The Cat Fight Rrrarr!!!

So shelf exams are coming up soon for us 6weeker rotations, and that means I'm going to make these posts a little shorter temporarily. I have been doing calls now q2 days and its the same old same old.

Now lets get to the juicy part. So I have been on call twice with a 3rd yr resident (Dr. R) and an intern Dr. O. Both are females. Dr. R is late twenties I want to say 29-30 without kids. and Dr. O is 36 with 4 kids...yea I don't know how she does it!!! Dr. R is really impatient and tough on the intern Dr. O, it was her first call day, and my first call day. She's always harping at her " why haven't you done this or checked that pt" "I'm sorry but you're just going to have to work faster..." Dr. O had a appointment after call, and that weekend we were up to elbows with patients that were not enough beds for them in L&D and the other parts of the floor. So the next day we were also busy with rounding. Dr. O was left to write all the orders on 20 pts and I tried to help her round. She was begging Dr R to help her so she can get done in time to be at her appointment. Dr. R just said sorry, you just have to work faster next time. I stayed around to help her write orders, but I'm still so slow myself. Luckily another resident saw us after call and said he would finish up for us and we finally went home. Dr. R also talks down to the intern like she a little kid. I too saw how she was being extremely impatient with her. In my head, to myself I said" Give her a break its her first call day, and its only been 2weeks since she started."

Most of the time me and the intern Dr. O are usually left to ourselves while Dr. R runs to finish her notes in her pt charts that have piled up from clinic. So both of us are clueless. It gets worse, one time Dr. R and Dr. O laying out an ugly nasty argument in the call room in front of me, it got bad I had to walk out of the room. The second time on call with Dr. O I told her that I'll be on call with her I also said it was with Dr. R. She told me she wanted to cry when she saw Dr.R's name on the call list, and that she would pay $1000 not to have to work with her. Well second call night went a little smoother now that I made a scut sheet of pts so that I could help Dr. O with checking pts q 2hrs and be sure to write what orders for which pts. We had so many pregnant ladies that weekend in labor several had other medical complications.

Well after several more arguments between Dr. O and R. Dr. O finally got fed up and talked to the residency coordinator. Not only that later on that night 3am, or attending sat us down and talked to us about team work. I literally fell asleep in front of my attending. My eye lids got so heavy and she talks so fast ...that the words started to meld together and her voice became very melodic that I just closed my eyes. She says"now your not falling asleep on me are you?" I mean really how do you get out of that one? I completely fell asleep. So maybe I was asleep, can you blame me I was up since 5am that morning working until 3am the next day without break except for food. Basically some higher power of residency gods sat Dr. R down and had a chat. The next call night, Dr. O told me that Dr. R was so so nice to her and the night went on smoothly.

At first I wasn't sure if Dr. O's idea to stand firm and complain about her senior was a prudent idea. I was afraid there might be backlash, and things might be even harder on Dr. O, but to my surprise everything worked out and Dr. O is a much happier intern now. I was telling Dr. O that there will always be difficult people that you encounter and that because she is your senior, I was telling her to endure a little longer. I told her to do her best so Dr. R cannot find reasons to pick and gripe at her. She explained to me you know even as a intern, and you as a med student have rights. She was telling me it was wrong of Dr. R to talk down to Dr. O infront of me (med student) and the nurses, she should have talked privately. Basically saying that b/c Dr. R showed no respect for Dr. O, I would also lose respect for Dr. O too. Dr. O said, I'm a resident and not a 4th year student, she needs to respect me as a colleague and a person.

Dr. O is too good of a person, just an overall mentor I would never lose respect for her. Dr O constantly teaches, and gives advice on all aspects of medicine, wards, and how-to-do-stuff : write good notes, be a good student. I am instead disappointed that as a 3rd year Res, Dr. R would not understand how hard it is to be an intern that she too at one point in her life was at the same position as Dr. O and how she could not just give her a break or be a little more patient.

Hooray, I'm glad the Dr. O stood her ground. I'm just very passive, and I don't like to stir trouble. However after seeing Dr. O , an intern, stand up for her self respect. I'm much impressed and hope if this ever happens to me that I can rise to the occasion.

Thanks everyone for reading and commenting. I hope Bgetter and you're buddy CV will start blogs. I want to know how everyone is doing.