Embarrassing Physician Shadow Moments

[BritishTang]

We all have one. Let us hear them and consider it a warning to the future pre-meds.

I had an awesome one today.

We walk in to admit a patient and this guy has another couple in there with him - they say hello to the doctor then look at me curiously, I simply tell them I'm a pre-med student Shadowing the Doctor. So we proceed, and then this one guy keeps asking some very technical questions to the doctor and he finally tells us he got his masters degree in Toxicology and that he teaches at the nearby University.

Well after the Doc gets done with the patient we start to leave when the Toxicologist stops me. "What is the powerhouse of a cell?" at first I'm kind of confused before I answer, "Mitochondria", "very good" he says, "what do they produce?", Ha! I think to myself, freaking easy, ATP, however, all that comes out of my mouth is, "uhhh." My Doc stops and turns back to me, and I start panicking, "uhhhh" the Toxicologist smiles and says, "ATP" my Doctor quirks an eyebrow at me.

Afterwards we're finishing up the patients charts and documenting all of his symptoms when the conversation goes something like this,

Doc: Patient has has dizziness, and extreme abdominal pain, prescribing Dilaudid prn and one reamed medical student.

ouch. I don't think I have ever felt so dumb.

Let's hear your stories!

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[premedmind]

We all have one. Let us hear them and consider it a warning to the future pre-meds.

I had an awesome one today.

We walk in to admit a patient and this guy has another couple in there with him - they say hello to the doctor then look at me curiously, I simply tell them I'm a pre-med student Shadowing the Doctor. So we proceed, and then this one guy keeps asking some very technical questions to the doctor and he finally tells us he got his masters degree in Toxicology and that he teaches at the nearby University.

Well after the Doc gets done with the patient we start to leave when the Toxicologist stops me. "What is the powerhouse of a cell?" at first I'm kind of confused before I answer, "Mitochondria", "very good" he says, "what do they produce?", Ha! I think to myself, freaking easy, ATP, however, all that comes out of my mouth is, "uhhh." My Doc stops and turns back to me, and I start panicking, "uhhhh" the Toxicologist smiles and says, "ATP" my Doctor quirks an eyebrow at me.

Afterwards we're finishing up the patients charts and documenting all of his symptoms when the conversation goes something like this,

Doc: Patient has has dizziness, and extreme abdominal pain, prescribing Dilaudid prn and one reamed medical student.

ouch. I don't think I have ever felt so dumb.

Let's hear your stories!

LOL....I know exactly how that feels. Well, don't worry about it too much is all I can say, and read up on your molecular biology.......JK.

 

[pedro4199]

We all have one. Let us hear them and consider it a warning to the future pre-meds.

I had an awesome one today.

We walk in to admit a patient and this guy has another couple in there with him - they say hello to the doctor then look at me curiously, I simply tell them I'm a pre-med student Shadowing the Doctor. So we proceed, and then this one guy keeps asking some very technical questions to the doctor and he finally tells us he got his masters degree in Toxicology and that he teaches at the nearby University.

Well after the Doc gets done with the patient we start to leave when the Toxicologist stops me. "What is the powerhouse of a cell?" at first I'm kind of confused before I answer, "Mitochondria", "very good" he says, "what do they produce?", Ha! I think to myself, freaking easy, ATP, however, all that comes out of my mouth is, "uhhh." My Doc stops and turns back to me, and I start panicking, "uhhhh" the Toxicologist smiles and says, "ATP" my Doctor quirks an eyebrow at me.

Afterwards we're finishing up the patients charts and documenting all of his symptoms when the conversation goes something like this,

Doc: Patient has has dizziness, and extreme abdominal pain, prescribing Dilaudid prn and one reamed medical student.

ouch. I don't think I have ever felt so dumb.

Let's hear your stories!

Scratch that rec letter.

 

[TheRealMD]

We all have one. Let us hear them and consider it a warning to the future pre-meds.

I had an awesome one today.

