Expletive

[Doowai]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

I often cuss without even thinking about it. I don;t know. I am just good at it. Its like a conjunction or something.

Anyway, what sort of problems would you face if you cussed during working hours?

 

[Winged Scapula]

I often cuss without even thinking about it. I don;t know. I am just good at it. Its like a conjunction or something.

Anyway, what sort of problems would you face if you cussed during working hours?

Funny, I was just reading the physician guidelines for a hospital I recently got privileges at and it clearly states that profanity is not tolerated.

Some fields have more people who curse than others. I tend to do it a lot more since becoming a surgeon/surgery resident. I definitely did not grow up in a home where profanity was used and it disturbs me somewhat to hear myself use it, although I am *I think* always aware of it.

You'll have to recognize that some patients and co-workers may be offended by it and that some words are considered worse than others. It does appear to me, old fogey alert, that kids these days curse a lot more and think a lot less about it, than we did.

 

[Blade28]

I try to keep my language professional at work, but sometimes I may let a swearword fly here and there when I'm alone and frustrated/angry.

 

[Top Gun]

I often cuss without even thinking about it. I don;t know. I am just good at it. Its like a conjunction or something.

Anyway, what sort of problems would you face if you cussed during working hours?

Maybe you have Tourette's. 😀

 

[Castro Viejo]

I often cuss without even thinking about it. I don;t know. I am just good at it. Its like a conjunction or something.

Anyway, what sort of problems would you face if you cussed during working hours?

Like the WS I started dropping the F-bomb more after I started residency and especially after I started covering Trauma/ED consults as a Senior Resident. That sucked.

But I think I'm in control of it too... I only drop such words in the company of other like-minded individuals within my program.

Although this one time I was written up for a "workplace violence" citation when a NEW nurse called me, as an R3, several times about some GU patient who wasn't on my service... Kept asking me about the patient's postop pain meds... I said, each time, "Please call the GU Resident." After her fourth attempt at calling GU, not getting a hold of the pee-pee doc, and then calling me for a solution, I asked, "Just why the hell do you think it's my responsibility to cover a GU patient when I'm running around this place covering Trauma and ED consults?"

"Well, you're GENERAL Surgery, aren't you? Don't you take care of all the GENERAL problems?"

(Enraged) "I don't know whose a$$ you dug that bull$hit out from, but I don't give a f*** about your thoughts on who a General Surgeon is or what he does, now call the god damn GU Service and leave me the hell alone!"

Oops. 😳

Anyway, moral of the story, try to keep it under wraps as much as you can. You tend to become a bit disinhibited when you work in a hospital at 80+ hours per week, especially if you're surrounded by people who use profanity to string sentences along (surgeons), and it may just carry out into the real world. It's not a good thing. Really, it's not. But it's damn colorful!

 

[AmoryBlaine]

Totally depends on the setting/team. On some services I buttoned it up pretty tight but with surgery residents who were my friends we usually just let it fly.

I definitely don't swear around nurses unless they ones with whom I'm friendly.

 

[BlondeDocteur]

I think it's extremely sweet, in a through-the-looking-glass kind of way, that you have nurses who could possibly be shocked by swearing.

 

[MR1]

"Well, you're GENERAL Surgery, aren't you? Don't you take care of all the GENERAL problems?"

(Enraged) "I don't know whose a$$ you dug that bull$hit out from, but I don't give a f*** about your thoughts on who a General Surgeon is or what he does, now call the god damn GU Service and leave me the hell alone!"

Oh how I have wanted to do this many times. It would almost be worth a write-up to be able to especially since I am only 1 mth away from finishing prelim year

 

[Doowai]

I have cussed as long as I remember. And my parents did not really cuss.

I can remember in 5th or 6th grade being at a friends house (basketball teamate) and shooting baskets in the driveway and talking and then hearing his dad say "Doowai, we do not use that sort of language here". I had to stop and mentally replay the last 2 or 3 minutes of our conversation before I realized what I could have possibly said. Once I realized the cussword(s) I had used, I then felt like saying " Are you f'ing ignorant? When you are not around your f'ing little son cusses like a damn sailor" - but I didn't.

