It is good to sometimes take what other people say with a grain of salt.
One thing that is true in the medical community is that we work hard. Now, with that being said another important factor is knowing which doctor among your colleagues you can trust and who you can’t trust.
I don’t ever discriminate…….I don’t trust ANYONE!!!
Let me give you an example.
I primarily work in the ER of a level 1 trauma hospital. I know all of my colleagues well, and, I know who to listen to and who, while they are talking, I am making up my grocery list in my head. The latter are the kind of doctors I REALLY don’t trust. I won’t leave my worse marble with them.
They are lazy, take a half-assed history. Barely do a physical, and may/will miss an important diagnosis.
One such colleague handed over a patient to me today.
Sleepy doc: ‘So tell me about this patient’
Slick: ‘Well she is a 20 something female with shortness of breath, dry cough and decreased breath sounds on the on side of her chest.’
Sleepy doc: ‘Ok, well you can go on your break now’
Slick: ‘Ummmm….. You heard me tell you about the decreased breath sounds???? Oh and she has asthma.’
Sleepy doc: ‘Yeah, go ahead on your break.’
Slick: ‘Ummmm….ok.’
Note: Slick disappears for the next two hours and noone can find her.
I immediately REASSESS the patient. Who is a young asthmatic, breath sounds equal in BOTH lungs. O2 saturation is 100%. I treat the mild asthmatic attack (which by the way I think was an aniexty attack due to personal problems with her boyfriend’, check the chest Xray and she is out and home within 3 hours.
Later on I ask Slick if she had done a physical on the patient. ‘No, I was just telling you what the EMS worker told me……..’
Always reassess a patient that has been handed over to you, or, you could end up in trouble.
Sleepy ER Doctor Diaries 