My resident is Superwoman

[greenbean]

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hey all
im in the icu this month, and im really enjoying it, i think the pt's are great and love dealing with them in the acute setting

here's my thing: my 2nd year resident is SUPERwoman: she's really bright,intelligent, knows how to deal with EVERYBODY(no matter how nasty or mean) in a positive way;
she can pick up new pt's without breaking a sweat: she knows all the details of the pt at the drop of a bat, shes always so positive that it puts me into a good mood now matter how down i am

but im struggling to keep up with her, im actually in constant awe of my resident
when i pick up a new pt, i feel like i spend 3x more time to learn them and dont even come close to doing as good job as she can, kind of like being a 3rd year med student watching an intern present

and she knows EVERYTHING, like all the drug trials, studies on what imaging is better, TIMI trials etc, she knows stuff that i didnt know existed

do you guys have any tips on how i can keep up?

peace,
green <starting to feel like a really small fish in a big ocean of sharks>

 

[fineline]

If you're in awe of a wimmen, you have more problems than anyone here can help you with. Unless you mean she is like Superwoman in that she dresses in a short skirt that shows off her underwear, in which case I see where you are going.

 

[greenbean]

lol, if my res were a guy with the same characteristics, i would be in awe of him and call him superMAN..happy? 😉)

but seriously, how can i match that amount of efficiency and knowledge?

 

[Dr. Will]

but seriously, how can i match that amount of efficiency and knowledge?

Experience and reading.

 

[fineline]

lol, if my res were a guy with the same characteristics ...

...then it would make more sense.

 

[fineline]

but seriously, how can i match that amount of efficiency and knowledge?

If you could match the efficiency and knowledge of a person who has more training than you, then there's something seriously wrong with that person. Like, they must be an ER attending.

 

[spumoni620]

I'm only a med student, but I had a similar feeling with my ICU senior as an sub-I. She was just amazing on all counts - truly dedicated to her patients, just on top of everything, knew all these trials and would print out articles, super efficient and organized. After I got over my initial awe, I tried to keep up by doing the following:
- coming in earlier since it took me longer to go through things than her
- pocket medicine on all my new pts for the barest bones of what i needed to know re trials, etc.
- getting a very good organizational system to keep info about pts on my fingertips
- trying to read about everything i saw and help out w/diagnostic/treatment dilemmas in pts that were not my own (w/outside evidence)

in the end, of course, there was no way i could hope to be on the same level as her b/c as someone pointed out you just have less training and experience. but i tried to ask questions (whenever things weren't busy, obviously), observe very closely and get some clues as to what made her so efficient. and then it helped when i tried to do things that "supported" her efficiency, i.e. updating her on lab tests that i'd called down for, CT scans, pt sedation/status, etc. etc. we were more of a team when we each worked to our own strengths.

hey all
im in the icu this month, and im really enjoying it, i think the pt's are great and love dealing with them in the acute setting

here's my thing: my 2nd year resident is SUPERwoman: she's really bright,intelligent, knows how to deal with EVERYBODY(no matter how nasty or mean) in a positive way;
she can pick up new pt's without breaking a sweat: she knows all the details of the pt at the drop of a bat, shes always so positive that it puts me into a good mood now matter how down i am

but im struggling to keep up with her, im actually in constant awe of my resident
when i pick up a new pt, i feel like i spend 3x more time to learn them and dont even come close to doing as good job as she can, kind of like being a 3rd year med student watching an intern present

and she knows EVERYTHING, like all the drug trials, studies on what imaging is better, TIMI trials etc, she knows stuff that i didnt know existed

do you guys have any tips on how i can keep up?

peace,
green <starting to feel like a really small fish in a big ocean of sharks>

 

[fineline]

Wow, a senior resident who is more efficient than a medical student! She sounds awesome! I take back everything I've ever said badly about wimmen. No, just kidding, I don't.

 

[Bertelman]

do you guys have any tips on how i can keep up?

peace,
green <starting to feel like a really small fish in a big ocean of sharks>

Realize that there will always be people smarter/better/faster than you.

 

[fineline]

The solution is to take them all down with gunfire.

