What to do when your off-service team sucks?

[TylerDurden]

So, here I am in the first month of residency and stuck on a terrible team off-service. It is a completely malignant atmosphere towards me. The team is quite friendly with the new intern that is going into their specialty, but treat me, as the ED resident, like a red headed step child.

All I hear everyday is about how the ED screws them when they go down there to work shifts or for admissions. I feel like I am being blamed for this. I am stuck doing all the scut and otherwise sit around all night watching them talk and do everything fun that happens. Fortunately, this attitude does not pervade throughout the entire dept., ie. the other residents that I have worked with are quite friendly and helpful. However, my team is the worst team I have ever participated in.

Any thoughts on what I can do? I am tempted to just ignore them and go learn some stuff elsewhere rather than sit around doing nothing. I know this will reflect poorly on my eval, so I was wondering DO off-service evaluations matter? I dont want my PD to get some terrible eval of me right off the bat, but I also am getting tired of sitting around doing nothing, learning nothing, and being treated like I am a first year med student.

Thanks.

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[kungfufishing]

Id say grit your teeth and do your job.

 

[APACHE3]

If your off service team has any red-heads, I can see why they hate you. Just kidding. Suck it up, smile and just get through it. All services complain about the other, and not surprisingly, they probably complain about each other too, so you're not alone. You would think people with MD after their name would act like adults, but internship is legal hazing and if its off service, then you really get it good. see ya (and yes I'm a red head)

 

[peksi]

Mind me asking what the OS rotation is (Surgery, Medicine, OB??)

Paul

 

[anonymousEM]

Perhaps a question about the expectations toward a more senior resident/chief is in order. State what you've stated here. You obviously are expected to work hard (and deal with the scut) regardless of the attitude of the OS to you, but your program does want to know if you're being singled out and more importantly wants you to learn. Don't make a big fuss to the OS or whine, just a simple question about the culture and expectations discretely to a more senior resident may help you. This, though, is one of those times where it's likely beneficial to all of the residents to go "through the chain of command" and not directly to your PD or, for heavens sake, not theirs.

 

[anonymousEM]

and don't be surprised if what you hear from them is "life's not fair, suck it up" sometimes that's just the way it is on such and such a service

 

[edinOH]

You must be on OBGYN.

Once July 31st rolls around, you will never have to do it again.

Just be professional and don't give them an excuse to dislike you, or by extention, the ED. Take the high road and grin and bear it. Hopefully you can change things for the better once you are off the service and are able to provide feed-back to your program. Unfortunately there is very little you can do now that will affect your current month in a positive manner.

 

[TylerDurden]

How did you know it was OB!?! That is impressive...

I am trying to suck up the whole thing and deal. However, it gets old sitting there all day and night doing nothing productive. Nights take forever when you are not working or learning anything. It is worse than being a med student, because at least then I could go to sleep or hint that maybe I should go home because nothing was happening. Now patients come into our OB triage, and I ask to go see them but the Seniors do not let me go, because I am a "ER resident and cannot do that."

It is frustrating having to waste a month learning and doing nothing but being forced to be in the hospital for so much time each day. When I am at work, I want to learn/work and not be faulted for the specialty I chose.

40% done...

 

[Doczilla]

Being bored sucks. Lots.

It might be worth a discreet talk with your PD (depending on how open that door really is) to let him/her know what's going on. A heads up now will go a long way if the off service wants to fail you or give you a bad eval. If other ER residents are saying the same thing, the program might reevaluate their relationship with that facility (not something they want, since the OB residents would have to suck up the work that ER residents would no longer be doing). It might also serve as ammunition for your PD to go to their PD and make sure that they are more closely looking out for the welfare of the ER residents.


'zilla

 

[USCDiver]

Now patients come into our OB triage, and I ask to go see them but the Seniors do not let me go, because I am a "ER resident and cannot do that."

They don't want you seeing OB triage patients? This is ridiculous. They are wasting a valuable opportunity that few other off service rotations pass up. Namely, teaching you when you don't have to consult them. It would be like a cardiologist passing up the opportunity to explain to you why a particular chest pain couldn't possibly be cardiac and they are safe to go home.

 

[ERMudPhud]

Tell your PD. When we had rotations like that as resident's that had no educational benefit the PD would get rid of them in favor of something else or somewhere else.

 

[APACHE3]

First, if you bring in the PD's of one or both programs, you're asking for trouble. You will probably survive the rotation, but what about your colleagues, who also have to rotate through that service? They will be ripped to pieces. You will only complicate matters for everybody. Suck it up. bring your Tintinelli and just cross each day off the calender. Don't get your PD involved. BUT...you may suggest that your OB-Gyn rotation should be shortened to 1/2 block and put the extra time into something more useful. IMHO...GL

 

[anonymousEM]

as i said before, go to your chief. thier job is to be the liason between the residents and the admin. they know way more than they'd like to about many of the interdepartmental politics and can approach the PD in a way that will most likely be beneficial to all of the residents or tell you to cool your jets and stick it out. honestly, the program needs to know about rotations where you're not learning but going right to the top on your own leaves you vulnerable to looking like a crybaby...and, unfortuantately could put you on rocky ground with your own program...the last thing you'd want to come from this. Until then take a book and learn something on your own.

 

[Scrubbs]

I think I spent most of my nights on OB teaching THEIR med students. OB is a notoriously malignant OS for us. Especially in July - new chiefs, new interns (who need to get deliveries), etc. That being said, YOU need to get deliveries too. Are you working with a single team or rotating who you take call with? If you are on a single team, you need to talk to the upper year. You are there to learn and get deliveries. With today's malpractice crisis and OB's leaving a lot of community hospitals, you need to be able to deliver a baby on your own should the need arise. 4 residents in my program had deliveries in the ER over the past 2 years. Scary, right? This is likely the only time you will get to learn how to do it, and what to do if it gets complicated.

Should you suck it up and work hard regardless, absolutely! Should you quietly sit there and learn/do nothing, absolutely not. Talk to your senior and tell them that you've observed for the first half of your rotation, and now you'd like to start putting into practice what you've learned... Do whatever it takes, but get yourself into the delivery room and doing the exams! Good luck!

 

[bulgethetwine]

I can't believe the number of people who have suggested you just suck it up!

To hell with that. That's the attitude that left medicine so insulated in its ivory tower for decades.

I think you should do one of the more aggressive approaches in terms of taking it up with your PD or perhaps the bit about finidng out what the OS expectations are. Hey, professional life is as much politics as knowledge. Use some finesse, some back channel diplomacy, and show up on time with a smile no matter what the outcome. At the end of the day, the one you gotta satisfy is looking at you in the mirror in the morning.

Shame on you yellow bellied, sycophantic, no-risk people who advised to just suck it up. I bet those are the types who bitch all the time and never make any effort to improve anything.

 

[colforbinMD]

I can't believe the number of people who have suggested you just suck it up!


Shame on you yellow bellied, sycophantic, no-risk people who advised to just suck it up. I bet those are the types who bitch all the time and never make any effort to improve anything.

I gotta say I share the shock. Might not put things as harshly as yellow bellied sycophants BUT to just advise him to suck it up and deal with what sounds to be a malignant atmosphere and complete waste of what is supposed to be the first month of THE most important learning time in the OP's life just to avoid rocking the boat. As long as an intelligent approach to pointing out the problem, first to the senior OS residents and then, if still needed, to your own chief/PD (depending on PD/residnet relations in your program) is used then why not. Seems to me that if doing this puts you on shakey ground with your own program then you have a crappy program and have bigger problems then just one OS rotation.