Perception of female vs. male med studs

[MD'05]

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It has taken me a while (all year), but I have finally figured out what is so annoying about female medical students.

To succeed and honor a rotation, female students must assume a subservient role to the resident by constantly asking "do you need help with anything?", and following the resident around like a puppy. Male students on the other hand, can easily honor a rotation by exhibiting knowledge -- ranging from knowing some obscure fact about physics to who pitched the no-hitter in the world series -- it doesn't matter how unhelpful the male student is to the resident.

Has anyone else made this observation?

BTW, I am female and find this subservient behavior to be insincere.

 

[Mirror Form]

It has taken me a while (all year), but I have finally figured out what is so annoying about female medical students.

To succeed and honor a rotation, female students must assume a subservient role to the resident by constantly asking "do you need help with anything?", and following the resident around like a puppy. Male students on the other hand, can easily honor a rotation by exhibiting knowledge -- ranging from knowing some obscure fact about physics to who pitched the no-hitter in the world series -- it doesn't matter how unhelpful the male student is to the resident.

Has anyone else made this observation?

BTW, I am female and find this subservient behavior to be insincere.

I couldn't disagree more! This is definitely not what I've experienced.

 

[double elle]

When I'm on a service, I want to be busy. If I ask someone if they need help, it's because 1)they obviously need help...or 2)I am bored of my ass.

I can sit around at home. If I have to be away from my husband and daughter, I may as well be doing something. I guess I am one of those people who just tries to do my best - regardless of 'honors' or whatever. Just look around you....if you see things that need to be done, simply offer to do them. (or, don't even offer - just do them)

I don't think it's brown-nosing. You NEVER know what your attending, resident, or nurses really need from you unless you ask them. And, by 'what they need from you' I am referring to as a student, an extra body, or whatever is needed to get something done.

Think about how YOU are. Isn't it nice for someone to offer to help you out once in a while? Regardless of that person's position and rank....

Again, whether it's about insincerity or about getting honors vs just sitting around announcing all the random facts you know....your service is going to be what you make of it. If joe-blow got honors because he can spout off more random medical knowledge vs you who offered to do a couple extra H&Ps and may have actually learned something new from them....you really are the one who is better off in the long run.

Just my opinion.

 

[MD'05]

Hmmm ... it's probably just me. I like to be busy, what I don't like is sitting at the elbow of a resident and making phone calls, copies, filling out forms (as it is being dictated) for the resident. I guess I want total responsibility for patient care (with supervision of course). I don't want to be someone's gofer.

And, if I was the resident, this "in your face" all day would drive me absolutely insane. It takes up alot of time having someone constantly ask if there is "something I can help with?"

Maybe it's just the end of the year and everything is annoying me.

 

[Jaded Soul]

I am bored of my ass.

I hate it when I get bored of my ass too!

 

[joaquin13]

I really don't agree...haven't had that experience too much as a female student. I do hate though how rude some female residents are toward female students. You would think that female residents would go out of their way to help other females succeed in medicine, but I have not found this to be farther from the truth. I even had one resident tell me once that she "does not like working with other females"! Has anyone else had similar experiences? This is not 100% because I have met many really nice ones, but the overwhelming majority seems to be this way.

 

[MD'05]

I've seen that too ... Some are just downright mean. Mostly OB/GYN residents. Most of the rest are not too bad. The surgery resident's have a trace of testosterone (to deal with the men), so they have lost some of the b*tchiness. Female medicine residents are pretty chill. Female Family Medicine residents are probably the nicest of all. Very sweet.

Actually, come to think of it, the OB/GYN men are b*tchy too. It must be all of the estrogen in the air.

I am overall hating my "sisters" today

 

[ericdamiansean]

Females are OK, except sometimes they can get pretty irritating, for example the whole group clerks and they always expect the guy to report..

So far, I haven't met a pissy female resident or specialist, those who suck are all guys... 😎

 

[supercut]

I don't mind dictating to a student what needs to be written on a particular form. However, if that student fills out enough of them, I expect eventually they should be able to do at least parts of it without my help. However, they may need me to tell them when we will want the pt seen back in the office (eg for discharge papers). Or they may have to ask me what EBL is for the op note (I'm not that great at estimating it myself yet).

I think it's great when students volunteer to fill out such paperwork. And I think it's good to do some of that sort of thing while you are a student. That way you'll have some sense of it when you become an intern.