 

[NinerNiner999]

The solution is to take them all down with gunfire.

 

[jjbmsiv]

And always remember, baseball bats are good for sharing feelings.

 

[greenbean]

i hear what you are saying about the res having more experience, given shes got one year ahead of me,,,but still i wonder if i can match that when i become a 2nd year resident next year

same thing happend today, when i saw another res give an f***ing awesome presentation on a really tough,complicated xfer to the icu and in only 1 hr of prep time, it was like totally mindblowing, (oh, and to fineline, he was a guy 😉

im not to be generous with praise either, i just think that the level that these residents are performing is setting the bar so high for me, i just want to get to maybe half that level by the end of the month

 

[WTFWIT]

I'm not sure if it's ever possible to match the residents who have a year or more training ahead of us. I'm ending a 120 day sentence in the ICU myself and the 4 R3s I've had have all been outstanding in 1 way or another, the best I can ever hope for is to be a fraction of their brilliance. And that may be enough, I don't consider myself God's gift to medicine, but my MS4 friends seem blown away by my internship experience thus far and the exercise of my clinical judgment and intuition. They kind of gloss over the fact that 99% of the time I was ready to soil myself when put on the spot. When I was an MS3 and MS4, most of my interns and residents were the best my particular institution could train, from direct experience to overheard conversations among faculty to actual number of in-house awards these people were racking up. And I was wondering if I'd ever measure up... but it doesn't really matter. The best you can do is the most anyone can ask and the least they can expect. I think the view from the bottom is always a little warped, and our training might ingrain a measure of inferiority complex, but if I was on a service with the uber-res for 1 month, shooting for 1/2 their level is asking quite a bit. That said, being the competitive intern/resident that our degree mills have churned out in mass, you could just have no life and go without sleep here on out to meet and exceed your resident's standards, though I'm not sure if the return on investment is worth it given all the other mere mortal residents running around. Just my $0.02🙂

 

[Mman]

same thing happend today, when i saw another res give an f***ing awesome presentation on a really tough,complicated xfer to the icu and in only 1 hr of prep time, it was like totally mindblowing,

No offense, but I found this line to be absolutely hilarious. I guess one of the reasons I didn't go into IM was that I've never had such strong feelings about a patient presentation on rounds. You make it sound as exciting as the first time I saw Fight Club.



On a more serious note, you can't underestimate how much you learn each year as your training moves along.

 

[greenbean]

it was hilarious, in an ironic way, with that amount of time and with that type of case, i never could done even halfway as decent a job, im not going into medicine either but i think itw worth giving dibs when someone does an outstanding job

as for fight club, yeah when i saw that for the 1st time, it was f***ing mindblowing too!

 

[Pir8DeacDoc]

yes, this level of discussion makes it clear why I'm not in a medical field. The longer/"better" our presentations are in surgery the more crap we get from the uppers about being a "flea".

 

[ekydrd]

yes, this level of discussion makes it clear why I'm not in a medical field. The longer/"better" our presentations are in surgery the more crap we get from the uppers about being a "flea".

That's because all surgery cares about is...

Is he/she still breathing?
Is he/she stable?
Has he/she had any fevers or other signs of infection?
Has he/she had any bleeding?

Anything else is just IM stuff 😉.

 

[IFNgamma]

That's because all surgery cares about is...

Is he/she still breathing?
Is he/she stable?
Has he/she had any fevers or other signs of infection?
Has he/she had any bleeding?

Anything else is just IM stuff 😉.

you forgot about N/V, flatulus, and BMs!

just got chewed out the other day because I didn't bother to ask about # of BMs and their character 😡

 

[Samoa]

That's not true. In surgery we take care of the medicine issues as well. We just don't discuss it. (No offense, but my medicine rotation reminded me of one of those relationships where you spend all your time discussing "the relationship." )

 

[BlackNDecker]

You make it sound as exciting as the first time I saw Fight Club.

👍 Unfortunately, it will never, ever be as good as the first time.

 

[ekydrd]

you forgot about N/V, flatulus, and BMs!

just got chewed out the other day because I didn't bother to ask about # of BMs and their character 😡

Oh, yeah, I guess I did forget those. Thankks.