venting about ob-gyn

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Originally Posted by Trogghunter

You all are just at bad hospitals for OB. As much as you want to vent, be careful because it's a smaller world than you think and you may not be completely anonymous, even on here. Even if you don't want to do OB, work hard on your rotation because it'll come back around to help or hurt you. OB likes to talk, and word will spread about you either way. Bring OB cookies as sacrifice to appease OB. I have no interest in it, but I've made the best of it by reading 1/3 of Harrison's and Sanford on this rotation...just my thoughts.

This might literally be the most toolish thing I've EVER read on SDN.

Re: thread topic

I disliked the culture of OB/gyn a lot even though i actually enjoyed obstetrics (though gynecology I hated with a serious passion). I almost thought about switching to family medicine as a result but decided against it.

Otherwise everything else sucked. I hated the fact that everyone always seemed on edge; the attendings would be yelling and screaming for no evident reason. Even when in a difficult situation I NEVER saw a surgical attending yell at the patient or flip out on another team of docs (which I saw repeatedly on OB) - a cool head is a better marker of efficiency and competency than anything else IMO.

Originally Posted by GuyWhoDoesStuff

You have just highlighted precisely why OB/Gyn is one of the more malignant and catty rotations/specialties in existence.

I agree, lamesauce.

They won't talk. Because they don't have the balls for it. They will just crawl into a corner and gossip all day. And wonder why all the med students are laughing at them. There are a good amount of nice OB/GYN residents(as someone else mentioned, the male residents are awesome!), but the ones that are not...there's a reason for it.

Bottom line: People can say OB/GYN at their hospital is a nasty POS if they think that. Or if the residents are catty and need a life. And, they vent about how icky the rotation is, after all, that is what this thread is. If you wanted to hear how people love the rotation, make a "I get off to ob/gyn" topic.

Originally Posted by ArcGurren

Re: thread topic

I disliked the culture of OB/gyn a lot even though i actually enjoyed obstetrics (though gynecology I hated with a serious passion). I almost thought about switching to family medicine as a result but decided against it.

Otherwise everything else sucked. I hated the fact that everyone always seemed on edge; the attendings would be yelling and screaming for no evident reason. Even when in a difficult situation I NEVER saw a surgical attending yell at the patient or flip out on another team of docs (which I saw repeatedly on OB) - a cool head is a better marker of efficiency and competency than anything else IMO.

My experience is actually the opposite, luckily. Seen a neurosurgeons and an ENT flip out on other teams, at one of my hospitals as a med student saw a GS doing that. Never saw a Gyn flip out. which is good because I deal with a lot more Gyn consults than other consults at the moment. I do realize I may be a bit lucky though. When I was a med student, I went to the site with the best Ob/Gyn attendings. Rest of my classmates had to suffer quite a bit.

Originally Posted by Rendar5

My experience is actually the opposite, luckily. Seen a neurosurgeons and an ENT flip out on other teams, at one of my hospitals as a med student saw a GS doing that. Never saw a Gyn flip out. which is good because I deal with a lot more Gyn consults than other consults at the moment. I do realize I may be a bit lucky though. When I was a med student, I went to the site with the best Ob/Gyn attendings. Rest of my classmates had to suffer quite a bit.

The rare time I saw a surgeon flip out on somebody (typically the surgery residents were always under more stress than the actual attendings) it was because the resident nearly perforated an aorta and the resident had a history of being supremely incompetent. I probably would have yelled at him too. On the other hand I had a gyn attending who would routinely yell at the nurses, the scrub nurse, the residents, and the students (if he bothered to take notice of them) during something as simple as a routine c-section. I distinctly also remember we had a patient with resp distress who was being taken care of just fine by the team, and another attending comes in screaming and yelling at everyone (including the medicine housestaff taking care of the patient) that she needed to go straight to the OR - never mind that we were doing exactly that and at the pace we were supposed to do it at (and ultimately mom and baby were both totally okay) - it was just a way for her to relieve her tensions at being up all night on call the night before.

I guess it definitely depends on peoples' individual experiences though

EDIT: don't get me wrong. I have a LOT of respect for OB/Gyn as a specialty and I've met some truly fantastic doctors; hell, I actually enjoyed OB. Probably one of the happiest moments I saw in medical school was when I delivered this lady's first child and she, her husband, and mother who were in the room just started crying - and at the end the father came and gave me a hug. I just disliked the culture of the actual people who practice it unfortunately.

I actually enjoyed OB/Gyn quite a bit, though I had heard horror stories going in and fully expected it to be terrible. It helped that I had a great team and that I love the OR (likely going into a surgical specialty). The one thing that got to me, though, was all the blood. I'm not really one to get queasy, but after gen surg, I was shocked at how the booties and splash guards were actually necessary in deliveries... which is to say nothing about the postpartum hemorrhage patients.

Originally Posted by yuiness

I actually enjoyed OB/Gyn quite a bit, though I had heard horror stories going in and fully expected it to be terrible. It helped that I had a great team and that I love the OR (likely going into a surgical specialty). The one thing that got to me, though, was all the blood. I'm not really one to get queasy, but after gen surg, I was shocked at how the booties and splash guards were actually necessary in deliveries... which is to say nothing about the postpartum hemorrhage patients.

It's equivalent to solid organ bleeding in GS. Only time you'll get that much surgical blood loss outside Ob is in trauma.

Originally Posted by Rendar5

It's equivalent to solid organ bleeding in GS. Only time you'll get that much surgical blood loss outside Ob is in trauma.

My "gen surg" rotation was in transplant (we have very few true gen surg rotations at my school due to hyperspecialization in our departments), so I never got to see the heavy duty trauma stuff.

