Just How Peeved Should One Be?

[Cpt.Hook Hamate]

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I am a third year student doing my OB/GYN clerkship. I didn’t expect to be all that interested in OB/GYN but I found myself immediately enjoying the rotation. Soon, I became very enthusiastic about delivering as many babies as I could. I wanted to be there for almost every birth that went on so that I could possibly deliver the child or get some sort of hands-on experience. It is my 4th week on the rotation and surprisingly, I found myself considering it for a career.


Today, an ecclamptic patient was admitted early this morning. I immediately picked this case up since I was born under similar complications so was very interested in following the patient’s progress and scrubbing in on her delivery. So when it was time for all of the students to go home for the day, I stuck around to continue to care and follow the patient, hoping for the chance to deliver her baby.

Well, 4 hours later, the mother was delivering and the OB/GYN medical education program director decided to scrub in to assist in the delivery. The birth was a challenging one so I began to realize that I may not be able to actually catch the baby but I still hoped that I would get a chance to do something technical although I was getting peeved that the “medical education director”surprisingly wasn’t teaching me a damn thing during the delivery. He basically ignored me and I might as well have been the bedside table in that delivery room.

Anyway, the director and the senior resident finally delivered the child and the senior, knowing that I had been looking forward to this delivery all day, at least offered me the opportunity to draw the bood gas from the umbilical cord. All of a sudden the director yells “no! Don’t let the student draw the gas! They always end up almost poking themselves. I have seen too many close calls!”
He then had the nerve to say “this is a skill you won’t need in your career anyways.”

I almost blew up because:

1. This guy didn’t know a damn thing about me. I f he would have just asked, he would have found out that it wouldn’t have been my first time drawing blood gases from the cord after the birth and neither time did I come close to "poking" myself..

2. It was so condescending for him to give me the ol “you will only poke your eye out” speech. I am no kid. Doesn’t supervision account for any thing? I pay big bucks for a medical education and my money isn’t worth even drawing blood from a placenta?

3. Who is he to determine what skills I will need for my career? Isn’t learning how to draw blood a basic and necessary medical skill?

4. Again, I followed the delivery all day but was ignored during the actual delivery even though I was fully scrubbed for a whole half-hour before he even showed up.


I had to leave that hospital immediately afterwards before I would say something that would ruin my career. Now, I am just starting to see the light.... many docs in OB seem to be just too uptight when it come to anything concerning the patients. I understand this in the terms of actual delivery or operations but drawing some freaking blood from a placenta puts no one at danger but myself. There will always be risk in all proofessions.

 

[sleep deprived]

I am a third year student doing my OB/GYN clerkship. I didn’t expect to be all that interested in OB/GYN but I found myself immediately enjoying the rotation. Soon, I became very enthusiastic about delivering as many babies as I could. I wanted to be there for almost every birth that went on so that I could possibly deliver the child or get some sort of hands-on experience. It is my 4th week on the rotation and surprisingly, I found myself considering it for a career.


Well, 4 hours later, the mother was delivering and the OB/GYN medical education program director decided to scrub in to assist in the delivery. The birth was a challenging one so I began to realize that I may not be able to actually catch the baby but I still hoped that I would get a chance to do something technical although I was getting peeved that the “medical education director”surprisingly wasn’t teaching me a damn thing during the delivery. He basically ignored me and I might as well have been the bedside table in that delivery room.

Anyway, the director and the senior resident finally delivered the child and the senior, knowing that I had been looking forward to this delivery all day, at least offered me the opportunity to draw the bood gas from the umbilical cord. All of a sudden the director yells “no! Don’t let the student draw the gas! They always end up almost poking themselves. I have seen too many close calls!”
He then had the nerve to say “this is a skill you won’t need in your career anyways.”

I almost blew up because:

1. This guy didn’t know a damn thing about me. I f he would have just asked, he would have found out that it wouldn’t have been my first time drawing blood gases from the cord after the birth and neither time did I come close to "poking" myself..

2. It was so condescending for him to give me the ol “you will only poke your eye out” speech. I am no kid. Doesn’t supervision account for any thing? I pay big bucks for a medical education and my money isn’t worth even drawing blood from a placenta?

3. Who is he to determine what skills I will need for my career? Isn’t learning how to draw blood a basic and necessary medical skill?