We walk in to admit a patient and this guy has another couple in there with him - they say hello to the doctor then look at me curiously, I simply tell them I'm a pre-med student Shadowing the Doctor. So we proceed, and then this one guy keeps asking some very technical questions to the doctor and he finally tells us he got his masters degree in Toxicology and that he teaches at the nearby University.

Well after the Doc gets done with the patient we start to leave when the Toxicologist stops me. "What is the powerhouse of a cell?" at first I'm kind of confused before I answer, "Mitochondria", "very good" he says, "what do they produce?", Ha! I think to myself, freaking easy, ATP, however, all that comes out of my mouth is, "uhhh." My Doc stops and turns back to me, and I start panicking, "uhhhh" the Toxicologist smiles and says, "ATP" my Doctor quirks an eyebrow at me.

Afterwards we're finishing up the patients charts and documenting all of his symptoms when the conversation goes something like this,

Doc: Patient has has dizziness, and extreme abdominal pain, prescribing Dilaudid prn and one reamed medical student.

ouch. I don't think I have ever felt so dumb.

Let's hear your stories!

Don't worry, if you haven't taken intro bio, then we won't blame you. Otherwise...

 

[Bacchus]

There are three. The first was not really a shadowing experience but rather a volunteering. There was a resident doing a lumbar puncture and I had no idea until I got into the hospital room (without knocking ) and saw the patient laying there in excruciating pain. I went in to see if she needed anything. Later that day, after I guess her lab came back clear, she was discharged. Guess who wheeled her to the parking garage? Yes, me. Second one was when I was shadowing a FP that decided to do a prostate exam. She asked me to go get the KY Jelly (not vaseline, or jelly, she had to say KY) and when I came back into the room the man had his pants around his ankles. I was mildly (read extremely) embarassed. At the same practice I got consent to go into a room for what I thought was a routine checkup/some manipulation. Turned out the patient was having a skin tag removed about the size of a golf ball. I get in the room and there is a female with a gown on. She says to me, "I hope you've seen a furry rat before." I died, tried to chuckle but that didn't work.

 

[sanchopanza]

I fell in love with all the moms at the pediatrician's office where I shadowed.

 

[alwaysaangel]

There are three. The first was not really a shadowing experience but rather a volunteering. There was a resident doing a lumbar puncture and I had no idea until I got into the hospital room (without knocking ) and saw the patient laying there in excruciating pain. I went in to see if she needed anything. Later that day, after I guess her lab came back clear, she was discharged. Guess who wheeled her to the parking garage? Yes, me. Second one was when I was shadowing a FP that decided to do a prostate exam. She asked me to go get the KY Jelly (not vaseline, or jelly, she had to say KY) and when I came back into the room the man had his pants around his ankles. I was mildly (read extremely) embarassed. At the same practice I got consent to go into a room for what I thought was a routine checkup/some manipulation. Turned out the patient was having a skin tag removed about the size of a golf ball. I get in the room and there is a female with a gown on. She says to me, "I hope you've seen a furry rat before." I died, tried to chuckle but that didn't work.

Not to be mean - but you really need to get over your embarrassment of little things like that.

Attendings and residents will pounce on you if you're so easily embarrassed (or so I've been told). I'm working on my blush reflex.

But seriously - someone asking for KY jelly shouldn't embarass you - thats what its called. Calling it vaseline is just plain incorrect and calling it jelly would be confusing. You must be a guy? Cus any female who's old enough to be premed should be used to hearing doctors say KY Jelly during their ob/gyns.

Work on being less embarrassed - you don't want to have that reaction in med school.

 

[alwaysaangel]

My embarrasing moments:

One time this guy came into clinic with a perforated ear drum. Every MA in the clinic went in to see it. I just felt bad for the guy and was a little embarassed that we weren't a little more professional. But the doctor didn't seem miffed at all - he said its normal in teaching hospitals to have all the students come in to see things that are more rare.

The first time I had to move a woman's breast out of the way to connect the EKG machine to her (I had never done one on a woman before - always on men). She was Muslim and came in fully covered except her face - so I already knew she was probably pretty modest and didn't particularly like me having her take all her clothes off. In addition, she barely spoke English so I was never quite sure she was understanding me when I tried to warn her before I touched her. The fact that she was VERY well endowed and I really had to manuever her breasts to get the pads in the right place didn't help.