In 7th grade we had a night at school when parents came to see what sort of work the students did. I had a theatre class and we were doing improv - I dropped the MF bomb without realizing it, and only noticed in retrospect when I heard a collective gasp...oops.

I was teaching last fall and trying real hard to get a point across but kept getting interrupted by the phone or someone at the door. One final straw and a student walked in just as I had almost made the point the 3rd or 4th time and I cussed non-stop for probably 1-2 minutes. but the students were laughing so hard, I was afraid teachers next door would hear and come to see what was so funny.

I hear ya about surgeons. One SUnday were were doing a complete thyroidectomy and it was taking forever. Both tails wrapped way up around to the back of the neck. The surgeon was switching sides, back and forth, over and over trying to figure out the best position to remove it from. We had already been waiting for hours because of having to send a sample to the lab, wait for path and then proceed. The surgeon looked at me and said "So Doowai, what do ya think...which side would you start from?" In exasperation I said "Just straddle the b*** and rip her f'ing thyroid out already!". Everyone laughed. I am guessing this would not go over well doing pediatrics : Aren't you a cute little F. Now open your Fing mouth and say Aaahhhhh.

 

[EUA]

Cussing is a true art form. Thankfully, those of us not directly tending to patients don't have to watch our dirty little mouths as closely. Thank fuggin god.

 

[sunlioness]

I don't swear at work, though sometimes with patients I will reflect back their own language.

"Man, I was just so p--ed off!!"

"What about that situation p--ed you off?"

 

[Castro Viejo]

I don't swear at work, though sometimes with patients I will reflect back their own language.

"Man, I was just so p--ed off!!"

"What about that situation p--ed you off?"

I suppose it wouldn't instill much confidence in your work as a psychiatrist if you lost it and started lobbing the F-bomb when you're angry, huh? 🙂

 

[HCE]

I thought cussing was required in Surgery.

 

[Top Gun]

I've occasionally cussed at work. Usually, its more at a particular situation, like the CT scanner being backed up.

 

[oompaloompa]

People have different levels of sensitivity too, which sometimes makes it hard to guess who's going to be offended by what. For example, I don't really consider words like "crap" and "pissed" as profanity, so I don't particularly censor them. However, I sure have gotten a "talking to" for using the above.

(Warning, random rant is emiment) --> On that note, I would like to mention that as a (nurse, RT, unit clerk, social worker, etc) it is not your place to lecture me just because "you have a son about my age." I'm seriously getting tired of that. I'm probably going to be just about as receptive to your unsolicited advice as your kid was.

 

[DarksideAllstar]

I thought cussing was required in Surgery.

It definitely is in Pathology (when you deal with sturgeons all day). I was on the phone a couple of weekends ago with the Liver Transplant fellow re: a patient with AI hepatitis who was admitted for (you guessed it) liver transplant. I was asking her about the case, blah blah blah, and she was like oh ****..... ****, ****, Ughhh... hold on, ****. Then she was like, oh sorry. It was hilarious.

Couple of weeks later, I got some call re: some test results and they were asking some questions about the assay and I was like, "well there is probably some **** in the patient's serum that could interfere with it...." It took me a good minute to realize that I used profanity on the phone (luckily it was a NP who didn't really care).

 

[Apollyon]

When I was a resident, I said in the doctor's area one morning that a patient was a flake - my program director (who had come in at 0530 that morning, but wasn't the attending - was going to her office) wrote me up for it (the patient didn't hear). Then, a few months later, she swore within earshot of a patient (it was either s*** or f*** - I forget which). Lovely.

Now, as an attending, when I first started, I was cautioned that someone heard me cursing, and was offended. Fine. 2 years later, it happened again (at an outside hospital we cover). The offended party is a very Christian woman, and I made apologies to her.

Our code of conduct (developed by our group, and vetted by the hospital system) includes "no profanity" (and, coincidentally with Winged Scapula/KC, was sent out again to remind us just this week).

But, as people have alluded to above (or stated outright), be selective, and you can get your jones to burn the air with speech that would make a sailor blush to your heart's content.

