My intern on Neuro was a total dingbat. She never listened to anything when we were presenting patients. To make a long story short, I had told her that my patient had a bilateral below the knee amputations and had not walked for three years. Therefore, I did not test gait or a Babinski. The first question she asked was "What was the gait like?" I told her again that I didn't test it because the patient was not ambulatory.
Intern: "Why is she not ambulatory?" I told her that she has bilateral BKA's.
Intern:"You always have to test the gait on neuro."
I said, "Umm...she hasn't walked in three years."
Intern: "Why doesn't she walk?"
Me: "She has no feet! She has had severe complications of diabetic neuropathy (and other complications which I won't list here)"
Intern: "Did you do a Babinski?"
Me: "No. She doesn't have feet!"
Intern: "You have to do a Babinski."
Me: "Umm.....she has no feet."
Intern: "Apparently, you didn't do a very good exam. I will just go in there and do it myself. We will get her up and make her walk."
I follow her into the room and she pulls off her covers and the first thing she says to the patient is, "Why don't you have any feet?""Can you walk?"
Patient: "I haven't walked in three years."
Intern: "Have you tried?"
She still told the Chief that I had done an incomplete exam on the patient and commented that she was going to write that up in my evaluation. I thought the Chief was going to choke when she went in to verify my exam findings! Later, the Chief told me that no one trusts this particular intern. The Neuro residents find themselves checking after her frequently!!!!
