Being lazy

Options:

1) fire them....you can't, but that's what I did.

2) join them...

3) the high road....ignore them

how about have your chief pull them aside and say, look i know everyone is stressed out in residency and overworked but a few people have noticed that you don't seem to be helping out the team doing pre-ops when you get a minute here or there. i care about you and your reputation and I don't want you to get the rep of being not a team player so how about every now and then picking up a pre-op etc. when you leave residency you want the reputation of being a hard worker, knowledgable and easy to get along with working for you as you finally apply for the big paychecks.

The chief resident should consider having a chat with the offender to let them know how they are perceived by their colleagues and to see if there is some legitimate reason that they are unable to pull their own weight (of course there isn't, so hopefully that approach would shame them into feeling like a fool and straighten out the problem). If it is still unresolved after that, the chief resident could inform the program director of the issue. If it is a trivial issue, I would not involve the PD since you would come off looking like a tattle tale. However, if it is affecting morale of the rest of the residents, it should probably be addressed.

I have some unique and creative ideas of how to handle this issue which have worked in the past, but you basically have to make them realize that they are being lazy because they may have no idea of how they are perceived. Just like colleagues who are know-it-all a$$holes think that everyone loves them and thinks they are geniuses, these people may be clueless as to what others think of them. Of course, you want to approach them in a concerned and caring way and not demoralize them.

A nice reminder that these are the same people who may soon be working at practices they wish to join in the future is a nice wake up call as well. A colleague's impression of your work ethic as a resident is going to weigh heavily on that person's decision to invite you to join their group. Everybody in anesthesia knows everybody else and if you get a bad reputation, many groups will pass on you for an interview.

I saw this happen with a person I knew as a medical student. Top notch on paper but hateful as a person and fellow resident. The great paper application got a great residency, but it unraveled there. The nastiness of the personality made this person despised and led to zero job opportunity in their city of choice when they finished. Why? Upper level residents that knew this person had joined all of the groups in this city (halfway across the country I might add) and threatened to quit if this person was even interviewed.

Come on....you guys have got to be kidding...

You think that people will change after they've reached this age.....after finishing medical school and have gotten into residency????

they won't change.....they may try to hide it better.......that's it.

trying to get them to change is like trying to teach a pig to sing.....

The pig won't sing....and it'll probably annoy you more than it annoys the pig.

I stick with the 3 options.

I gotta agree with Mil here. You can't change them and why would you care to anyway. They are that way because they choose to be. Don't let it bother you, your only together for a short time.

i guess it takes a woman to have the faith, or stupidity, to stick by someone hoping that they could change... otherwise all you men would be s**t out of luck ;-)

amyl said:

i guess it takes a woman to have the faith, or stupidity, to stick by someone hoping that they could change... otherwise all you men would be s**t out of luck ;-)

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You are right. The difference b/w men and women is that men will marry thinking she is not going to change when every women does change. And women will marry thinking that they can change the man while men don't change.

The desired effect is not to change the person but to get them to pull their weight. I have seen it work. Not always and I agree that the person may not necessarily change their tendency towards laziness, but the desired effect of them doing their job can occur.

the cases that get out early should show up in the OR tracking system that your hospital uses... so it should be clear who is done and free...

any body who is done early gets 1-2-3 pre-ops to do, they then drop off a copy of the pre-op note at the OR desk (this is important, because of some lazy kids will not do the pre-op or if they do do it, then it is a crappy 3 sentence mess of a pre-op)

that should fix the problem... repetitive bad behavior should go into their evaluations and should be included in any recommendations for jobs or fellowship... this is not just a chief resident issue, this is something the residency director needs to take control of...

when i was a resident i was much happier getting a few pre-ops when i got done early - it beat the alternative: getting stuck in the EMBO suite doing another vasospasm or epistaxis case...

amyl said:

i guess it takes a woman to have the faith, or stupidity, to stick by someone hoping that they could change... otherwise all you men would be s**t out of luck ;-)

Click to expand...

awesome