 

[sunlioness]

I suppose it wouldn't instill much confidence in your work as a psychiatrist if you lost it and started lobbing the F-bomb when you're angry, huh? 🙂

Not so much. Though sometimes I really do want to ask them what the f- they were thinking. 😉

 

[OldPsychDoc]

I suppose it wouldn't instill much confidence in your work as a psychiatrist if you lost it and started lobbing the F-bomb when you're angry, huh? 🙂

Yeah, but the great thing about psych is that you can include all that good profanity in the medical record in patient quotes: e.g. "CC: 'I metamorph into an incurable b--ch'." 😀

 

[Top Gun]

I tend to think that cussing does tend to be common in surgery. In my third year of med school, we had a SICU attending who, if you answered a question wrong, would begin a long profanity-laced rant starting with "What the f*ck!!" One time, a fellow student of mine was telling this SICU attending something that the nurse told him, and the SICU attending screamed, "WHY THE F*CK DO YOU LISTEN TO PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW WHAT THE F*CK THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT!!!"

 

[Castro Viejo]

My old Chief Resident on AM rounds:

"Who the f*** is this patient? What's his f***ing problem?"

"What the f*** are the vitals?"

"Did you followup the f***ing films overnight?"

"Why the f*** not?"

"Are you f***ing stupid? What the f*** is wrong with you? Did your f***ing mom drop you on your f***ing head?"

"You f***ing interns are so f***ing stupid, I cant f***ing believe you f***ing idiots ever f***ing got into f***ing medical school."

Seriously, the first week we were a little intimated, but by month's end during internship it was...

Every morning AFTER rounds.

 

[Doowai]

My old Chief Resident on AM rounds:

"Who the f*** is this patient? What's his f***ing problem?"

"What the f*** are the vitals?"

"Did you followup the f***ing films overnight?"

"Why the f*** not?"

"Are you f***ing stupid? What the f*** is wrong with you? Did your f***ing mom drop you on your f***ing head?"

"You f***ing interns are so f***ing stupid, I cant f***ing believe you f***ing idiots ever f***ing got into f***ing medical school."

Seriously, the first week we were a little intimated, but by month's end during internship it was...

Every morning AFTER rounds.

Damn that would be great.

 

[Geri_Gal]

I've been swearing much more since starting internship. Midwestern Lutheran guilt doesn't even prevent me from doing so. Always alone or in the company of fellow intern/residents, out of earshot of patients, family, nurses/hosp staff etc.

It is cathartic.

 

[tr]

I suppose it wouldn't instill much confidence in your work as a psychiatrist if you lost it and started lobbing the F-bomb when you're angry, huh? 🙂

I had a paranoid patient hear me say "damn" when I closed the door on my foot and later on in rounds he gave me a huge dressing-down and refused to talk to me. "What kind of professional are you, you use that language?" etc. Funny coming from someone who used worse than that himself, towards me and everyone else, on a daily basis, and amused himself by hanging around the nurses' station giving everyone the finger through the glass.

Another week of olanzapine and he was all smiles though. 🙂

 

[DrDre311]

My old Chief Resident on AM rounds:

"Who the f*** is this patient? What's his f***ing problem?"

"What the f*** are the vitals?"

"Did you followup the f***ing films overnight?"

"Why the f*** not?"

"Are you f***ing stupid? What the f*** is wrong with you? Did your f***ing mom drop you on your f***ing head?"

"You f***ing interns are so f***ing stupid, I cant f***ing believe you f***ing idiots ever f***ing got into f***ing medical school."

Seriously, the first week we were a little intimated, but by month's end during internship it was...

Every morning AFTER rounds.

I would never say f***. I would never f***ing say f***. F***, I would never f***ing say that s***, ever. For f***'s sake, I can't f***ing believe this f***ing s***.

 

[Kubed]

Hearing surgical attendings and residents swear was but one of the many signs that I had at long last, found my people. This tread gives me f***ing hope.

 

[Tired]

Hearing surgical attendings and residents swear was but one of the many signs that I had at long last, found my people. This tread gives me f***ing hope.

Chief: Call the Pediatric Resident, and tell him to go f*** himself.