 

[MD'05]

I don't mind dictating to a student what needs to be written on a particular form. However, if that student fills out enough of them, I expect eventually they should be able to do at least parts of it without my help. However, they may need me to tell them when we will want the pt seen back in the office (eg for discharge papers). Or they may have to ask me what EBL is for the op note (I'm not that great at estimating it myself yet).

That reminds me of yet another thing that annoys me ... when the intern wants me to sit down with them and do the post op note "together". I don't need the intern to do the post op note!!! It's the end of year 3 and I have my freaking maxwell's and the anethesiologist!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAaaahhhhhh!!

I think I have a serious case of burnout ...

 

[joaquin13]

have any of you been at any programs where the residents/interns do not know how to do central lines or other procedures? i am doing a rotation with a IM program right now, and a resident as well as an intern did not know how to do a central line (one even was frantically researching the landmarks on the Internet before placing one) and the other intern (ie END of his intern year) got into it with me when I told him that the arterial line catheter had a wire (it does, he argued it did not). Anyone have similar experiences? I found it rather frightening!

 

[Seaglass]

In fact many a-line kits do not have a wire. At my hospital yyou had the option of getting out a sterile wire to help place the a-line. Most newer kits do have a wire either included or integrated into the device.

C

 

[DrQuinn]

have any of you been at any programs where the residents/interns do not know how to do central lines or other procedures? i am doing a rotation with a IM program right now, and a resident as well as an intern did not know how to do a central line (one even was frantically researching the landmarks on the Internet before placing one) and the other intern (ie END of his intern year) got into it with me when I told him that the arterial line catheter had a wire (it does, he argued it did not). Anyone have similar experiences? I found it rather frightening!

Sounds like you were at a DO hospital. No offense to my colleagues, but when I was a medical student, there were so many interns who by the end of their intern year had never put in a central line.
😱

Q, DO

 

[joaquin13]

Quinn-

Actually, no its a MD residency program in IM with several fellowships associated with it. Scary huh?

 

[Pediatron47]

I would say female med students have a better time off. Especially on surgery, most male residents do not pick on the females too much. Also, if you're an attractive female, you have it in the bag.

On the other had, you sometimes run into the bitter male chief resident who's been turned down his whole life. You also run into the female attendings that hate femininity due to the "weakness" it may imply. I'm thinking of two specific people here that ripped the females more than males.

But all in all...the females definitely get it easier than the guys,

 

[MD'05]

On the other had, you sometimes run into the bitter male chief resident who's been turned down his whole life. You also run into the female attendings that hate femininity due to the "weakness" it may imply. I'm thinking of two specific people here that ripped the females more than males.

But all in all...the females definitely get it easier than the guys,

.

I agree that the male surgeons don't pimp the female students as hard. At least with the surgeons that I have encountered, my perception is that they view women as stupid in general, especially the more attractive female residents that are not on top of their game, so to speak. During one surgery I scrubbed into, the surgeon made the comment that a female attending should go back to beauty school. I am not sure about the history between the two surgeons.

In general, I would have to disagree that female students have it easier than male students. I have known more than one female student to work extremely hard to try and please everyone on the team, and then receive a satisfactory on her end-of-rotation evaluation.

What I don't appreciate is my female teammates doing all this unnecessary scut in order to honor the rotation; this makes me feel uncomfortable because it sets the standard of behavior. I don't want to do needless scut and waste time puppydogging the resident with a shelf exam looming over my head. If I am not gaining knowledge performing an activity, I flat out do not want to do it and waste my time.

All in all I would say that most male students have it right. They kiss the arse that needs kissing and that would be the course director's and the attendings'. I've seen male students that do not pull their weight on the team honor a rotation because they know how to manage the perception of the attending. And to give equal credit, there are a few female classmates of mine that also do this well.

 

[BrooklynDO]

Im going to be MS3 in oh 2 weeks, and I must say... this discussion scares the shiiite out of me. Managing someones perception of me to get a grade? scary. Yes i "knew' all this about pimping and not really being graded on your work sometimes before I started school... but I have to say its a lot scarier when that experience is two weeks away. Then again being graded on what i know would suck, as I dont think i know much.

 

[gwyn779]

I would say female med students have a better time off. Especially on surgery, most male residents do not pick on the females too much. Also, if you're an attractive female, you have it in the bag.

I really didn't notice a difference in pimping between male and female students, even on surgery. Although, I was always the only student on the team for my surgery rotations. Maybe I'm oblivious, but I haven't seen any trends for either gender. Super-gunners, yes, but I've seen both the male and female variety.