The first few times my doctor asked me things as if I should know them, like what are the three causes of yeast infections - "uh....blank stare." He kept telling me if I responded like that and turned so red they would eat me alive in med school/residency so I worked on it. I got a little better - but it always surprised me a little when he asked me things like that as if I should know the answer.

 

[Koala 33]

Both of these happened in the ER that I shadow in:

1.) A man came in complaining that he bit his tongue while eating his girlfriend out. The doctor I was shadowing told me this before we went in to see the guy, but I had to think of the most ridiculous horrible things to keep from busting out laughing while the doctor was examining him. The guy didn't even need stitches either, nor could the doctor even see the wound until the guy pointed it out because it was so small. Afterwards, the doctor and I were sitting by a computer joking about how someone should print out instructions so that the guy wouldn't make the same mistake again ... a nurse walked by and was wondering why we were laughing so much, and the doctor made ME explain the situation to her.

2.) Another man came in because he couldn't get an erection and his Viagra stopped working.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Haha yours reminded me of the time this guy came in with a HUGE infected bite wound on his chest.

We asked how it happened.....



...his wife bit him too hard during sex. The poor guy who did the intake was trying sooo hard not to laugh. The guy got a pretty nasty infection from it too we had to give him some serious antibiotics. But really thats more hilarious than embarrassing.

 

[Bacchus]

Work on being less embarrassed - you don't want to have that reaction in med school.

Thanks for the advice. I'm not usually easily embarassed. It was just the first time in those situations (obviously) and I think the embarassment was due to that. When I'm around my friends we can talk about anything without embarassment but I know that is quite different when talking with a patient you never met before.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

The first few times my doctor asked me things as if I should know them, like what are the three causes of yeast infections - "uh....blank stare."

That's easy: Candida albicans, oral sex and Tara Reid.


My embarassing moment wasn't "shadowing" per se, since I haven't done any (nor do I plan to) but it happened when I was working in the ED as an RT and I had to do trach care on a patient. If you've ever seen a suction canister (one of the ones that's mounted to a wall), you know how large they are (normally 500-1,000 mL). I had asked a nursing student to get me some saline to flush the suction line with. She comes back with a little basin full of liquid. I stick the hose in and drain the liquid and think nothing of it and continue with what I was doing.

Suddenly, there is a big "POP-SPLAT!" noise followed by a "OH MY GOD!" from the next curtained exam room over. Turned out the liquid I had suctioned up was hydrogen peroxide and the reaction of it with all the mucus in the suction canister had popped the lid off. Luckily for me, most of it was deflected by the curtain and ended up landing on the floor, the wall and on one of the FP residents who had been interviewing a patient in the next room.

 

[Bacchus]

DKM, those canisters are huge. Haha, I bet the resident wanted to kick your ass (like almost everyone else ). I wish I'd have seen that, hahahahaha.

 

[Turtle01]

I was shadowing over the summer and was in the office with the doc i was following and we were both dressed similarly, tie/dress shirt/slacks, and he wasnt wearing a white coat at the time. Anyway we walk into an exam room and the patient jumps right up and shakes my hand, " Hey, doc, yea i've been having some trouble waking up at night with a racing heart....." I was just shocked and the real doc just laughed and said, " Actually i'm your doctor, he is a college student following me around this summer..."

Anyway it was pretty embarrasing for me because I couldn't even say anything to interrupt the guy I just stood there shocked. haha.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Haha, I bet the resident wanted to kick your ass

Seeing as I kept him from killing a patient a few days before (my infamous "dog humping a leg" analogy incident), he really didn't give me too much grief for it. He seemed more pissed at the nursing student for not following directions.

 

[Bacchus]

Seeing as I kept him from killing a patient a short time before (my infamous "dog humping a leg" analogy incident), he really didn't give me too much grief for it. He seemed more pissed at the nursing student for not following directions.

I got to hear this... PM if you don't want to hijack anymore .