Me: Ha ha . . . mmm.

Chief: I'm not joking. Call him now. Tell him to go f*** himself.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Chief: Call the Pediatric Resident, and tell him to go f*** himself.

Me: Ha ha . . . mmm.

Chief: I'm not joking. Call him now. Tell him to go f*** himself.

As I recall that was a funny anecdote you've told before.

What was it the Peds resident wanted again?

 

[roja]

Another week of olanzapine and he was all smiles though. 🙂

 

[Tired]

As I recall that was a funny anecdote you've told before.

What was it the Peds resident wanted again?

Ah, I forget now. It was something like a stat port placement or something like that I think.

I guess I'm the only one here who routinely swears in the hospital? On rounds, on the wards, on the phone. Basically, unless I'm around an attending, I'm cussing. And even then, lots of our attendings have pretty bad mouths themselves, so depending on who it is, I'll join in. Dunno if it's an Ortho thing, or a military thing, or just my hospital, but the profanity is deep and pervasive, and I never think anything of it.

Though as a student it was a little different. I was doing an observed H&P on Family Practice (attending was observing) when I used the word "a$$hole". Not calling the patient that or anything, just casually about something completely off-topic. Whoops. Attending didn't care for that (but I still honored the block).

 

[Kubed]

Ah, I forget now. It was something like a stat port placement or something like that I think.

I guess I'm the only one here who routinely swears in the hospital? On rounds, on the wards, on the phone. Basically, unless I'm around an attending, I'm cussing. And even then, lots of our attendings have pretty bad mouths themselves, so depending on who it is, I'll join in. Dunno if it's an Ortho thing, or a military thing, or just my hospital, but the profanity is deep and pervasive, and I never think anything of it.

Though as a student it was a little different. I was doing an observed H&P on Family Practice (attending was observing) when I used the word "a$$hole". Not calling the patient that or anything, just casually about something completely off-topic. Whoops. Attending didn't care for that (but I still honored the block).

GASP!!!!!

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=6497780&postcount=2

You have it backwards.

There are certain things that automatically disqualify med students from being gunners. These include, but are not limited to: (1) Failing a class, (2) low score on Step 1, (3) getting a good evaluation while on FP, and (4) failure to match into your desired specialty.

Therefore, you did not have any gunners who failed to match, because by definition, if they didn't match, they are not gunners.

They are failures, and gunnerism is the opposite of failureism.

- Dr. Tired (once and future gunner)

😀

 

[DrDre311]

Thank you for destroying the credibility of one of my SDN gunner heroes. Next thing I know you'll be telling me Misterioso and JPH are actually FP attendings and kind, friendly advisors to medical students.

 

[fab4fan]

Like the WS I started dropping the F-bomb more after I started residency and especially after I started covering Trauma/ED consults as a Senior Resident. That sucked.

But I think I'm in control of it too... I only drop such words in the company of other like-minded individuals within my program.

Although this one time I was written up for a "workplace violence" citation when a NEW nurse called me, as an R3, several times about some GU patient who wasn't on my service... Kept asking me about the patient's postop pain meds... I said, each time, "Please call the GU Resident." After her fourth attempt at calling GU, not getting a hold of the pee-pee doc, and then calling me for a solution, I asked, "Just why the hell do you think it's my responsibility to cover a GU patient when I'm running around this place covering Trauma and ED consults?"

"Well, you're GENERAL Surgery, aren't you? Don't you take care of all the GENERAL problems?"

(Enraged) "I don't know whose a$$ you dug that bull$hit out from, but I don't give a f*** about your thoughts on who a General Surgeon is or what he does, now call the god damn GU Service and leave me the hell alone!"

Oops. 😳

Anyway, moral of the story, try to keep it under wraps as much as you can. You tend to become a bit disinhibited when you work in a hospital at 80+ hours per week, especially if you're surrounded by people who use profanity to string sentences along (surgeons), and it may just carry out into the real world. It's not a good thing. Really, it's not. But it's damn colorful!

I would say that was called for by that point.

What did she think, like you were some sort of "miscellaneous" on-call physician? LOL! How dumb!

