Attempts to Humiliate the student

corpsmanUP · Aug 17, 2005

Any of you guys ever have an attending or resident come down on your for something so stupid that you just feel like waiting for them in the parking lot? Imagine being on rounds when a podiatry resident doing a medicine month throws a pimp question at you. You are seeing some guy who has osteo in his distal fibula and on a couple of his LE plain film he happens to have some other obvious hardward that I have never seen before. So of course the Pod asks us if we can identify the device and the person who invented it. When I don't know what it is, she asks me if I am really a 4th year medical student and how could I have possibly passed my boards and made it through school without learning this.

It turned out to be something called an Ilizarov fixator used for changing limb lengths in kids with trauma. I somehow made it through my entire medical school including my ortho elective without ever coming across this topic. The Pod was very condescending and she made it sound like I was a complete idiot. I was so pissed that I confronted her privately after rounds and told her that in medical school this is not a real hot topic. I also answered her question about board and how I had scored very well, even though I must have just skipped over the 37 questions on the USMLE about the Ilizarov rod. That joke failed to get a laugh from her.

Anyone ever felt like someone really ragged on you for not knowing something so damn trivial? I can understand feeling like an ass if you didn't know something obvious and useful. I mean come on, we were on medicine rotation where the residents usually don't even look at an extremity film..at least right side up!!! 🙂

Pox in a box · Aug 17, 2005

corpsmanUP said:
Any of you guys ever have an attending or resident come down on your for something so stupid that you just feel like waiting for them in the parking lot? Imagine being on rounds when a podiatry resident doing a medicine month throws a pimp question at you. You are seeing some guy who has osteo in his distal fibula and on a couple of his LE plain film he happens to have some other obvious hardward that I have never seen before. So of course the Pod asks us if we can identify the device and the person who invented it. When I don't know what it is, she asks me if I am really a 4th year medical student and how could I have possibly passed my boards and made it through school without learning this.

It turned out to be something called an Ilizarov fixator used for changing limb lengths in kids with trauma. I somehow made it through my entire medical school including my ortho elective without ever coming across this topic. The Pod was very condescending and she made it sound like I was a complete idiot. I was so pissed that I confronted her privately after rounds and told her that in medical school this is not a real hot topic. I also answered her question about board and how I had scored very well, even though I must have just skipped over the 37 questions on the USMLE about the Ilizarov rod. That joke failed to get a laugh from her.

Anyone ever felt like someone really ragged on you for not knowing something so damn trivial? I can understand feeling like an ass if you didn't know something obvious and useful. I mean come on, we were on medicine rotation where the residents usually don't even look at an extremity film..at least right side up!!! 🙂

Just suck it up and let it go. No sense in fighting the urge to complain because it makes you look bad. I've noticed when residents ask med students (like myself) ridiculous questions like the one you mentioned that the other residents and even attendings also present will roll their eyes as if to say that the resident was being a chump. I wouldn't worry about not knowing this trivial podiatry fact. Look who asked you the question, a podiatrist... you're doing medicine. It might be different if you were on ortho and your attending just gave a lecture on the device in question.

Dire Straits · Aug 17, 2005

corpsmanUP said:
Any of you guys ever have an attending or resident come down on your for something so stupid that you just feel like waiting for them in the parking lot? Imagine being on rounds when a podiatry resident doing a medicine month throws a pimp question at you. You are seeing some guy who has osteo in his distal fibula and on a couple of his LE plain film he happens to have some other obvious hardward that I have never seen before. So of course the Pod asks us if we can identify the device and the person who invented it. When I don't know what it is, she asks me if I am really a 4th year medical student and how could I have possibly passed my boards and made it through school without learning this.

It turned out to be something called an Ilizarov fixator used for changing limb lengths in kids with trauma. I somehow made it through my entire medical school including my ortho elective without ever coming across this topic. The Pod was very condescending and she made it sound like I was a complete idiot. I was so pissed that I confronted her privately after rounds and told her that in medical school this is not a real hot topic. I also answered her question about board and how I had scored very well, even though I must have just skipped over the 37 questions on the USMLE about the Ilizarov rod. That joke failed to get a laugh from her.

