Gunner Stories

[BunnyMan17]

We used to be pretty good friends in high school so I didn't, but I definitely feel that he might need to take some time to get his life together. The guy took down a 6 pack and a half glass of whiskey while I wasn't drinking and everyone else was maybe at half of that.

Yeah I think I'm going to be more cautious when talking about grades in front of other med school students from now on, but at the same time I feel like med students should be mature enough to handle that conversation without going ape s*** or taking it as an insult.

They should absolutely be able to handle a lot more than that without loosing their s***t.... it's also in their best interest to have a good handle on what topics are good for discussion in public, which are not, and how they might make those around them feel. I'm an MS4 and if there was an MS1 going on about how easy and/or not hard med school turned out to be I'd probably think they need to chill and realize they're less than one year into med school... they can't yet know how difficult or easy med school is. But its not a huge deal and hardly warrants a second thought, much less assault. Sounds like the guy's got some other things going on, hope they are able to get help with that. Sorry you had to deal with that bro.

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[bananafish94]

As a resident now it's even more painfully obvious when students try to pull some gunner nonsense. As they say, don't bull**** a bull*****er. If you work hard and are a normal, pleasant person to work with you shouldn't have any issues. If there's another student that's doing things like coming in by themselves or staying hours after everyone else was dismissed, the sad truth for them is that it's probably annoying the residents more than anything and they can see completely through their facade.

 

[Giovanotto]

As a resident now it's even more painfully obvious when students try to pull some gunner nonsense. As they say, don't bull**** a bull*****er. If you work hard and are a normal, pleasant person to work with you shouldn't have any issues. If there's another student that's doing things like coming in by themselves or staying hours after everyone else was dismissed, the sad truth for them is that it's probably annoying the residents more than anything and they can see completely through their facade.

To put this into context, things are a bit different during Sub-Is. I was encouraged by residents to come in on the weekends (usually not both Saturday and Sunday) to "look good" to the attendings. Multiple residents and attendings who saw me come in on the weekends were impressed (at least that's what they discussed among themselves and it was later relayed to me). Some of my fellow Sub-Is, which came from all over the state, chose not to come in.

I don't believe I was a gunner in this scenario. I was at a sub-I multiple states away, and for which I spent ~ 1,500-2000 dollars for, of course I'm gonna go all out. I wasn't sneaky or secretive at all about my actions, I told my fellow students that I'd be coming in. I'm sure they weren't all very excited about this, but again, way too much money and time invested at some of these Sub-Is to not do it.

 

[sloop]

I just rotated with an M4 who was making up his psych rotation bc his got cancelled during COVID. He has zero interest in psych, has already interviewed for his chosen super competitive surgical subspecialty, etc.

He was extremely rude to one patient during interviewing because he didn’t know crap about pharm - accused a patient of lying, to her face. He said something along the lines of, “you claim you don’t do illegal drugs, but your urine drug screen was positive for amphetamines - so obviously drugs got into your urine somehow.” I immediately interrupted him and told him phentermine is an amphetamine, which he didn’t know, since the patient had literally just told us she was on phentermine for weight loss. I also told him it explains her insomnia, since it has a 20-ish hour half life, and a lot of people have trouble sleeping on it.

He goes to the attending and made a big deal about how he thought her phentermine use probably exacerbated her anxiety/psychosis since it’s an amphetamine and how it was a reason she had insomnia LOL. I didn’t bother to say anything. I don’t want to go into psych either.

But just that he would call a patient a liar to her face because he didn’t know anything about pharm, and the way he confidently talked about the patient’s phentermine use to the attending like he came up with that crap himself, rubbed me the wrong way.

That guy is a jerk and sounds like a total idiot.

I will say, however, that there is a real place for playing hardball and calling people out on their lies. Secretly, it is one of the things I’ve come to like the most about psychiatry. I find it sort of satisfying to let a malingerer in the ED dig themselves deeper by telling me a story that is inconsistent with the medical records I have from the 3 other EDs they visited that week. The lying also frustrates me, so I enjoy sniffing it out. If someone comes to the ED and just honestly tells me that they’re homeless, the shelters are crowded and dangerous, and they were hoping to get some food, I’m likely to just let them stay and get them discharged in the morning. If they outright lie to me and make up stories or pretend to have a mental illness, they are probably getting discharged immediately.

Having said that, this manner of interacting with patients is rather advanced psychiatry and way beyond any medical student. I’d really only expect that level of confidence from a senior psych resident. It’s also less likely to be appropriate on an inpatient unit than in the ED. Additionally, you have to know how to gather information in a way that you can be pretty certain that somebody is lying before calling them out on anything. The student in your story sounds like he would struggle to find his way out of a paper bag, let alone manage this type of mastery of his disagreeableness.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

To put this into context, things are a bit different during Sub-Is. I was encouraged by residents to come in on the weekends (usually not both Saturday and Sunday) to "look good" to the attendings. Multiple residents and attendings who saw me come in on the weekends were impressed (at least that's what they discussed among themselves and it was later relayed to me). Some of my fellow Sub-Is, which came from all over the state, chose not to come in.

I don't believe I was a gunner in this scenario. I was at a sub-I multiple states away, and for which I spent ~ 1,500-2000 dollars for, of course I'm gonna go all out. I wasn't sneaky or secretive at all about my actions, I told my fellow students that I'd be coming in. I'm sure they weren't all very excited about this, but again, way too much money and time invested at some of these Sub-Is to not do it.

I think a sub-I is different. First of all, you shouldnt really be competing with the M3s, so you going in on the weekends or whatever doesn’t make them look bad. You’re doing what is essentially a month long interview. You’re expected to give it your all. That’s not being a gunner.