The resident from hell

[Aloha Kid]

Hi guys,

I've got an interesting scenario that I've experienced on my rotation. I am currently doing a 4th year Sub-IM rotation. The team leader is this new 2nd year resident who is the "Resident from Hell." He's a FMG from europe and literally has been like a Stalin figure dominating the entire team. Besides me, there are two brand new interns.

The amount of blunt accusatory and critical remarks made by this resident comes everyday. THe interns for the most part remain quiet and shrug it off. I tend to laugh it off, but even my light heartedness at times has received a scowl and a blunt statement like, "This is not funny, what are you laughing at, you should be ashamed."

The other day, our attending gave a little lecture on a subject. She announced it the morning before. The lecture I thought was fabulous. We could not answer every question the attending asked, but, they were questions meant to provoke thought, not memorized responses. After the lecture, the resident berrated us for not studying hard enough and not being able to nail every question. He emphatically told us how embarrased he was and literally tried to single each us of out and gave us a ranking in the order we sucked and proclaimed one of the interns the winner of the day since he got the most answers correct. My pathetic attempts to laugh it off failed miserably as soon as this resident saw a smile creep over my face.

Just today, one of the interns blew up. However, instead of out, it was an internal combustion. I tried to stand up and support the intern, but the resident told me, "SHUT UP." The resident continued to berrate the intern to the point where this intern questioned his motive for even coming to the program in front of us verbally.

I have found the education sub par secondary to the resident not willing to let me do anything. I've been on this rotation nearly 3 weeks and have only had 4 patients total! I am not allowed to do any procedures becasue the resident is emphatic that med students are incompetent. On call days, I sit in the library where the resident wants me to be burried in a book. Typically as the night approaches, I head upstairs to beg for an admit. One night when I did this, the resident saw me and said, "Allright, give the poor boy an admit."

This resident is the epitomy of the eye in the sky. On call nights, instead of going home, like he should, he usually stays and watches even the very thoughts that run though our minds. He frequently complains about the horrible evaluation he's going to get at the end of the month.

I don't believe this resident hates me per say. Although sometimes I swear he does. I think more often than not, he is so busy trying to be the eye in the sky over the actions of the whole team that his last priority is to look out for the welfare of the studento. Oh. Did I mention the amount of nurses that do not like this guy? I believe, this resident is competent. However, culturally and socially he is severely messed up.

I can't say its been all a waste of time. I've had the chance to write up a great case report and study a lot secondary to all the hours spent in the library. Foods free too.

Something, however, needs to be done. I feel like I should report this resident. If anything, I take more of a risk taking a hit myself. I'll probably end up looking like the whining medical student. Yet, I hope no other student is ever put into the predicament I'm in. The hospital is wonderful, the program is great, but this resident I by some auspicious chance got stuck with is absolutely brutal. Any suggestions about what I should do? 😳 😕 😳

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[kinetic]

Assuming you are being serious, I would do the following:

(1) Work your way up the chain of command. Not the attending (who, in all likelihood, won't want to hear about internal strife on their team), but the rotation director or someone in the administrative chain. Reason being, this situation is very dangerous; if the resident gets a hint that you dislike him he may go power-trip on your ass and give you a bad evaluation or just start grinding you down every day (like a bully in the schoolyard) until YOU are the one who snaps (making you look like you are in the wrong). Informing someone before it gets to that point will help should it get to that.

(2) Blast away on the rotation evaluations. People are strange. They all bitch and complain about things during the rotation, then on the evaluations write, "very interesting rotation ...I learned a lot ...great teaching ..." Hey, if you don't tell anyone, nothing will happen. Mention his poor dental hygenie and foul body odor. Anything to rip him down as person. Sounds like he deserves it.

 

[Seaglass]

What Kinetic said.

Did I say that?

 

[zenman]

In addition to what others have mentioned, tell the higher-ups that he groped you! If that doesn't work tell him that you hired someone who is going to rip his head off and **** in his neck if he does not behave.

 

[flighterdoc]

In addition to what others have mentioned, tell the higher-ups that he groped you! If that doesn't work tell him that you hired someone who is going to rip his head off and **** in his neck if he does not behave.

Since he's eurotrash, that might intimidate him sufficiently

 

[sakullukas]

where is this guy from anyway?