 

[Doc Ivy]

Hearing surgical attendings and residents swear was but one of the many signs that I had at long last, found my people. This tread gives me f***ing hope.

Yup. F-bombs and S-bombs are routinely dropped at formal conferences like M&M (at least at my hospital). I think it's a surgeon thing. We try to tone it down when we're in mixed company, but get us all together in a room, and we can be downright offensive.

 

[Tired]

Thank you for destroying the credibility of one of my SDN gunner heroes. Next thing I know you'll be telling me Misterioso and JPH are actually FP attendings and kind, friendly advisors to medical students.

Gah. I knew I shouldn't have mentioned the honors in FP.

For purposes of full disclosure, I also honored Medicine, Psych, and Peds (but not Ob).

However, to point out the obvious, my credibility is not shot by honoring FP, since I did it despite saying "a$$hole" in front of a patient and an attending.

 

[Doowai]

I've been swearing much more since starting internship. Midwestern Lutheran guilt doesn't even prevent me from doing so. Always alone or in the company of fellow intern/residents, out of earshot of patients, family, nurses/hosp staff etc.

It is cathartic.

It IS cathartic, like a big vocal ejaculation.

 

[Kubed]

...
However, to point out the obvious, my credibility is not shot by honoring FP, since I did it despite saying "a$$hole" in front of a patient and an attending.

👍

Thank you for destroying the credibility of one of my SDN gunner heroes. Next thing I know you'll be telling me Misterioso and JPH are actually FP attendings and kind, friendly advisors to medical students.

I think somewhere, someplace, Misterioso and JPH just raised their heads up because they felt a disturbance in the force.

 

[DrDre311]

Gah. I knew I shouldn't have mentioned the honors in FP.

For purposes of full disclosure, I also honored Medicine, Psych, and Peds (but not Ob).

However, to point out the obvious, my credibility is not shot by honoring FP, since I did it despite saying "a$$hole" in front of a patient and an attending.

My med school used numerical grades instead of honors/pass or whatever. I did very well in all my clerkships, but my peds and OB grades were a little lower than medicine, FP, surgery, psych, and neuro.

I got the following question from an interviewer at Loma Linda:

Interviewer: "I noticed that you have very good grades, but you didn't do as well in OB and peds--so, do you hate women and children?"

Me (visibly uncomfortable): "No..."

Interviewer (shaking his head, disappointed): "Wrong answer."

 

[RTrain]

I thought I was going to have to rein in my foul mouth when I started my IM residency. Boy, was I relieved when I observed one of the ID attendings (who was working alone while his resident was on vacation) receive a page with a new consult. I watched him take the call, rolling his eyes, muttering, "mmm hmm, mm hm" then "Thank you for this bulls**t consult," and hang up.

 

[Top Gun]

I thought I was going to have to rein in my foul mouth when I started my IM residency. Boy, was I relieved when I observed one of the ID attendings (who was working alone while his resident was on vacation) receive a page with a new consult. I watched him take the call, rolling his eyes, muttering, "mmm hmm, mm hm" then "Thank you for this bulls**t consult," and hang up.

OK, so there's hope for me when I start my IM residency in a few weeks. 😀

 

[bluewater]

Surgeons and Anesthesiologist are probably high on the swearing list.

But my personal advice is to save it up, so when you blow, you scare the $hit out of everyone.

I tend to let it fly when I am on the gen floors for an emergency and people are acting like idiots that have never seen a sick patient that is about to code. Act real cool for a while, then when there are 400 people around just standing there not doing anything- BANG- I get em.

 

[Doowai]

My med school used numerical grades instead of honors/pass or whatever. I did very well in all my clerkships, but my peds and OB grades were a little lower than medicine, FP, surgery, psych, and neuro.

I got the following question from an interviewer at Loma Linda:

Interviewer: "I noticed that you have very good grades, but you didn't do as well in OB and peds--so, do you hate women and children?"

Me (visibly uncomfortable): "No..."

Interviewer (shaking his head, disappointed): "Wrong answer."

WHat specialty were you interviewing for?

 

[DrDre311]

WHat specialty were you interviewing for?

Plastic surgery.