McRant

I think my ortho attending had to operate and round on inpatients in the morning,and then he had to see 17 patients between 12:30 and 4:15. I've decided that it's pretty much impossible to provide good patient care, listen attentively and patiently, do a thorough PEX, write a detailed note, bill, order and wait for xrays, counsel the patient, write prescriptions, work release forms, obtain consent, administer cortisone shots, drain seromas in the time allotted, but he tries and does the best he can.

So when the last patient sat down and said in her self entitled way, "I want you to do my surgery. I don't want Dr. C because I called him at 9 am and he didn't return my call until 12:30 pm. That's inexcusable," I saw red.

Inexcusable?

Are you serious?

I don't know, maybe he was busy seeing patients? or I don't know, in the middle of freakin surgery? so you should be pretty grateful that he used the 5 minute "lunch break" between the OR and clinic to answer your question about your pain pill refill. I think if I said anything my voice would have sounded very shrill. Luckily, my attending stepped in and gave her a nice, but firm scolding and included nice phrases like, "We work our buns off all day. We're not sitting in the back goofing off purposefully not returning calls. It's not the Ritz-Carlton. No one can be at your every beck and call."

Jeez.

There's probably a little spot in hell reserved for med students who rant about terrible patients, but I can't help it. Doctors are human too; they can only do so much.

My attending and I always commisserate about the pain that is clinic and book keeping, but like he said this afternoon, "At least with surgery, you only have to have clinic 2 days a week. The other 3 days? Arts and Crafts! :D"

So true.