 

[Aloha Kid]

This guy is Albanian. He graduated from an albanian medical school. He's rather blunt and uncensored with his remarks. Is this a cultural thing?

 

[flighterdoc]

This guy is Albanian. He graduated from an albanian medical school. He's rather blunt and uncensored with his remarks. Is this a cultural thing?

Yeah, probably.

 

[MD'05]

This is pretty much standard behavior from 60% of the FMGs I've encountered. Sometimes it takes them a while (20 years ) to get used to the American system of medical training (where medical students do real work). I definitely would not put up with the bullsh*t about having a total of 4 patients after 3 weeks of subI. You probably needed to escalate this after the 1st week, especially if you want a letter of recommendation from an attending or course director.

Good luck with your situation. Unfortunately, this is probably not the last d*ck you will encounter in medicine.

 

[irlandesa]

This is pretty much standard behavior from 60% of the FMGs I've encountered. Sometimes it takes them a while (20 years ) to get used to the American system of medical training (where medical students do real work). I definitely would not put up with the bullsh*t about having a total of 4 patients after 3 weeks of subI. You probably needed to escalate this after the 1st week, especially if you want a letter of recommendation from an attending or course director.

Good luck with your situation. Unfortunately, this is probably not the last d*ck you will encounter in medicine.

Agree w/ much of MD'05's note.. I actually somewhat sympathize with the adjustment problems that many FMG's have; I have them myself and I'm soon to be a USMG! Yes, I know I got flamed before for some statements I made, and realized that some were not quite right, but let's focus on the issue at hand here.. If this guy is a second year resident, there is no excuse for his rude behavior and refusal to involve you in patient care, this is your education.. The worst thing you can do is to NOT approach the course director; talking to him now beats ending up in his office at the end of the rotation while he tells you that the resident gave you a poor evaluation and questions you as to why. I wouldn't attack the resident's personality or rant, just mention that you would really like to follow more patients as you feel that this is an important part of your education, and that you are concerned about the resident's hesitancy to let you participate fully in patient care. I don't see how the course director/attending could be upset if you present it more as a concern about your education than as a problem with the resident in general. This is not to say you should do this with every resident who blows you a little **** or isn't nice, but compromising your education to this degree is just not right. good luck!

 

[MustafaMond]

Originally Posted by Aloha Kid
This guy is Albanian. He graduated from an albanian medical school. He's rather blunt and uncensored with his remarks. Is this a cultural thing?

Yeah, probably.

As an ethnic albanian myself, I take serious offense to this....
I am reporting this to the mods.

 

[kinetic]

As an ethnic albanian myself, I take serious offense to this....
I am reporting this to the mods.

This proves Albanians have social problems.

 

[MD'05]

As an ethnic albanian myself, I take serious offense to this....
I am reporting this to the mods.

I forget to mention, 60% cannot take criticism of any kind.

 

[Aloha Kid]

Seriously Mustafamond,

If you are albanian, then share with us a bit about albanian culture. What makes the way albanian docs practice medicine different than U.S. docs. Is there anything I mentioned about this resident that has some cultural derivative american grads don't see?

Don't get offended, there is no discrimination. We live in a multicultural world. This would be a great time to educate and enlighten us.

My recent thoughts about my resident is that often times in the aquisition of a language, although we feel competent, we still have not aquired the intangible cultural basis of a language. For example, In chinese culture, it's at times acceptable to mention to someone they have gained weight. Take a Chinese guy who has memorized the english dictionary and send him to america, and he'll be telling everyone that they've gained weight in grammitcally correct english. Although his english is 100% perfect, he is offensive to many without even realizing it.

This has to be a major problem when it comes to foreign graduates trying to practice in america. It's called cultural competency. In addition, cultural beliefs about how medicine should be practiced based upon ones own countries practice can be detrimental and beneficial when these beliefs are taken to a new country and put into play.

Anyways. I sound like a linguistics professor or something. 😴 😴 😴

 

[flighterdoc]

As an ethnic albanian myself, I take serious offense to this....
I am reporting this to the mods.

Proves my point, doesn't it?

 

[Ryan]

Seriously Mustafamond,

If you are albanian, then share with us a bit about albanian culture. What makes the way albanian docs practice medicine different than U.S. docs. Is there anything I mentioned about this resident that has some cultural derivative american grads don't see?