 

[Bacchus]

I was shadowing over the summer and was in the office with the doc i was following and we were both dressed similarly, tie/dress shirt/slacks, and he wasnt wearing a white coat at the time. Anyway we walk into an exam room and the patient jumps right up and shakes my hand, " Hey, doc, yea i've been having some trouble waking up at night with a racing heart....." I was just shocked and the real doc just laughed and said, " Actually i'm your doctor, he is a college student following me around this summer..."

Anyway it was pretty embarrasing for me because I couldn't even say anything to interrupt the guy I just stood there shocked. haha.

I've done something like that patient except I was in Aeropostale and I needed a dressing room. I asked a customer (that was wearing a Hollister shirt; I noticed after the fact). But atleast you look like a doctor . That's something going for you.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Seeing as I kept him from killing a patient a short time before (my infamous "dog humping a leg" analogy incident), he really didn't give me too much grief for it. He seemed more pissed at the nursing student for not following directions.

I've never heard of this incident and the search function just failed me. Care to point me in the right direction?

 

[LadyLightning20]

yeah, I want to hear about it too!

 

[futuredrcrawfor]

I was volunteering at a childrens hospital and was in a crohns patients room when the dr came in and started asking the patient about her bowl movements and the patients responded then looked at me and said she was sorry i had to hear about her movements and i told her i was a pre-med so it was fine and the doctor responded with...

"You should be a GI poop is my bread and butter"
It was great... I later worked a camp with the Crohns kids and the doctor was there and I got to know him better and might shadow him.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I've never heard of this incident and the search function just failed me. Care to point me in the right direction?

It seems like the thread has been purged.

To make a long story short, I was in the ED and the resident in question came up and asked me as the RT "Is it a good sign if a patient has stopped wheezing?" .....well only if the patient has also improved clinically. You can be "too tight to wheeze". A totally silent chest in an asthmatic is a bad sign, actually an ominous one. Well, that's exactly what had happened here and the resident had never seen this before. I ended up intubating the patient (which is allowed for RTs at the hospital I worked at when this occurred) because the attendings were both in on other critical cases and this is one of those rare situations where a delay of a couple of minutes or less can kill a patient.

The resident made a comment about how the patient had been breathing.....I retorted with something to the effect of "That's breathing about as much as a dog humping your leg counts as sex....it's going through the motions but it doesn't do a whole hell of a lot for you". The patient was trying like hell but had such severe bronchospasm (and probably mucus plugging) that he was moving next to no air and was crashing.

 

[gujuDoc]

You know I've never had any awkward shadowing moments either in the highschool health professions 3 week thing I did in the summer of 1998 or in any shadowing I did with USF COM employed physicians in college.

Mostly they either just say I'm premed or sometimes they introduce me as a medical student. I've heard that's not uncommon. But mostly the patients don't give two cents if a person is there shadowing because they know we've signed hipaa papers and what not. I've never encountered patients who were anti allowing shadowing to occur. Quite the opposite actually. Most of them were willing and friendly about it because they knew it was a teaching hospital. Well the college experiences were in teaching hospitals.

I usually don't say anything except polite talk with patients and they don't tend to try to quiz me. At the VA where I did a lot of my college shadowing, it was all elderly people who were not usually people like scientists but more like people who were in jobs like being a chef, doing some sort of business job, etc.; mainly non science people. I also shadowed one of the OB/GYNs at the main USF COM teaching hospital downtown once or twice and his patients were all pleasant. There was one situation in the time I shadowed him that was not so much as awkward as disheartening and that was when this woman who was trying so hard to get pregant found out she'd had a miscarriage. That was really sad and heartbreaking.

Then when I shadowed in the USF clinic with one of the neurologists on a few occasions his patients but nothing awkward happened there.

In highschool it was the same deal. There was one situation though when I was at an orthopedic clinic in the highschool thing. The way things were set up there were 40 kids and we were all set up into smaller groups to go to different doctors on different days as well as to shadow nurses and PAs and dentists. One day we were at the orthopedic clinic and one of the girls and I went into a room where we saw staples being removed from a patient who had been in a bad car accident. Mind you, they didn't give any anesthesia to her at all. So she was in soooo much pain that the girl who was with me started to get dizzy and ended up with a fainting spell.