4. Again, I followed the delivery all day but was ignored during the actual delivery even though I was fully scrubbed for a whole half-hour before he even showed up.


I had to leave that hospital immediately afterwards before I would say something that would ruin my career. Now, I am just starting to see the light.... many docs in OB seem to be just too uptight when it come to anything concerning the patients. I understand this in the terms of actual delivery or operations but drawing some freaking blood from a placenta puts no one at danger but myself. There will always be risk in all proofessions.

Don't let it get to you. Stuff like this happens. It sucks, but what can you do?

 

[doc05]

I'm surprised that you actually care about all this. obgyn is a terrible field. I don't think I've ever met anyone as excited about all that nonsense as you seem to be.

 

[ericdamiansean]

Don't let it get to you. Stuff like this happens. It sucks, but what can you do?

Yups..you got to chill..

Things like these are really common..it takes alot on the part of the attending to actually let you perform a procedure..any procedure at that

 

[Cpt.Hook Hamate]

I'm surprised that you actually care about all this. obgyn is a terrible field. I don't think I've ever met anyone as excited about all that nonsense as you seem to be.

If everyone thought OB was nonsense, who would deliver and care for those patients? Someone has to be excited about it just like someone has to be excited about studying far away stars through a telescope. It is not nonsense. It is a honor to help bring a new life into this world...at least for me, I guess.

 

[Jaded Knight]

No matter what field you go into, you're going to run into some nice people and some pricks. Well... you met a prick. Don't let it get to you too much... there's no point in letting pricks ruin your day.

 

[GasPundit]

I can understand how this situation made you upset. I promise, this will happen to everyone at some point.

As an MS4, there have been several times where I've felt like I was shorted. Several.

However, sometimes people just have bad days. As a doc, your bad days are gonna be a heck of a lot worse than in most other professions. You can get peeved if you want, or you can shake it off and give this Director a second chance.

If you're really this interested in OB, you're gonna see him again. Wear him down with a good-natured attitude. Chances are he may remember you, realize he goofed, and feel bad about it.

Many a time I've been shouted at during a stressful situation, or treated less than ideal. I've been surprised by how often the shouters came back to apologize, even make it up to me later. That's a cool moment, makes me glad I didn't fly off the handle.

Then again, repeat offenders without remorse may be idiots. Feel sorry for them. Don't be dragged down to their level.

 

[Cpt.Hook Hamate]

I can understand how this situation made you upset. I promise, this will happen to everyone at some point.

As an MS4, there have been several times where I've felt like I was shorted. Several.

However, sometimes people just have bad days. As a doc, your bad days are gonna be a heck of a lot worse than in most other professions. You can get peeved if you want, or you can shake it off and give this Director a second chance.

If you're really this interested in OB, you're gonna see him again. Wear him down with a good-natured attitude. Chances are he may remember you, realize he goofed, and feel bad about it.

Many a time I've been shouted at during a stressful situation, or treated less than ideal. I've been surprised by how often the shouters came back to apologize, even make it up to me later. That's a cool moment, makes me glad I didn't fly off the handle.

Then again, repeat offenders without remorse may be idiots. Feel sorry for them. Don't be dragged down to their level.

This is extremely sound. I agree...thanks.

 

[Blade28]

You just gotta suck it up, unfortunately. Medicine is like that...sometimes you have to just hold your tongue and stop yourself from exploding. Sadly, in many other fields, this sort of abuse isn't tolerated.

 

[Dupree]

A doctor once told me that when you become a doctor you will be doing the same thing over and over for years on end in your chosen specialty that you'll laugh at yourself for being so upset that you didn't get to do them as a med student. By your 1,000th delivery you'll be rolling your eyes at the thought that you were actually upset that you didn't get to do what you wanted to do years before as a med student. It may seem like a big deal now but in the future it will be just another part of your job that you do everyday.

 

[bigfrank]

I am a third year student doing my OB/GYN clerkship. I didn’t expect to be all that interested in OB/GYN but I found myself immediately enjoying the rotation. Soon, I became very enthusiastic about delivering as many babies as I could. I wanted to be there for almost every birth that went on so that I could possibly deliver the child or get some sort of hands-on experience. It is my 4th week on the rotation and surprisingly, I found myself considering it for a career.


Today, an ecclamptic patient was admitted early this morning. I immediately picked this case up since I was born under similar complications so was very interested in following the patient’s progress and scrubbing in on her delivery. So when it was time for all of the students to go home for the day, I stuck around to continue to care and follow the patient, hoping for the chance to deliver her baby.