Don't get offended, there is no discrimination. We live in a multicultural world. This would be a great time to educate and enlighten us.

My recent thoughts about my resident is that often times in the aquisition of a language, although we feel competent, we still have not aquired the intangible cultural basis of a language. For example, In chinese culture, it's at times acceptable to mention to someone they have gained weight. Take a Chinese guy who has memorized the english dictionary and send him to america, and he'll be telling everyone that they've gained weight in grammitcally correct english. Although his english is 100% perfect, he is offensive to many without even realizing it.

This has to be a major problem when it comes to foreign graduates trying to practice in america. It's called cultural competency. In addition, cultural beliefs about how medicine should be practiced based upon ones own countries practice can be detrimental and beneficial when these beliefs are taken to a new country and put into play.

Anyways. I sound like a linguistics professor or something. 😴 😴 😴

Yes Mustafamond... I do not personally know anyone from Albania. Do you know what the medical culture is like over there? I ask this b/c if you were raised here in America OR have never worked in their medical system you might not know these things just as most Americans have no clue about the medical system/culture here. Anyhow if you do know, I would love to be enlightened about such cultural differences. On that note in one of my MPH classes at UC Davis, we were able to learn about other countries medical cultures. Germany is all about a healthy cardiovascular system, in France its Immunology and of course here in America we have a "Defensive Medicine" culture (this is where many tests are unnecessarily ordered to protect the hospital or physician/Group from litigation. Of course it isn't quite as simple as what I stated above. There are MANY other facets to the study of medical culture. Such as the fact that we (American medicine) order and perform more MRIs per capita than both the above countries and Canada combined.

-Ryan

 

[ericdamiansean]

This guy is Albanian. He graduated from an albanian medical school. He's rather blunt and uncensored with his remarks. Is this a cultural thing?

yeah, this may be true, where I come from, doctors from certain races/countries treat medical students like crap, and when they meet senior consultants, they behave like arse lickers

 

[jvarga]

Getting back to the point....Aloha, I would definitely write down specific events that you feel were inappropriate (including the context, what was said/done, who was present, and how this affected yourself or somebody else). Remember to keep the information you write down factual instead of accusatory and definitely avoid your own self-analysis of the situation (i.e. he acted like this because he's not adjusted to America--this is not for you to determine). I would then take this information "up the chain of command" as was mentioned previously. I would start with a senior resident, preferrably the chief resident. If you believe that this meeting was unproductive, write down the date and time of your meeting and write down what transpired during the meeting. The next step would be to take this information to the Clerkship Director, hopefully prior to your evaluations being completed. Reason being, it will not appear that you were complaining only out of spite for a less than desirable evaluation. If this does not work, then there's always the department chairman then the dean of students. However, chances are, if the Clerkship Director doesn't see a problem, neither will the chairman or dean. Remember, documentation is key!
Also keep in mind, if this resident really is as bad as you make him out to be, then you most likely will not be alone in filing a complaint. Talk with fellow students and see if anyone else is as bothered by him as yourself and encourage them to complain. If you complain now and the situation is rectified, you did your classmates and interns (not to mention the ofending resident) a huge favor. Good luck and keep us posted on how it goes!

 

[Aloha Kid]

All right,

The plot gets even more complicated. Our clerkship director for the IM program who oversees student education just happens to be our team's ATTENDING for the month! This really doesn't help the situation.

To make matters worse, I am officially on this residents bad side. I stood up a bit too much for myself and started somewhat of a mild disagreement with this guy. He has seriously been on my case since then.

The way I see it, the only option I have as of now is to suck it up. Then at the end of the rotation, deposit a student evaluation stating my opinions and maybe an objective detailed log entry of what went on this past month. This would be followed by myself high tailing it out of there as fast as possible. My input will likely mean very little as a medical student. However, there will no doubt be future complaints.

Yes, I suppose I could try to stage a mutiny on the bounty. But for those of you who did see that movie, the mutineers end up losing. Also, I'm a medical student. That would be like the mop boy leading the crew against the mighty captain. My interns (aka the first mates) are intent on staying below deck and riding out the storm. I plan to do as they do for now.

 

[flighterdoc]

All right,

The plot gets even more complicated. Our clerkship director for the IM program who oversees student education just happens to be our team's ATTENDING for the month! This really doesn't help the situation.