I guess because when I was younger I was in and out of hospitals and doctors offices, I'm sort of used to seeing this sort of stuff and been exposed to medicine from an early age through my own experiences as well as having many family friends who were physicians and what not. She however wasn't and she passed out. I've heard some people pass out the first time they see blood or a live surgery. I don't think I'd be that person.

 

[gujuDoc]

Seeing as I kept him from killing a patient a few days before (my infamous "dog humping a leg" analogy incident), he really didn't give me too much grief for it. He seemed more pissed at the nursing student for not following directions.

Well that would make sense seeing as it was more the nursing student's mistake if I'm not misreading that. It sounds like she brought you the wrong stuff.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I've heard some people pass out the first time they see blood or a live surgery

It's extremely common. It's not unheard of people to faint during their first code either (I've had three students do this). Then there are the ones who are so worked up they say something (normally quite loudly) like "OH MY GOD! HE'S DEAD!"

I've never had a problem with a live person bleeding or surgery, but I fainted during the first embalming I assisted with when I worked part time at the funeral home. Mind you this is after 9+ years of EMS and critical care experience......I like to never heard the end of that. At least I made it out of the prep room before I hit the floor. There is just something wrong with: a. a dead person "bleeding" b. watching someone bleed and not doing anything about it

 

[gujuDoc]

I was shadowing over the summer and was in the office with the doc i was following and we were both dressed similarly, tie/dress shirt/slacks, and he wasnt wearing a white coat at the time. Anyway we walk into an exam room and the patient jumps right up and shakes my hand, " Hey, doc, yea i've been having some trouble waking up at night with a racing heart....." I was just shocked and the real doc just laughed and said, " Actually i'm your doctor, he is a college student following me around this summer..."

Anyway it was pretty embarrasing for me because I couldn't even say anything to interrupt the guy I just stood there shocked. haha.

I always had a volunteer coat on when i went to shadow and now the new shadowing thing I'm doing with part of my volunteer program at a clinic, we have to wear our student IDs so they know that we are students. My other previous shadowing also always had me wearing my student ID when I was at USF Clinic or downtown at TGH. I think its always a good thing to keep in practice.

 

[StevenJ128]

I worked as a PCA in an OR this summer. It was really entertaining, because there was always something interesting going on. A main part of the job is retrieving patients, and pushing them down to the OR. Since we left the OR area in our scrubs, we had to wear the white coats. If I had a dime for every time someone thought I was the doctor, I could probably pay my way through med school. I mean, do they not remember what their surgeon looked like? Surely not like a 19 year old kid who pushes beds around. The best part was that a lot of times they had a good pre-op, and wouldn't understand my answer of "no, I'm just the uneducated idiot that pushes you around", and keep asking me questions. I walk into a room on a floor and a huge ex-marine says in a very commanding way, "Alright doc, I need you to tell me exactly where this kidney stone is!" I wanted to get a real puzzled look, start flipping through the chart, shaking my head and say, "So then you're not here for a hysterectomy?"

 

[Vitum Medicinus]

I once tried to make a joke with a patient in the ER.

It didn't go over too well.

 

[Smctbone]

okay, I was shadowing the chief of surgery junior year, and one week an undergrad freshman was shadowing along with me. So this one day, there were 5 or 6 residents with an Attending looking over a patient's chest CT on a projected screen. Me and this freshman are standing just footsteps behind them when he says way-too-loud-for-comfort "OH!! so that's the BRAIN, right?!?" All the docs stop talking, they turn to us, and there's pure silence for what felt like forever All the while I'm thinking to myself "oh God, they think I said it...where's the nearest exit?!" So with my face bright red, I turn to him and hesitantly tell him it's actually the chest cavity. The docs let out a huge sigh and got back to what they were doing

 

[BritishTang]

Fantastic stories.