Well, 4 hours later, the mother was delivering and the OB/GYN medical education program director decided to scrub in to assist in the delivery. The birth was a challenging one so I began to realize that I may not be able to actually catch the baby but I still hoped that I would get a chance to do something technical although I was getting peeved that the “medical education director”surprisingly wasn’t teaching me a damn thing during the delivery. He basically ignored me and I might as well have been the bedside table in that delivery room.

Anyway, the director and the senior resident finally delivered the child and the senior, knowing that I had been looking forward to this delivery all day, at least offered me the opportunity to draw the bood gas from the umbilical cord. All of a sudden the director yells “no! Don’t let the student draw the gas! They always end up almost poking themselves. I have seen too many close calls!”
He then had the nerve to say “this is a skill you won’t need in your career anyways.”

I almost blew up because:

1. This guy didn’t know a damn thing about me. I f he would have just asked, he would have found out that it wouldn’t have been my first time drawing blood gases from the cord after the birth and neither time did I come close to "poking" myself..

2. It was so condescending for him to give me the ol “you will only poke your eye out” speech. I am no kid. Doesn’t supervision account for any thing? I pay big bucks for a medical education and my money isn’t worth even drawing blood from a placenta?

3. Who is he to determine what skills I will need for my career? Isn’t learning how to draw blood a basic and necessary medical skill?

4. Again, I followed the delivery all day but was ignored during the actual delivery even though I was fully scrubbed for a whole half-hour before he even showed up.


I had to leave that hospital immediately afterwards before I would say something that would ruin my career. Now, I am just starting to see the light.... many docs in OB seem to be just too uptight when it come to anything concerning the patients. I understand this in the terms of actual delivery or operations but drawing some freaking blood from a placenta puts no one at danger but myself. There will always be risk in all proofessions.

This was actually encouraging to read. It sounds to me like you may be "meant" to go into the field. I wouldn't worry about doc05 -- s/he is notoriously pessimistic and usually overtly negative about virtually everything.

And maybe the OB doc was afraid that you would sue him? 😉

 

[DarksideAllstar]

I totally agree with GasPundit.

An experience that I had with my first delivery.
This was a G7P6 woman, so the baby shot out like a cannon. Luckily all those years in baseball paid off and I caught the little bastard. So the resident says to me, "Grab that needle and get us some cord blood." I was like ok. I had never seen it done before, so the resident is walking me through it. I don't recall exactly what happened next. I can't remember if I clamped or didn't clamp something that I shouldn't have, but all of a sudden a fountain of blood starts squirting up into the air like 2 feet. Now one's natural reaction, simlar to when using a hose, is to point it away from you (keep in mind that we are both gowned/gloved/goggled up). I say something barely audible like "oh ****", and point it directly at the resident who proceeds to get splattered with RBCs in the middle of her gown. Talk about embarrased. We ended up having a good laugh about it later, but man, I was so humiliated. Needless to say, I wasnt as eager to draw the cord blood after that.

 

[DOtobe]

I once had a "blood fountain" too when I was drawing the cord blood - most of it got my attending 😱 Luckily she was pretty cool, so I didn't get yelled at for it.

Regarding the original post, as the others have said, your experience is typical of life as a medical student. You get to see and do a lot of cool things, but you also get shafted quite a few times as well. Don't let what your attending said bother you.

 

[12R34Y]

okay........gotta ask about this "cord blood drawing" you all seem to be doing.

I'm finishing 6-weeks of OB/gyn tomorrow and i've NEVER seen cord blood "drawn" ....all we do after we clamp/cut the cord and hand baby off to peds we just drain the placental end of the cord into a sterile cup. takes 2 second and we're done. that's our "cord blood". we use to to get pH, PC02 etc... on baby.

just curious what all this "cord blood" drawing with a needle is?

later

 

[OmahaMX80]

UCSFBound - Just had to say I love your avatar. 🙂

 

[Ice-1]

I'm in an Ob clinic this week and am bored to death! 99% of the patients can't speak any English and I'm not great at Spanish. About the same percentage are in for routine prenatal visits where we measure the fundal height, do a portable US for baby heart rate and ask if they are having any bleeding, contractions or other problems. Now that I've seen this about 50 times I'm totally bored! Thank goodness I get to go in the hospital next week and maybe will catch some kids there. Otherwise this rotation bites!