To make matters worse, I am officially on this residents bad side. I stood up a bit too much for myself and started somewhat of a mild disagreement with this guy. He has seriously been on my case since then.

The way I see it, the only option I have as of now is to suck it up. Then at the end of the rotation, deposit a student evaluation stating my opinions and maybe an objective detailed log entry of what went on this past month. This would be followed by myself high tailing it out of there as fast as possible. My input will likely mean very little as a medical student. However, there will no doubt be future complaints.

Yes, I suppose I could try to stage a mutiny on the bounty. But for those of you who did see that movie, the mutineers end up losing. Also, I'm a medical student. That would be like the mop boy leading the crew against the mighty captain. My interns (aka the first mates) are intent on staying below deck and riding out the storm.

Yeah. Remember, "why doth conspiracy never prosper? For if it prospered, none would dare call it conspiracy".

Sounds like you have the right plan. What hospital is this, so I can stay the HELL away from it?

 

[pxz]

On my first day of my first clinical rotation, I met a gray-haired physician in the elevator. He told me not to take any BS from residents because medical students and patients are the only people who are paying to be in the hospital. We are paying $$$$ to get education, not to be abused or neglected. I am happy to report that the residents I have worked with so far are all cool and good. However in your situation, two patients in three weeks? It is a little bit ridiculous.

 

[kinetic]

On my first day of my first clinical rotation, I met a gray-haired physician in the elevator. He told me not to take any BS from residents because medical students and patients are the only people who are paying to be in the hospital. We are paying $$$$ to get education, not to be abused or neglected. I am happy to report that the residents I have worked with so far are all cool and good. However in your situation, two patients in three weeks? It is a little bit ridiculous.

Doesn't that mean you shouldn't take any BS from attendings, either? He seems to have neglected that part. Wonder why?

 

[ericdamiansean]

On my first day of my first clinical rotation, I met a gray-haired physician in the elevator. He told me not to take any BS from residents because medical students and patients are the only people who are paying to be in the hospital. We are paying $$$$ to get education, not to be abused or neglected. I am happy to report that the residents I have worked with so far are all cool and good. However in your situation, two patients in three weeks? It is a little bit ridiculous.

IS it because he's old and he's pretty much not bothered anymore? It's refreshing to know that there are senior consultants like this. But like I said earlier, seniors of certain races have the tendency to bully med students or their juniors, but heck, they treat students from their own race better. It's just not fair.

I have this theory, if someone were to be from a disadvantaged home, and suddenly if he/she does extremely well and becomes someone prominent, will he/she behave worse due to the sudden "power"?I have experienced this too often, and again, it depends on the race of the person. I'm sad to admit this, but when we were in high school, sometimes, we as seniors prevented certain juniors from going up the committee ladder just because we knew that this person would abuse his/her power because of the tendency to do so, call it racism or whatever, we have to protect others

 

[MustafaMond]

Seriously Mustafamond,

If you are albanian, then share with us a bit about albanian culture.

Dude, I'm Indian.


I don't know why this guy is a prick, but if I were you, I'd be very friendly towards him for the remaining time you have.
He seems like a real malignant guy, and you don't want to get in trouble.

 

[ericdamiansean]

Dude, I'm Indian.

then why the anger? 😀

 

[flighterdoc]

then why the anger? 😀

He's just angry all the time.

Must be the cowboys.

 

[Aloha Kid]

No serious guys, Mustafamond really thought it would be funny to say he was albanian and that he would report it to the moderators.

Once again we see this cultural thing. Mustafamond being indian, thought it was funny, but none of us caught the joke. So here we go, was this joke an indian cultural thing and only people with a knowledge of indian culture would think its funny? 😱

OHHH there I go again, being a cultural linguist.


So anyways, my grand total of patients i've managed for this month of rotations is now 6. 2 of them, however, were malingerers. The most recent patient I received today was a homeless guy who needed a place to sleep for the night. So all in all I have had a total of 3 great learning patients 👍 and 3 whom I baby sitted with orders for tylenol, enema, and pillow. 😴

 

[footsie]

This guy is Albanian. He graduated from an albanian medical school. He's rather blunt and uncensored with his remarks. Is this a cultural thing?
Yeah, probably.