And yes, I have taken Gen Biology

Which is the sad part... I'll improve on not getting frazzled; otherwise the interviewers will rip me to shreds. Why Toxicologist?!... Dang ATP!

 

[ChiDoc27]

This actually happened last wednesday. So I've been shadowing the same two surgeons for ~12 hrs a week for the last 3 months, so we've gotten pretty comfortable around each other. I was sitting in the dr.'s lounge eating a bagel for breakfast and the surgeon picks up a Cosmo magazine that apparently someone had left there. Then he started leafing through it, started laughing, and then began to READ IT OUT LOUD. He says, "Man, a lot of chicks have orgasm problems. They should get the hell outta those relationships, what do you think?" I just stared blankly at him and turned bright red. He then laughs and says, "Well, for the first time since we met, I think you're at a loss for words. Finish your bagel kid."

Wonderful

 

[alwaysaangel]

Fantastic stories.

And yes, I have taken Gen Biology

Which is the sad part... I'll improve on not getting frazzled; otherwise the interviewers will rip me to shreds. Why Toxicologist?!... Dang ATP!

In a completely non biology related job I had a coworker who had majored in Biochem when he was younger ask me what happened to the Oxygen we breath in. I stuttered for a while and came up with CO2 (knew that wasn't right). He just shook his head...

 

[TheRealMD]

I was learning how to read a chest x-ray from an ortho resident and I thought that the dark-light edges near the bottom of this X-ray on both sides were odd. He bursted out laughing.

 

[KeyzerSoze]

the doctor responded with...

"You should be a GI poop is my bread and butter"

I seem to remember that line being in House of God.

 

[Tenk]

not mine, but a friends:

Friend: "So is it pronounced penises or peni?"

(Female) Doctor: "Personally, I prefer to deal with penises one at a time."

 

[154465]

It's always akward when then have to strip down for the physical. I know it's nothing big but still...

 

[armybound]

I once asked the difference between an A-line and a central line, why use one instead of the other.

Apparently it was really stupid because he just stared at me and didn't answer.

How was I supposed to know?

 

[alwaysaangel]

It's always akward when then have to strip down for the physical. I know it's nothing big but still...

...do you stand there and watch with "Sweet Cherry Pie" playing in the background?

 

[mmcnam]

I was shadowing my pediatrician a few years back (yes, I still go to the pediatrician because he has nice office decor). I was sitting across from the doctor at his desk and one of the nurses came in to say that the next patient was a 20 yr old with a scrotum injury and that I probably shouldn't come in. It turns out that he caught himself in a zipper and was worried about infection.

Anyway, about 10 minutes later, the doctor comes back to the office where I waited for him and my arch-nemesis from high school walks past the door. He looked at me and said "Uh, what are you doing here?" And I said, "Well, I'm shadowing. I'm pre-med." And then the doctor, bless his heart for recognizing that this kid sucks way bad, said "Yes, she was going to come in for your exam but she decided that she didn't want to when I told her what it was."

Keep in mind, this is sweet revenge for dealing with this stuck up goat for four years in high school.

 

[Ookluh]

And then the doctor, bless his heart for recognizing that this kid sucks way bad, said "Yes, she was going to come in for your exam but she decided that she didn't want to when I told her what it was."

haha, that's pretty funny

 

[patrickd223]

after about a minute of observing in a family practice exam room(doctor, mom and 3 kids), the mom turns to me and says "so do you practice". "uhhh I am a student shadowing dr. x". PS i am 20 years old and could never pass for a real doctor.

 

[154465]

...do you stand there and watch with "Sweet Cherry Pie" playing in the background?

hah that might make things more interesting. Speaking of cherry pie...

 

[neuro1617]

I worked as a PCA in an OR this summer. It was really entertaining, because there was always something interesting going on. A main part of the job is retrieving patients, and pushing them down to the OR. Since we left the OR area in our scrubs, we had to wear the white coats. If I had a dime for every time someone thought I was the doctor, I could probably pay my way through med school. I mean, do they not remember what their surgeon looked like? Surely not like a 19 year old kid who pushes beds around. The best part was that a lot of times they had a good pre-op, and wouldn't understand my answer of "no, I'm just the uneducated idiot that pushes you around", and keep asking me questions.

