venting

[marie337]

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ARRGGHH...sometimes I get so frustrated and I know I'm not alone. I hate how every attending and chief wants the presentation done differently. Last week I got corrected for giving too much from the physical exam. Today the attending says that while I"m learning I should go through the whole exam when presenting and then once I'm more experienced I can just do pertinent positives. The intern I'm with said to just get used to it because nothing I say during third year will be correct . Do you guys have any tips?

Also, during rounds this week, the residents have advised me not to answer any questions unless I'm 100% positive of the answer. Our attending is incredibly slow during rounds and the residents have said to just answer "I don't know" unless I'm sure of the answer. This would be great except that every time I get asked a question I get really nervous because I don't want to piss the residents off and this makes me even more flustered. I usually end up saying "I don't know" because I cannot even think straight enough to come up with an answer. I probably look like the biggest idiot! I can't wait until this week is over 😱!!

Thanks for letting me vent!!

 

[kat82]

aaah, such a CLASSIC 3rd year experience. my advice is get used to it, every rotation is like that sometimes. you have to just accept it and realize that every 3rd year feels like a huge idiot most of the time. (if they dont they are lying)

4th year is so much better!!!!!!! 😀

 

[Tired]

Unfortunately this will continue. I'm an intern and I still get that almost constantly. One attending will crush me for "failing to give all important information" (ie - normal blood pressures). The next will groan that I'm wasting his time "with meaningless normal lab values". Our junior residents get the same things at preop conference. It sucks, yes.

Honestly, the only thing you can do is to take the hit the first time you present, then remember what they like, and give them what they want the next time.

Remember that they all know that every attending does it differently, and that you've never presented to them before. They know that they're being unfair when they rip on you for not reading their mind. It's just part of the hazing process, and is nothing more than a test to see if you will adapt and survive or continue to make the same mistakes over and over again.

 

[Blade28]

aaah, such a CLASSIC 3rd year experience. my advice is get used to it, every rotation is like that sometimes. you have to just accept it and realize that every 3rd year feels like a huge idiot most of the time. (if they dont they are lying)

4th year is so much better!!!!!!! 😀

But then the "god I feel like an idiot" feelings come back with a vengeance in residency. 🙂

 

[Mallory Weiss]

I figured something out: the attending WANTS you to be stupid at first, that way he or she can teach you something. Attendings want to teach you, and if you answer every pimp question correctly from the getgo, you will probably be disappointing them.

 

[marie337]

I figured something out: the attending WANTS you to be stupid at first, that way he or she can teach you something. Attendings want to teach you, and if you answer every pimp question correctly from the getgo, you will probably be disappointing them.

That's a good point. So far I've found that the attendings I've worked with genuinely want to teach. I am a very anxious person, though. And, when I'm doing rounds and getting pimped I must look like the biggest idiot. Whenever I get asked a question my mind just goes blank and I sound like a blabbering fool. I hope that passes soon! I need to just chill out and stop caring about what people think of me. I just makes everything worse!

The good news is.....only one more week of surgery left for me. I just don't fit in well with these surgery types.

 

[Blade28]

People tend to forget that pimping isn't just about attendings testing your knowledge...it's also about them finding weak areas so they can teach, or to see how you respond under pressure.

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

I think the best you can learn from this is 5, 10, 20 years down the road when you're an attending, realize the way YOU do it isn't necessarilly the "correct" way.

All my attendings have all had their own style, but they're cool enough to admit it is just that: THEIR style. Not the CORRECT style. It's really annoying when attendings act like their way is the only way to do it.

 

[PrincessofBlood]

I figured something out: the attending WANTS you to be stupid at first, that way he or she can teach you something. Attendings want to teach you, and if you answer every pimp question correctly from the getgo, you will probably be disappointing them.

I have seen attendings get upset when someone anwers their supposedly unanswerable pimp questions. The best attendings will ask questions that everyone realizes are too tricky for anyone to know, then go on give a good little talk, while weirdo attendings will ask trick questions or use the pimp session as an excuse to make everyone feel stupid. The best attendings I have had were all relatively older attendings, albeit with some notable exceptions. Some of the worse attendings are newer ones, or residents, who seem to just use the pimp sessions to ask questions to make people feel embarassed and often they don't answer the question 100% perfectly themselves or sometimes get it wrong. One pediatric ER attending told me, some what haughtily, that "the flu" i.e. A or B is the most common cause of croup when I said paraflu was!

I think that attendings who complain about very small details on presenting just like to harass students and residents to some degree. Forgetting important labs like wbc is important, as is not checking culture results, but presenting stuff slightly out of order is a style issue NOT a competency issue, and in the end wastes alot of time. Most attendings I have worked with will just ask for something if you didn't include it and don't need a whole lot of information, i.e. they know what they are looking for. An attending who needs a two-page description of abdominal pain is inefficient as most have an idea within a couple sentences of what they need to do.