It so is - back in the days when I was a naughty schoolgirl, I had an albanian maths teacher who, from the sound of it, is very probably related to your resident. He had this rule where nobody could speak or make any kind of noise at all in his lessons. The first person to do so would get 50 'i must not disrupt the class' lines. The next person to speak would get double what the last person got. I spoke out of turn right at the end of a lesson and got 32,000 lines

 

[MD Rapper]

Dude, I'm Indian.

LOL! That was great! You totally diverted everyones attention...

 

[ericdamiansean]

LOL! That was great! You totally diverted everyones attention...

shall we give him hell then for messing with us? 😀

 

[Aloha Kid]

Well, today was the last day of my rotation. The "resident from hell," and the interns I worked with will also finish up soon.

Following rounds, we sat together in a conference room, awaiting our final exit interviews for the month with our attending. One by one, the student, then the interns, and lastly the resident was called in to our attending's office. I could tell by the expression on my residents face that he was crapping bricks.

I wish I could report something went down. Truth of the matter is, I feel somewhat short-handed. You see, nothing went down at all. The irony of the situation is that our attending gave each of us stellar evaluations. Each of us was complemented on how well we seemed to work as a team. Nothing could have been farthest from the truth.

Today, I realized how hard it is to "rat out," a bad weed. Although I tried to explain the situation to my attending in the most tactful way possible, the seemingly powerful glow of sunshine my attending emmitted when talking about how wonderful we were was simply too hard dim. My pathetic rantings turned into a minor complaint, for which I did not have the courage to carry on.

For lunch, we sat together as a team. This was somewhat of an unusual event. It appeared to be more ceremonial if anything. As I sat and listened to my resident criticize attendings, nurses, and even the homeless, I had no doubt, that eventually my name would most likely fall prey to the same treatment. I observed the interns. Their outwards appearance looked normal. However, I knew what they knew. We had just gotten the crud kicked out of us and we didn't have the bruises to prove it.

So with a great evaluation in my hand, I walked out of the hospital today feeling somewhat of a bitter-sweet emotion. I could not help but dwell on a old chinese saying I had reiterated in my mind many times before. "At times, the partaking of bitterness is good for you."

Twenty years from now, I don't know If I will be able to recall this crazy fiasco. And if I do recall it, I doubt I will be able to remember all of the events. But I do know one thing, this bitterness I feel, is probably good for me ? I think ? 🙁 On the other hand, I could remember myself as just being a gutless coward. 🙄

 

[Rod Farva]

You should now go back to that floor and punchisize that resident's face, for free.

 

[ericdamiansean]

you are not a coward, you are being smart. The one with lesser brains will rat out everything, and someday, this might come back and bite you in the arse when you need future references etc.

Remember that the medical profession is one where everyone knows everybody..so, if you were to bitch about him, it may well work against you, perhaps not now, but later.

Just remember that we should not do unto others what others did unto you in this context, that's because the med students under you will hate you and remember you for life, as you will remember that particular resident, and the vicious cycle will continue.

Perhaps you may pimp students under you sometimes, but not screw them up

 

[njbmd]

Hi there,
Conduct yourself in the utmost professional manner with this person. If you are a straight-up dude, then I will wager lots of folks have had problems with this person. No matter what, the clock is ticking and soon you won't be on this service. I will bet that the attendings and chiefs know that this person is a jerk so don't waste you time and energy in confrontation.

Blast the H--L out of this person on your evals and give specific examples. Other than that, you drew the short straw this time. Getting through rotations and residency is all about picking your battles and not fighting battles that you can't win. In the long run, you win and they lose.

Good luck and I am sorry that you have such a jerk to deal with on your rotation.

njbmd 🙂

 

[ericdamiansean]

What happened to the all round macho INdian cum Albanian MustafaMond? 😀

We're still waiting for your reply 😴

 

[pikachu]

We had just gotten the crud kicked out of us and we didn't have the bruises to prove it.

So with a great evaluation in my hand, I walked out of the hospital today feeling somewhat of a bitter-sweet emotion. I could not help but dwell on a old chinese saying I had reiterated in my mind many times before. "At times, the partaking of bitterness is good for you."

Twenty years from now, I don't know If I will be able to recall this crazy fiasco. And if I do recall it, I doubt I will be able to remember all of the events. But I do know one thing, this bitterness I feel, is probably good for me ? I think ? 🙁 On the other hand, I could remember myself as just being a gutless coward. 🙄

Classic! what a way to sum up med school 😀