What makes a good attending?

[DoctaJay]

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At LLU we have 1st year clinical rotations; on the rotations I have observed different attributes from different residents and attendings which I admired and desired to emulate. I'll list some of them below, but I was wondering what attributes you all noticed in your attendings that made you admire them? For me it was:

1) This CT fellow thanked everyone in the operating room after his surgeries including the scrub techs, the scrub nurses, and the anesthesiologists

2) This pediatric urologist always sketched pictures of what she was talking about to the patient so that they would understand better

3) While on the wards, the dean of our medical school prefaced our pimping session by saying, "This session is for educational purposes, so don't feel bad or stupid if you answer incorrectly."

 

[mjl1717]

At LLU we have 1st year clinical rotations; on the rotations I have observed different attributes from different residents and attendings which I admired and desired to emulate. I'll list some of them below, but I was wondering what attributes you all noticed in your attendings that made you admire them? For me it was:

1) This CT fellow thanked everyone in the operating room after his surgeries including the scrub techs, the scrub nurses, and the anesthesiologists

2) This pediatric urologist always sketched pictures of what she was talking about to the patient so that they would understand better

3) While on the wards, the dean of our medical school prefaced our pimping session by saying, "This session is for educational purposes, so don't feel bad or stupid if you answer incorrectly."

My 2cents:

1)Being able to effectively communicate and TEACH during or after the heat of the battle!

2)Cordial attitude, Not going with the preface that "kindness is weakness" or people are trying to take advantage of him..

3)Knows how to stimulate an academic enviorment.

4) Contrary to what some say..-Dresses well!!

5)Last but not least "Osler-like renaisaunce man"..{will allow an exception if he cant grow the thick, bushy, distinguished, elegant, Osler-like, Freidman -like badasterone, mustache because of genetic reasons... 😍

 

[Occams Razor]

We have 1st yr shadowing requirements. One IM attending gave us a "you can do it, don't give up" pep talk, and shared with us some of the mistakes he made in his academic career. As we visited patients, he explained CT scans to us, broke down terms, and gave us background into patients' illnesses. He was friendly, calm, and did whatever he could to give us valuable information.

This was one of the best experiences of 1st year.

 

[BigRedBeta]

1) Is personable. Will discuss with students where they're from, what they do in their free time, what their career goals are. They also don't dismiss other specialties when they find out the student is going into something much different than the current rotation.

2) Asks questions, but the questions are clearly aimed to be educational. Don't make you sit there for several minutes, even after you've said you don't know the answer. The questions they ask are relevant too.

3) Doesn't save feedback until the very end, gives praise/constructive criticism throughout.

4) Sets expectations from the beginning. Doesn't make you guess what they wish you to do. (This definitely goes for residents too). I certainly have no problem doing work if I know that's what you want, but if you're going to make me guess, I'm going to do what I consider reasonable until told otherwise.

 

[bcat85]

At LLU we have 1st year clinical rotations; on the rotations I have observed different attributes from different residents and attendings which I admired and desired to emulate. I'll list some of them below, but I was wondering what attributes you all noticed in your attendings that made you admire them? For me it was:

1) This CT fellow thanked everyone in the operating room after his surgeries including the scrub techs, the scrub nurses, and the anesthesiologists

2) This pediatric urologist always sketched pictures of what she was talking about to the patient so that they would understand better

3) While on the wards, the dean of our medical school prefaced our pimping session by saying, "This session is for educational purposes, so don't feel bad or stupid if you answer incorrectly."

That reminds me of superbad.

 

[AmoryBlaine]

I think that you'll learn quickly that one thing that sets good attendings apart from bad ones is that they actually pay attention to the med students.

Good attendings sit down with students and try to get to know them a little bit as people. Good attendings do not start rounds if one of the students is in the bathroom. Good attendings do not do "chief rounds" everyday just to speed things up. They also acknowledge you in the hallway when you are off their service.

I worked with a surgery attending who had a reputation for being scary but realized within 2 days that she had only the vaguest idea who I was. Being belittled on rounds is not that big of deal if you are just a faceless medical student, you can easily melt into the background.

Another surgery attending at my institution consistently wins teaching awards. He really is pretty good with the teaching but there are people who are far better. What Dr. X does is learns the name of EVERY student who rotates with him and for the rest of year he stops you in the hall to see how things are going and if he can do anything to help. When you are a lowly 3rd year and this nationally know guy stops you in the hall to see how your life is going it feels like God is smiling on you.