 

[Hawkeye Kid]

To the OP: echo...echo...shake it off. feel fortunate that you made it this far into your clinical career without experiencing this type of thing earlier.

I would also agree that OBs are some of the most miserable people I've worked with in my life (this includes janitors, cafeteria workers, etc). Maybe it's the stress, maybe it's the fact that the residents here get beaten down from day one, maybe it's (like everything else) multifactorial. Honestly, OB/GYN was 6 of the longest weeks of my life, and I didn't dislike the specialty...I just couldn't stand working with those people.

Lastly, not to rain on your cord cannon parades, but I have a story that trumps: I was about halfway through the rotation and feeling pretty comfy with what i was doing. I was on L&D and had two patients that were both pushing. we'd just delivered one and the attending was repairing a tear, so i went to check on the other pt. it was one of those cases where you open the door and see the "oh ****" look on the RNs face and then see baby's head peeking out at you. So, I threw on my gloves, sat down and caught the little bugger without problems (i don't know where the residents were--probably b!tching about how their lives suck). the atttending walks in, gowns up, and joins me. I get the blood and am waiting for the placenta to deliver when i realize that the only protection i have on is gloves and knee-high boot covers. About a millisecond after i realized how ungood of an omen that was, the placenta detached/exploded all over me. Honestly, 500cc of nice warm blood all over my arms, chest, legs...everything but my face (luckily the freakin boot covers were spared). blood soaked through two shirts and was all over my chest. i politely excused myself and made the long walk to the locker room and showered. Hey, mom and baby were fine and i got a story out of the deal.

 

[Cpt.Hook Hamate]

To the OP: echo...echo...shake it off. feel fortunate that you made it this far into your clinical career without experiencing this type of thing earlier.

I would also agree that OBs are some of the most miserable people I've worked with in my life (this includes janitors, cafeteria workers, etc). Maybe it's the stress, maybe it's the fact that the residents here get beaten down from day one, maybe it's (like everything else) multifactorial. Honestly, OB/GYN was 6 of the longest weeks of my life, and I didn't dislike the specialty...I just couldn't stand working with those people.

Lastly, not to rain on your cord cannon parades, but I have a story that trumps: I was about halfway through the rotation and feeling pretty comfy with what i was doing. I was on L&D and had two patients that were both pushing. we'd just delivered one and the attending was repairing a tear, so i went to check on the other pt. it was one of those cases where you open the door and see the "oh ****" look on the RNs face and then see baby's head peeking out at you. So, I threw on my gloves, sat down and caught the little bugger without problems (i don't know where the residents were--probably b!tching about how their lives suck). the atttending walks in, gowns up, and joins me. I get the blood and am waiting for the placenta to deliver when i realize that the only protection i have on is gloves and knee-high boot covers. About a millisecond after i realized how ungood of an omen that was, the placenta detached/exploded all over me. Honestly, 500cc of nice warm blood all over my arms, chest, legs...everything but my face (luckily the freakin boot covers were spared). blood soaked through two shirts and was all over my chest. i politely excused myself and made the long walk to the locker room and showered. Hey, mom and baby were fine and i got a story out of the deal.

That is a good one but I didn't include my trumper in for the sake of being as brief as possible. The attending did say one thing to me during the delivery and he also did teach me one thing....as I was just standing there not getting taught by the attending while he delivered the baby, I stood there right beside him while he was pulling out the placenta. A gush of blood came out and we both looked down at our feet and guess who was the one that forgot the shoe covers? Me! Okay so here is the Attending's only lesson and words he gave me during the delivery:

"Man, you gotta wear shoe covers."


It felt like my head was going to explode, especially because my favorite white Nikes now were painted red with blood. Needless to say, I walked out of the room grabbed my coat and bag, and left.