Anyone ever felt like someone really ragged on you for not knowing something so damn trivial? I can understand feeling like an ass if you didn't know something obvious and useful. I mean come on, we were on medicine rotation where the residents usually don't even look at an extremity film..at least right side up!!! 🙂

ask her why she couldn't get into med school and had to settle for podiatry. seriously do it and watch her expression as she tries stumble through a half-ass explanation. then cut her off suddenly in the middle of any explanation she's giving and say you never met anybody who actually wanted to be a podiatrist but rather they had to settle for it because they couldn't get into med school. make sure you emphasize "settle" each time. this is just the start. you could have so much fun with this if you wanted to.

lexrageorge · Aug 17, 2005

Dire Straits said:
ask her why she couldn't get into med school and had to settle for podiatry. seriously do it and watch her expression as she tries stumble through a half-ass explanation. then cut her off suddenly in the middle of any explanation she's giving and say you never met anybody who actually wanted to be a podiatrist but rather they had to settle for it because they couldn't get into med school. make sure you emphasize "settle" each time. this is just the start. you could have so much fun with this if you wanted to.

I realize that some of this was said tongue-in-cheek, but the OP should NOT follow the above advice. I am sure the podiatrist has dealt with snide remarks about her career choice from other residents and attendings. In defense, she takes it out on the lowly med student that has no recourse. I am not defending her behavior. In fact, her attitude is more likely to induce such remarks from residents, etc.

If you say something to your resident or attending, you may very well come across as a complainer, someone who cannot work with allied health professionals, etc. If you say something rude to the podiatry resident, she may very well complain to your attending, and that WILL have an impact on your clinical evals. Her version of the story may very well be different from yours, and, you, as a student, are unlikely to be given the benefit of the doubt.

Or, you can suck it up, ignore it, and move on. Chances are you will never see this podiatrist again, and chances are this person will have NO impact on your clinical grade. Vent on SDN if it makes you feel better. Eventually, you will look back on this and laugh about it.

lvspro · Aug 17, 2005

Hello
I read your post and couldn't help but think of some of my past experiences. It seem like every single pimp question ever asked by anyone just so happens to be the "most important thing you learn on this rotation" or "critical for passing your boards." Funny thing is that I have yet to see more than about 10% of pimp question on any board exams.

Furthermore, the podiatry resident may have thought the inisass rod was important b/c it was something she got smoked on during rounds at callous-cutter general hospital down the street. Hence, I think she may just be venting. Either way, the resident sounds like a tool, and you should just let it roll off you. Rest assured that residents can spot these people a mile away, especially when they're not MD's.
I agree w/not attacking back...yet. This could start a nasty circle of both of you trying to make the other look like an ass= both look like asses.

carrigallen · Aug 17, 2005

I think she was just trying to teach you something. The worst someone could do is to be tactless and defensive in turn. Weird pimp questions test people's resiliency and ability to think on their feet.

automaton · Aug 17, 2005

once i had a murse pimp me on ekg asking me what i thought a reading was. i said it was v-tach. turns out it was "idiot pressing on a lead quickly to simulate vtach on ekg". you can guess who the idiot was. wow, what a great teaching point, mister murse. i will put that pearl of wisdom right along such profound pathophysiological insights as...

low urine in foley because someone drained it before you got there
lower extremity parathesias because someone put the foley drain under the leg making it fall asleep
no stool because patient was NPO

these people are losers. just laugh at your podiatrist when he or she pulls something like that. they win if you get angry of flustered. if you treat their question as something ******ed then they can't get to you. my murse told me now that i know this great ekg trick i should pull it on my other classmates. tell you what, mister murse, why don't you go back to school so you can ask some real questions instead of wasting my time with your buffoonery / practical jokes.

thanks.

