurse and told her, "I'm going to hell for throwing her in that rooms without warning her, aren't I?" My normally reserved nurse began to laugh uncontrollably nodding her head all the while as the residents eagerness was getting to her as well.
When the resident finally left the exam room to my surprise she had a huge smile on her face, "That was amazing. Thank you so much for letting me see him. I wish all of our patients could be as interesting as that one."
I certainly got what I deserved.
The Country Doctor
3 comments:
You're a mean SOB, aren't you? Just wait till word gets back to the residency on that one! When I was a resident my OBGYN preceptor did the same thing to me--it was a lady who thought one of the other OBGYNs in town was talking to her over her IUD. When I went to tell him I couldn't find and IUD, he reached in the desk drawer pulled out a Lippes loop (now I'm, telling my age) and said "just fool around in there a little and show her this. Then bring it back to me so I'll have it for next time."
I would like to think that I am not a mean SOB, but that which I did was mean. I'm certainly not proud of it.
I like to try to 'break' the overzealous students on my fine crop of pressured speech patients. These are the patients that even I cannot corrall; you have to wait until they take the inevitable breath to try to direct the conversation.
If I like the students I upfront tell them what to expect and encourage them to practice their interview techniques. If the student is truly annoying me I will tell them to really hurry up because we're running behind.
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