 

[Doc_Thks_JC]

You guys have all had fun in Ob. Well let me tell a story.
As a 3rd year doing my Ob/Gyn rotation, one of my attendings was the biggest prick. He would always have 2 students -- 1 male and 1 female. The female would do not wrong, no matter what. The male student was treated like crap no matter what he knew or how interested he was in obstetrics. This attending would pull the male student by his scrub top, curse him out and tell him how little he knew in front of everyone, and would actually hit the male student with instruments during gyn surgery. Does this sound like fun to you? Well, needless to say He and I did not have a good relationship as I told him if he touched my scrub top again or came into my personal space I would ablige him with a quick exit from my medical education by rearranging his facial surface anatomy. I also told him at the end of the rotation that he was the biggest "prick" I had ever met and maybe he should think about making the world a better place by ligating his thoracic aorta. Well, needless to say I did not get a stellar evaluation (worst of 3rd year) but I did pass as I had more than one attending grading me. This just shows you that yes you will always have pricks in every field but sometimes you have to stand up to them or they will walk all over you. This attending should not be delivering cows let alone human beings.

Have a nice Day!!!

 

[Cpt.Hook Hamate]

Well, needless to say He and I did not have a good relationship as I told him if he touched my scrub top again or came into my personal space I would ablige him with a quick exit from my medical education by rearranging his facial surface anatomy.

LOl. I would have had a hard time taking a guy serious who spoke of "rearranging my facial surface anatomy" and "ligating my thoracic aorta." Man, you have been in med school too long. No more books for you!


I can see you asking a girl at the end of a date if she would oblige you with some orbicularis oris action. Someone hide the Netter's from him!

 

[tx oms]

I'm surprised that you actually care about all this. obgyn is a terrible field. I don't think I've ever met anyone as excited about all that nonsense as you seem to be.

Couldn't have said it better. To be a obgyn you must either be: 1) a bitch or 2) a man who wants to be miserable in a few years.

 

[njbmd]

I am a third year student doing my OB/GYN clerkship. I didn’t expect to be all that interested in OB/GYN but I found myself immediately enjoying the rotation. Soon, I became very enthusiastic about delivering as many babies as I could. I wanted to be there for almost every birth that went on so that I could possibly deliver the child or get some sort of hands-on experience. It is my 4th week on the rotation and surprisingly, I found myself considering it for a career.
<SNIP>

I almost blew up because:

1. This guy didn’t know a damn thing about me. I f he would have just asked, he would have found out that it wouldn’t have been my first time drawing blood gases from the cord after the birth and neither time did I come close to "poking" myself..

2. It was so condescending for him to give me the ol “you will only poke your eye out” speech. I am no kid. Doesn’t supervision account for any thing? I pay big bucks for a medical education and my money isn’t worth even drawing blood from a placenta?

3. Who is he to determine what skills I will need for my career? Isn’t learning how to draw blood a basic and necessary medical skill?

4. Again, I followed the delivery all day but was ignored during the actual delivery even though I was fully scrubbed for a whole half-hour before he even showed up.


I had to leave that hospital immediately afterwards before I would say something that would ruin my career. Now, I am just starting to see the light.... many docs in OB seem to be just too uptight when it come to anything concerning the patients. I understand this in the terms of actual delivery or operations but drawing some freaking blood from a placenta puts no one at danger but myself. There will always be risk in all proofessions.

Hi there,
OB-Gyn is a great field for those who love it as you seem to. You took the initiative to hang around to see the patient through this difficult delivery and I am sorry that you didn't get the educational experience that you expected or wanted. A couple of things to think about:

This was a high-risk delivery so there was some tension for both the senior resident and the attending. Perhaps this tension interfered with your learning experience but you could still get something out of a case like this. First, you keep your mouth shut and do what you are told. (It sounds like you did this). Second, when everything is done, you write down your questions/observations and discuss them with the attending at another time. This shows that you are very interested in the field and that you are interested in making every clinical experience a learning experience. It also demonstrates a high level of maturity. Getting into a snit with an attending shortly after a tense case is a way to tank your career pretty quickly.

With the cost of malpractice for OB-Gyns going into the stratosphere, things can get pretty dicey when the life of the mother of baby is at stake. Learning often takes a back-seat to patient care. Don't take it personally; just acknowledge that it happened and find a way to make the best of the situation. 🙂 I am a PGY-3 surgery resident who has had more than one attending take instruments out of my hands when things needed to be done faster than I could get them done. I shake it off and watch carefully. 😱

At some point, get an intern or resident to walk you or talk you through drawing cord blood if you want to master this skill. For every tense case that you go into, there are going to be plenty where you will get a chance to learn and do things.

Otherwise, let the bad stuff go and soak up the good stuff. In the end, you will get what you need. Read the text and ace the shelf.

njbmd 🙂