I've recently learned that there's a general perception of me not being aggressive, particularly in the OR. While I'm not sure what this implies, I'm wondering if others have had this comment. In addition, I'm female, and unsure how much role that plays. And I'd like to know how to be more aggressive. I'm a categorical first year resident (but did a preliminary year last year). Thanks in advance.
I'm also a categorical female, newly minted PGY-2. I'm not sure how others handle it but here's my take on "aggressive" in the OR: one of the best pieces of advice I received as a student (from one of the female surgery senior residents) was to be ok with "No." She told me that I did a good job but that to improve my experience as a student on surgery, I should ask to do as much as possible. I did this as a student (in and out of the OR) and I was surprised by how much I was allowed to do (procedures, etc) just because I spoke up and asked to be shown how to do it and give it a shot. I heard "no" a lot too... but no one was upset that I was asking to do things and I'm sure I got to do more simply because I didn't wait for someone to ask me if I wanted to do it.
I carried this over to residency and, to me, the residency version means I don't just stand quietly scrubbed in - if I'm first assisting and I know the next step or the next instrument needed, I ask for it. I don't just wait for the attending/senior resident to ask for it and then have me hold the clamp or such while he goes about his business. I try to be an active participant and make the case go smoother by anticipating. I have seen other junior residents hesitant about taking an instrument and applying it unless they are directly instructed to do so and I think that can be perceived as being passive and, like it or not, they are more likely to view the behavior as passive if you are a woman.
Now to be clear, I'm not grabbing instruments out of the hands of others, I'm not being obtrusive, I'm not taking things off the Mayo stand, etc. I'm simply being an active participant in the case instead of allowing myself to be used as just another surgical tool. I think I've been allowed to do more in cases because of this.
The last piece is that I ask questions - not about the case or the indication or such. But if someone does something a particular way that I haven't seen before or if I am corrected to do something differently, I try to make sure I understand the thought process behind it by asking specific questions. I think as junior residents it can be intimidating and you don't want to come across as "questioning the decisions" of seniors of attendings. But there's a difference between that and asking questions to better understand the "why" of what you are doing.
