What do you do when you dont know what to do!?

[maxx52188]

So im curious what Doctors do when they dont know what to do.

What I mean by this isnt something like a trans-specialty problem like a family med doctor is stumped by something a urologist would deal with. What im talking about is when a patient comes to you and its something you should know, but you dont because it was an afterthought during a rotation, or a fact that seemed insignificant at the time of its presentation compared to the multitude of other things you had learned, or you just havent dealt with that type of issue in sometime, so you're rusty on it.

Do you grab your buddy-colleague and say, "hey steve i havent done INSERT PROCEDURE HERE in awhile, mind if you do it for me/guide me through it?"

I guess in a round about way i see doctors as these all knowing beings (in their discipline of medicine, of course) so what do you do when you are presented with something you should know how to deal with, but you actually dont?

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[EM_Rebuilder]

So im curious what Doctors do when they dont know what to do.

What I mean by this isnt something like a trans-specialty problem like a family med doctor is stumped by something a urologist would deal with. What im talking about is when a patient comes to you and its something you should know, but you dont because it was an afterthought during a rotation, or a fact that seemed insignificant at the time of its presentation compared to the multitude of other things you had learned, or you just havent dealt with that type of issue in sometime, so you're rusty on it.

Do you grab your buddy-colleague and say, "hey steve i havent done INSERT PROCEDURE HERE in awhile, mind if you do it for me/guide me through it?"

I guess in a round about way i see doctors as these all knowing beings (in their discipline of medicine, of course) so what do you do when you are presented with something you should know how to deal with, but you actually dont?

Part of the higher education process is learning how to learn about something new. Do not let any 'medical doctors' fool you; there are no 'all knowing beings'.

Rarely will a day go by in a double coverage setting that one doctor doesnt 'bounce something off' another doctor. Some folks carry books to work with them (even if its something as simple as a book of medications/dosages/etc) and virtually every ED I have been in has some sort of bookshelf with various resources. Of course in this day and age, most of us whip out an iphone or android device which can be loaded with resources, or there is virtually always a computer with an internet connection that allows for all sorts of resources...

Every specialty has its 'bread and butter' that you need to know inside and out. As Emergency Physicians, we better not be thumbing through books during a code, or looking at Trauma algorithims during a Level I trauma... when some obscure lab abnormality shows up, or some weird skin manifestations... you betcha many of our noses will be glued to a book/computer trying to figure out 'what the heck this is!'...

 

[maxx52188]

First off, thank you!


Now for a follow up question. Keep in mind I am not a doctor, so if the things I say are not exactly realistic, just use your imagination i guess...


How do you know when to 'stop' when there are no clear cut definitative 'stopping' points? This in going to be a terrible real-life example because I know nothing about medicine, but this is what I mean by 'stopping'.

You have a patient dying, STAT labs come back and some sort of value is through the roof that is pretty much a point of no return, so you call off fighting the inevitable and essentially let the patient pass.

Whereas you're in another situation where there are no indicative red flags that are being flown that mean 'its over dude, this guy isnt coming back from this' -but the patient is clearly dying. so you can "blindy" (in an educated manner) try options that could fix him but theres no saying if anything will work until said options are executed because everything is so uncertain.

What do you do then?

 

[Nevis]

The best you can.

 

[Venko]

So im curious what Doctors do when they dont know what to do.

What I mean by this isnt something like a trans-specialty problem like a family med doctor is stumped by something a urologist would deal with. What im talking about is when a patient comes to you and its something you should know, but you dont because it was an afterthought during a rotation, or a fact that seemed insignificant at the time of its presentation compared to the multitude of other things you had learned, or you just havent dealt with that type of issue in sometime, so you're rusty on it.

Do you grab your buddy-colleague and say, "hey steve i havent done INSERT PROCEDURE HERE in awhile, mind if you do it for me/guide me through it?"

I guess in a round about way i see doctors as these all knowing beings (in their discipline of medicine, of course) so what do you do when you are presented with something you should know how to deal with, but you actually dont?

Admit it to myself that I don't know this, vow to train on it when I get home, and find someway to get the patient a safe alternative in the meantime. I also try and then email my colleagues with whatever it is, because most likely if I don't know it, someone else doesn't know it either.

I hardly know 1/10 of all the things I want to know