Originally Posted by yuiness

My "gen surg" rotation was in transplant (we have very few true gen surg rotations at my school due to hyperspecialization in our departments), so I never got to see the heavy duty trauma stuff.

You must've never had the pleasure of a liver transplant gone awry. Those are some bloody cases when you add in the coagulopathy and portal hypertension.

I was impressed by how much a placenta accreta can bleed. As a trauma chief I was called by the ob-gyn team after a patient was cold and coagulopathic (after 30-some units of blood and product), and still bleeding after hypogastric ligation and hysterectomy. Packed her like a damage control laparotomy for trauma, and she did okay.

Bump, fun story about my first day on OB:

> Come to hospital (actually second day since first was orientation to hospital itself) to meet with team for the first time. Spend an hour trying to find my resident
> find resident, who is moodily typing away at note on her computer. We politely introduce ourselves
> she snaps at us telling us to "back off and let [her] finish". okay fine
> first thing she tells us "never to interrupt her in the middle of her thought process" and doesn't even ask our names again (clearly wasn't listening the first time) - tells us to follow her and keep our mouths shut.
> spend rest of day following her and watching her do scutwork (this was gyn service, no cases that day)
> doesn't let us go eat lunch
> spend rest of day awkwardly following her round. She yells at us again for "just standing there and being useless" (there was nothing we could conceivably do other than maybe get her a form to sign)
> doesn't dismiss us until 7 (we snuck in a "bathroom break" an hour earlier to go get something quickly to much down)
> FML

Originally Posted by ArcGurren

Bump, fun story about my first day on OB:

> Come to hospital (actually second day since first was orientation to hospital itself) to meet with team for the first time. Spend an hour trying to find my resident
> find resident, who is moodily typing away at note on her computer. We politely introduce ourselves
> she snaps at us telling us to "back off and let [her] finish". okay fine
> first thing she tells us "never to interrupt her in the middle of her thought process" and doesn't even ask our names again (clearly wasn't listening the first time) - tells us to follow her and keep our mouths shut.
> spend rest of day following her and watching her do scutwork (this was gyn service, no cases that day)
> doesn't let us go eat lunch
> spend rest of day awkwardly following her round. She yells at us again for "just standing there and being useless" (there was nothing we could conceivably do other than maybe get her a form to sign)
> doesn't dismiss us until 7 (we snuck in a "bathroom break" an hour earlier to go get something quickly to much down)
> FML

Sounds about right.

Originally Posted by ArcGurren

Bump, fun story about my first day on OB:

> Come to hospital (actually second day since first was orientation to hospital itself) to meet with team for the first time. Spend an hour trying to find my resident
> find resident, who is moodily typing away at note on her computer. We politely introduce ourselves
> she snaps at us telling us to "back off and let [her] finish". okay fine
> first thing she tells us "never to interrupt her in the middle of her thought process" and doesn't even ask our names again (clearly wasn't listening the first time) - tells us to follow her and keep our mouths shut.
> spend rest of day following her and watching her do scutwork (this was gyn service, no cases that day)
> doesn't let us go eat lunch
> spend rest of day awkwardly following her round. She yells at us again for "just standing there and being useless" (there was nothing we could conceivably do other than maybe get her a form to sign)
> doesn't dismiss us until 7 (we snuck in a "bathroom break" an hour earlier to go get something quickly to much down)
> FML

Leave her a scalding review after the rotation is over if the situation doesn't improve.

All I can say is that you shouldn't judge people after one day working with them, especially not the first day. If she's pathological, it'll continue to show in the subsequent days that you work with her.

Originally Posted by ArcGurren

Bump, fun story about my first day on OB:

> Come to hospital (actually second day since first was orientation to hospital itself) to meet with team for the first time. Spend an hour trying to find my resident
> find resident, who is moodily typing away at note on her computer. We politely introduce ourselves
> she snaps at us telling us to "back off and let [her] finish". okay fine
> first thing she tells us "never to interrupt her in the middle of her thought process" and doesn't even ask our names again (clearly wasn't listening the first time) - tells us to follow her and keep our mouths shut.
> spend rest of day following her and watching her do scutwork (this was gyn service, no cases that day)
> doesn't let us go eat lunch
> spend rest of day awkwardly following her round. She yells at us again for "just standing there and being useless" (there was nothing we could conceivably do other than maybe get her a form to sign)
> doesn't dismiss us until 7 (we snuck in a "bathroom break" an hour earlier to go get something quickly to much down)
> FML

Give her 1 (and no more than 1) more day. If she continues being like this, I would immediately contact the clerkship director (maybe even cc the dean) and request transfer to another team where residents behave in a professional manner.

For all the BS we get about professionalism during medical school, you'd think there'd be some sort of censure of the physicians who are so appallingly unprofessional.

Originally Posted by mercaptovizadeh

Give her 1 (and no more than 1) more day. If she continues being like this, I would immediately contact the clerkship director (maybe even cc the dean) and request transfer to another team where residents behave in a professional manner.

For all the BS we get about professionalism during medical school, you'd think there'd be some sort of censure of the physicians who are so appallingly unprofessional.

Originally Posted by evilbooyaa

Leave her a scalding review after the rotation is over if the situation doesn't improve.

All I can say is that you shouldn't judge people after one day working with them, especially not the first day. If she's pathological, it'll continue to show in the subsequent days that you work with her.

I appreciate the sentiments but I should probably mention that I'm a fourth year and this happened during my 3rd year OB/Gyn clerkship - so I can totally complain about this resident if I want without fear of repercussion. I didn't even bother with a detailed eval other than stating that she was terrible to students. At this point it didn't even bother me that much that she was mean, I just wanted to freaking leave and go home earlier.

I actually had a really good resident or two on my OB rotation but they were also horribly miserable; which is just sad.