Pox in a box · Aug 17, 2005

automaton said:
once i had a murse pimp me on ekg asking me what i thought a reading was. i said it was v-tach. turns out it was "idiot pressing on a lead quickly to simulate vtach on ekg". you can guess who the idiot was. wow, what a great teaching point, mister murse. i will put that pearl of wisdom right along such profound pathophysiological insights as...

low urine in foley because someone drained it before you got there
lower extremity parathesias because someone put the foley drain under the leg making it fall asleep
no stool because patient was NPO

these people are losers. just laugh at your podiatrist when he or she pulls something like that. they win if you get angry of flustered. if you treat their question as something ******ed then they can't get to you. my murse told me now that i know this great ekg trick i should pull it on my other classmates. tell you what, mister murse, why don't you go back to school so you can ask some real questions instead of wasting my time with your buffoonery / practical jokes.

thanks.

What's a murse?

Add these to the list:

Inserting a Foley in the wrong...
Not checking vitals on a CCU patient for 2 straight days

gerido · Aug 17, 2005

Pox in a box said:
What's a murse?

Add these to the list:

Inserting a Foley in the wrong...
Not checking vitals on a CCU patient for 2 straight days

probably a man nurse

gerido · Aug 17, 2005

automaton said:
once i had a murse pimp me on ekg asking me what i thought a reading was. i said it was v-tach. turns out it was "idiot pressing on a lead quickly to simulate vtach on ekg". you can guess who the idiot was. wow, what a great teaching point, mister murse. i will put that pearl of wisdom right along such profound pathophysiological insights as...

low urine in foley because someone drained it before you got there
lower extremity parathesias because someone put the foley drain under the leg making it fall asleep
no stool because patient was NPO

these people are losers. just laugh at your podiatrist when he or she pulls something like that. they win if you get angry of flustered. if you treat their question as something ******ed then they can't get to you. my murse told me now that i know this great ekg trick i should pull it on my other classmates. tell you what, mister murse, why don't you go back to school so you can ask some real questions instead of wasting my time with your buffoonery / practical jokes.

thanks.

That is pretty funny actually... :laugh:

corpsmanUP · Aug 17, 2005

Ok guys, I am sorry to admit that I made this story up completely to see how many people would respond and say "Hey *******, you really don't know what an Ilizarov Rod is?". Now before you start throwing a$$ lint at me, here is why I did it.

I was on the ophtho forum the other day and I got into it with a Pod of all people. Then he blabbered some BS about how he had no time to deal with me because he was doing diabetic limb surgeries with "Ilizarov". I replied as if Ilizarov was some "Still Alive" physician and then the flood gates opened from the Pods. They all started saying that I could not possibly be a 4th year medical student if I had never heard of the Ilizarov Rod. I tried to explain to them that having a firm understanding of one anatomical region is not the same as having an adequate grasp on the entire body! This only pissed them off worse and led to me wanting to proove that the average medical student in fact has never heard of an Ilizarov (INhisass was funny BTW!!!) Rod.

So the only way I felt I could objectively ask this question on this forum without being biased was to give a simulated encounter like in my OP. Thank you guys for making my point and for giving a great lesson on what to do when some resident or attending pimps you with some unreasonable "most important concept in the world" question.

I'll now be forwarding those Pods to this thread where hopefully they will see that we real physicians don't see the patient from the feet up.

corpsmanUP · Aug 17, 2005

lvspro said:
Hello

Furthermore, the podiatry resident may have thought the inisass rod was important b/c it was something she got smoked on during rounds at callous-cutter general hospital down the street. .

This was undoubtedly the funniest comment I have heard in a long time, and it came on a day that really sucked, so thank you for improving my day!! I called my wife in here to read it and she spit her drink out her freaking nose and we both laughed until we cried!!

Dire Straits · Aug 18, 2005

D.P.M. = doctor of pedicures and manicures

tkim · Aug 18, 2005

corpsmanUP said:
Ok guys, I am sorry to admit that I made this story up completely to see how many people would respond and say "Hey *******, you really don't know what an Ilizarov Rod is?". <snip>

I'll now be forwarding those Pods to this thread where hopefully they will see that we real physicians don't see the patient from the feet up.

That's a very bad idea. Closing.

Attempts to Humiliate the student

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