Seriously, do people really not remember what doctors look like? If only I also had a dime for every time someone asked if I was the doctor/worked with the doctor in practice/was the new resident?? I could pass for med student...but you think some 20 y/o with no white coat & a volunteer ID looks like the new resident? And some mom told her kid the "doctor lady" could take him to the bathroom. I'm about to start saying, "Yes, actually I'm PGY2 and went to (insert name here) medical school..I'll be your doctor for today

 

[neuro1617]

Ahh for my story...So I shadowed an attending on inpatient wards this summer and one day was super busy and kind of bad for the doctors. They were having trouble with other depts cooperating with what they wanted done, a patient who we followed for awhile took a turn for the worst, etc. I'm standing at the nurses station with the attending & fellow, and the attending just breaks down & starts sobbing while everyone watches. The fellow brought her tissues and kept saying it'll be okay, and I'm like..okay..what do I do?? Really there was nothing I could do but offer to get her something to eat or coffee or run an errand, so it was pretty awkward. Not so embarrassing, but I definitely don't want it to happen again. I guess it's good to see the real side of medicine though.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I was shadowing my pediatrician a few years back (yes, I still go to the pediatrician because he has nice office decor). I was sitting across from the doctor at his desk and one of the nurses came in to say that the next patient was a 20 yr old with a scrotum injury and that I probably shouldn't come in. It turns out that he caught himself in a zipper and was worried about infection.

Anyway, about 10 minutes later, the doctor comes back to the office where I waited for him and my arch-nemesis from high school walks past the door. He looked at me and said "Uh, what are you doing here?" And I said, "Well, I'm shadowing. I'm pre-med." And then the doctor, bless his heart for recognizing that this kid sucks way bad, said "Yes, she was going to come in for your exam but she decided that she didn't want to when I told her what it was."

Keep in mind, this is sweet revenge for dealing with this stuck up goat for four years in high school.

Something similar was I had a kid who had given me hell in elementary and junior wind up as my patient after a car accident with two open femur fractures. I've never heard another person apologize that fast and repeatedly. I finally looked at him and said "You know what? That was a long time ago and I don't hold it against you. Now please sit still and relax, we have to get you out of there."

I could have been a dick to him, but it's not the proper place and besides, it probably did more to let him see that I washed my hands of the past than to browbeat him for it. This is probably true even if the setting had been more conducive to a bitch slapping.

 

[MossPoh]

Never had an awkward moment actually.

I mean as far as regular shadowing.

During dead time in the ER the nurses liked to do interesting question games....some of those got awkward. Every awkward situation was for the patient and not for me. The patient with softball sized testacles is the main one I think of.

 

[BlauMac]

As part of my undergrad I shadowed dozens of physicians in varying specialties and never had a problem. One of my last rotations was following an Orthopedic Intern in the ED in the middle of the night. Dozens of students in my program have done it with no problem whatsoever.

Everything was going great, I got to help on a few procedures, see a ton of different patients, and watch a few bullets being removed in surgery. That was until a LOL came in with a displaced radius that needed to be relocated.

It's a simple enough procedure that basically entails wrenching the radius back into position after the whole wrist is relaxed. I thought it would be nice and quick like the shoulder and patella relocations I have seen/done myself and relatively painless because she was on a ton of painkillers.

So the Ortho Intern starts going at it while his resident watches and I stand on the other side of the bed. It becomes quite apparent this isn't going to be quick or easy because as soon as the Intern starts manipulating the radius I can hear bone scrapping against bone and then the LOL starts howling in pain. This goes on for a good 5 min.

Then I learned I have an aversion to people screaming in pain or more specifically people who cause someone else to scream in pain. Just as realize I'm not feeling so great and need to leave the room, I pass out. Apparently on the way down I also took the cabinet out too.

I came to a few seconds later and was so pissed off/embarrassed that I immediately tried to stand up and pretend it didn't happen, but couldn't because 3 nurses were trying to cover the huge gash I had on my head.

