Why aren't more surgeons burnt out?

[dbeast]

Also, can you imagine if every physician you call for a consult knows more about the condition you are calling about than you leading to constant questions about management and "why did you do this" and "why didn't you do that"? That would become VERY taxing.

Isn't this the purpose of every consult? I feel like any hospitalist service has to deal with that.

Then again, I imagine that's why we're in the surgery forums right now and not the medicine ones.

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[ruralsurg4now]

Isn't this the purpose of every consult? I feel like any hospitalist service has to deal with that.

It's usually not as bad from a hospitalist. Everyone here has gotten the "he just doesn't look right" or "could you eyeball this guy while you're down here" consult from the ER.

Also, probably my biggest pet peeve above all with the ER is how they retroactively dictate everything into their notes. You should some time read their notes and compare them to what actually happened. It's pretty amazing sometimes. The hospitalists really just say "I'm going to ask Surgery (or whoever) to see the patient" and leave it at that.

 

[JayDoc06]

Isn't this the purpose of every consult? I feel like any hospitalist service has to deal with that.

Then again, I imagine that's why we're in the surgery forums right now and not the medicine ones.

Yes, by definition, you consult someone for an issue where you do not know as much as consultant X on disease X. However, the ER never gets consulted because they are the "Jack of all trades, masters of none." I just think that would get quite tiresome.

 

[KnuxNole]

Yes, by definition, you consult someone for an issue where you do not know as much as consultant X on disease X. However, the ER never gets consulted because they are the "Jack of all trades, masters of none." I just think that would get quite tiresome.

To be fair, I don't think they mind not getting consulted.

 

[Arcan57]

Yes, by definition, you consult someone for an issue where you do not know as much as consultant X on disease X. However, the ER never gets consulted because they are the "Jack of all trades, masters of none." I just think that would get quite tiresome.

In many hospitals we do get consulted, typically for codes and occasionally for airways/lines in unstable patients. And KnuxNole is correct that we would prefer not to be called in most of those cases. The "jack of all trades" thing is a pithy slogan, but it's more that we're masters in things that other specialties don't want/have to care about.

 

[Leforte]

Agree that EM does get "consulted" in certain situation. If there is a code or airway issue in a regional hospital without an in-house intensivist, it would be common for the EM attending to be part of the rapid response or code team until anaesthesia, ICU, ENT or other more applicable specialist can get into the hospital. A good EM team is worth their weight in gold.

 

[womp]

I think what also helps surgeons is that the work week is not as monotonous as the ED. We have OR days, clinic days, inpatient rounding, and call nights. And our working environment isn't always in the same ED full of nurses yakking away, patients moaning and general chaos.

In the OR we kind of control our own peace and quiet. If you do elective surgery, it's even more of a controlled environment.

Trauma surgery is a lot more chaotic though.