worst mistakes as a resident

[The_Sensei]

What's this:

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"This" is you cutting and pasting the Hippocratic Oath in some delusional state and somehow thinking it proves whatever inane point you are trying to make. Good luck in medical school dude.

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[spreebee]

"This" is you cutting and pasting the Hippocratic Oath in some delusional state and somehow thinking it proves whatever inane point you are trying to make. Good luck in medical school dude.

Thanks for the support

 

[imtiaz]

i once put a 20 french foley catheter into the wrong patient, during my first week of internship. lol.

 

[MS3er]

i once put a 20 french foley catheter into the wrong patient, during my first week of internship. lol.

if thats the only mistake I make during my first week of internship i'll consider myself very lucky LOL

 

[Tigger14]

No one was arguing the point that the intern made a mistake and that it was careless. But your knee-jerk response that the proper result should be some resident that should 'never be allowed to practice' is equally careless given your complete lack of understanding of what context in which these errors occur.

From what I gathered your are in the process of taking of taking your MCAT soon and likely applying to medical schools. If I could make a comparable analogy. Say you forgot to pay your rent this month because you were 'eagerly studying' for the MCAT and likely had 500 other important things running in your head and that it slipped your mind until your landlord brought it to your attention by telling you 'you should be prohibited from ever living in an apartment' because you 'clearly' are unable to follow a simple regulation like paying your rent monthly' and that you 'should just be evicted immediately no discussion needed'. You might likely respond and say 99% of the time you pay your rent on time but this 'one time' you had 500 other things going on (like your MCAT coming up) and that it was a careless mistake.

The consequences of the mistake for the intern were more severe, but the context in which it occurred were likely similiar..the intern likely didnt spend one hour on this patient's medication list because he most likely had 100 other more pressing things simultaneously going on (patient with a lower GI bleed in the next room, 10 different discharges, 4 consults, getting yelled at by the resident for something he didnt do yesterday that he needs to do today, getting crap from nurses for stuff he needs to do, getting chewed out by attendings for basically being an intern). Now does that make the intern an 'incompetent idiot that should never be allowed to practice', or just someone who made a careless mistake that alot of other people might easily have made in that situation too but who unfortunately didn't have it picked up on by safeguards in place to detect those mistakes? Think about it.

Medicine is a human endevour and as such mistakes are inevitable...again this is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY justifies, excuses, or condones them but it just points out an obvious fact. Yes, there is a point where mistakes from a physician become pathologic, then sure such people should not be allowed to practice. But if your future outlook is to only surround yourself with physicians who have never ever made a careless mistakes you will find yourself in an empty room.

This could not have been said better. EVERYONE makes mistakes, and while some have small consequences, some have big ones. If you expect to be perfect, there will be a rude awakening. If you do not learn to forgive yourself, learn from your mistakes and move on, you will burn out very quickly.

 

[imtiaz]

if thats the only mistake I make during my first week of internship i'll consider myself very lucky LOL

its a legendary story, i get teased by the seniors all the time about it