Apparently my wound was the coolest thing going on in the ED at the time because for the next 2.5 hours while I got 30+ sutures put into my head, I swear every single nurse/doctor/med student in both the adult and pediatric EDs came by to look at it.

Now I'm very well known by all the Emergency, Orthopedic, and Sports Medicine attendings at a large teaching hospital because of this...and not necessarily by name, but they definitely recognize me by my scar (which is barely viable unless you are looking for it).


And small side note:
The LOL came in with her son, who was in the room when I keeled over. He happened to show up at a completely different clinic a year later on the exact same day I was shadowing General Practitioners there. I got to watch his rectal exam because he felt that we had a bond.

 

[alwaysaangel]

As part of my undergrad I shadowed dozens of physicians in varying specialties and never had a problem. One of my last rotations was following an Orthopedic Intern in the ED in the middle of the night. Dozens of students in my program have done it with no problem whatsoever.

Everything was going great, I got to help on a few procedures, see a ton of different patients, and watch a few bullets being removed in surgery. That was until a LOL came in with a displaced radius that needed to be relocated.

It's a simple enough procedure that basically entails wrenching the radius back into position after the whole wrist is relaxed. I thought it would be nice and quick like the shoulder and patella relocations I have seen/done myself and relatively painless because she was on a ton of painkillers.

So the Ortho Intern starts going at it while his resident watches and I stand on the other side of the bed. It becomes quite apparent this isn't going to be quick or easy because as soon as the Intern starts manipulating the radius I can hear bone scrapping against bone and then the LOL starts howling in pain. This goes on for a good 5 min.

Then I learned I have an aversion to people screaming in pain or more specifically people who cause someone else to scream in pain. Just as realize I'm not feeling so great and need to leave the room, I pass out. Apparently on the way down I also took the cabinet out too.

I came to a few seconds later and was so pissed off/embarrassed that I immediately tried to stand up and pretend it didn't happen, but couldn't because 3 nurses were trying to cover the huge gash I had on my head.

Apparently my wound was the coolest thing going on in the ED at the time because for the next 2.5 hours while I got 30+ sutures put into my head, I swear every single nurse/doctor/med student in both the adult and pediatric EDs came by to look at it.

Now I'm very well known by all the Emergency, Orthopedic, and Sports Medicine attendings at a large teaching hospital because of this...and not necessarily by name, but they definitely recognize me by my scar (which is barely viable unless you are looking for it).


And small side note:
The LOL came in with her son, who was in the room when I keeled over. He happened to show up at a completely different clinic a year later on the exact same day I was shadowing General Practitioners there. I got to watch his rectal exam because he felt that we had a bond.

I think thats awesome.

 

[CubaLibre]

As I walked into the office I was completely stunned by a spitball that smacked me right in the face. I laughed it off expecting to see some little kid just joking around. It turned out be a woman in her 40's who intended to hit me with another one. I thought wow, only at a psychiatrist's practice.

 

[medguy83]

I was shadowing a general surgeon. Got to see patients at his practice, go into the OR a few times, etc. During a laparoscopic cholecystectomy I accidentally turned out all the lights in the OR just as they were about to open the guy's abdomen after the laparoscopic procedure failed. Everyone thought it was an electrical failure. Other than that I forgot my white coat (some docs want you to wear one when consulting with patients) during patient rounds with the surgeon and had to wear a hospital gown. I must have looked like some nut case. Word to the wise, be on time, keep your eyes open, and be prepared.

 

[variablistic]

Perhaps not as embarrassing as the rest of you, but.....
The shadowing program at my school has us shadow doctors, nurses, techs, pt/ot, etc. Purpose obviously to get the full picture of medicine. It was my first rotation, and I happened to be on a med/surg floor shadowing a nurse. As she's giving me the background on her patients, she used a couple abbreviations I didn't know. I ended up asking her what COPD was. "Oh, I'm sorry. I figured you would know all of that stuff by now." Rest of the day she just assumed I was stupid and ignored me. Told me to go read charts.