"I could teach a monkey to intubate"...is that such a bad thing to say?

[gasspasser]

I heard one of my partners say this to a student anesthesia nurse the other day and I was surprised at the negative reaction that it garnered from the student. I've always understood the phrase to mean that intubation is a skill that anyone can learn but can only be perfected by continual and daily practice (as in the anesthesia field). Furthermore, intubation as a skill is just that...and it doesn't begin to address the whys and hows of managing patients.

Anyways, the student anesthesia nurse thought she was being called a monkey or something equally ridiculous. I understand the whole chip on her shoulder thing and feeling like she has to continually justify or defend her existence as a future nurse anesthetist, but whatever. It's useless to try to reason with someone of that mindset, and really why bother.

So I wrote it up as a blog post. Now I'm not interested in bashing anyone or raining on anyone else's parade, so I tried to be even-handed and present data....and make my point that intubation needs to be taken off the pedestal that students and basically everyone outside of anesthesia puts it on and seen as a very basic minimum skill.

Intubating Monkeys

I welcome your constructive thoughts. Hell, I'd even take some non-constructive feedback, if that's all you can muster. Thank you kindly.

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[Consigliere]

Meh. Most people see us as overpaid tube monkeys anyway. If this bothers you as an anesthesiology resident, then find another speciality post haste.

 

[gasspasser]

Meh. Most people see us as overpaid tube monkeys anyway. If this bothers you as an anesthesiology resident, then find another speciality post haste.

It's no bother to me, so long as the checks keep cashing lol. Most people will see us as line and tube monkeys (to continue the metaphor) so long as it is not their patient or their mother or their brother or child. And then suddenly two letters mean more than four. We all can appreciate that.

 

[caligas]

"I don't know too many monkeys that could take apart a fuel injector"

 

[GravelRider]

I can think of one anesthesia fellowship that is dedicating a full year to "monkey skills." I'm sure there are plenty of regional fellows who would take offense to that. People don't like getting good at something and then being told a monkey could do it. Even worse, people don't like not being good at something and being told a monkey could do it. Maybe the SRNA was terrible at intubating.

 

[deleted126335]

I heard one of my partners say this to a student anesthesia nurse the other day and I was surprised at the negative reaction that it garnered from the student. I've always understood the phrase to mean that intubation is a skill that anyone can learn but can only be perfected by continual and daily practice (as in the anesthesia field). Furthermore, intubation as a skill is just that...and it doesn't begin to address the whys and hows of managing patients.

Anyways, the student anesthesia nurse thought she was being called a monkey or something equally ridiculous. I understand the whole chip on her shoulder thing and feeling like she has to continually justify or defend her existence as a future nurse anesthetist, but whatever. It's useless to try to reason with someone of that mindset, and really why bother.

So I wrote it up as a blog post. Now I'm not interested in bashing anyone or raining on anyone else's parade, so I tried to be even-handed and present data....and make my point that intubation needs to be taken off the pedestal that students and basically everyone outside of anesthesia puts it on and seen as a very basic minimum skill.

Intubating Monkeys
https://behindthedrape.wordpress.com/2017/01/12/intubating-monkeys/

I welcome your constructive thoughts. Hell, I'd even take some non-constructive feedback, if that's all you can muster. Thank you kindly.

Was the SRNA non-caucasian?

 

[gasspasser]

Was the SRNA non-caucasian?

That would certainly take insensitivity to an extreme level, but in this Trumpian-society even having to change your derogatory metaphors might seem like an abhorrent thing. The SAN was not non-Caucasian .

 

[bashwell]

So the SRNA does inhabit the mountainous region between the Black and Caspian seas in southern Russia? Just joking.

 

[Planktonmd]

What was the reaction of the monkey???

 

[Psai]

So...you're training nurses and now have to deal with bs nonsense because they got offended over nothing?

Sounds like a great use of your time, thanks for sharing.

 

[Temeraire]

Y'all hear that whooshing sound overhead? That is the sound of someone (in this case, the SRNA) completely missing the intended point of any comment related to teaching monkeys how to intubate. This unfortunately does not bode well for the future teachability and humility of that SRNA.

 

[DokterMom]

That student was almost certainly not familiar with how common the colloquial use of that particular phrase is in medical settings and took it as a personal comparison of his/her own capabilities to those of a monkey. S/he has probably never heard the phrase applied to surgeons...

 

[deleted162650]

You know what's funny: the other day I had a monkey get really angry at me when I compared him to an SRNA.

 

[GravelRider]

Maybe it would be better to compare an SRNA to an octopus? Or would the octopus view that as a step backward in their quest for intelligent creature status?

https://blogs.scientificamerican.co...iousness-according-to-scientists-declaration/

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

That student was almost certainly not familiar with how common the colloquial use of that particular phrase is in medical settings and took it as a personal comparison of his/her own capabilities to those of a monkey. S/he has probably never heard the phrase applied to surgeons...

Lol that's one of my favorite quotes. "You can teach a monkey to operate, but can you teach a monkey to NOT operate?"

 

[Goro]

Note to OP: don't use the phrase around Donald Trump.

 

[DrOwnage]

First of all, when I was a medical student, I was exposed to much more offensive things that I was not in a position to get overly offended (you know, hierarchy and stuff). Albeit that's how we grow a tougher skin as physicians in general, learning to be deathly sick and still work, to take $%^& and not complain. The fact that this person got so offended makes me seriously doubt their future in regards to constant medical scrutiny, stress under pressure, and subconscious feelings of inadequacy with a constant need to defend oneself.