Dr. Dev (Fictional Name) was Junior Resident in the Department of Surgery, AIIMS, New Delhi. One of the duties of Dr. Dev was to present cases at the weekly Surgical-Radiological conference (meeting).
For Non-Medicos: In the Surgical-Radiological conference, one particular surgical unit meet with the radiological faculty members and residents. The surgery resident presents the clinical data of few selected patients such history of the present illness, clinical examination findings and reports of other blood investigations. Then the radiological investigations are discussed such as plain x-rays, ultrasonography and CT and MRI scans films. The radiology department faculty then examines the films and clears any doubts of the surgeons.
Once it happened that the Surgico-Radiological conference was on the day following Dr. Dev’s Unit’s OPD and Emergency Admission day. The workload was particularly heavy with an emergency operation ending at 3.00 am in the morning. And as it happens, the number of patients whose x-rays, CT, etc. were to be discussed was also more than the usual average with many patients getting admitted late in the evening.
After grabbing only 1½ hour sleep, Dr. Dev worked fervently to complete the notes of the patient’s detail, collect and label the x-rays, etc. with the patient’s name and bed number and arrange them in proper order.
Working continuously Dr. Dev managed to complete his work by 8.00 am and reached the conference room in the radiology department at 8.05 am.
Professor (Dr.) Tarun Kumar Chaturji (Fictional Name), the Surgery Unit Head with the Radiology Professor was already waiting in the room as the meeting was supposed to start at 8.00 am.
Dr. Dev started presenting the cases. As was expected, mentally and physically exhausted, hungry (no breakfast), sleep deprived, Dr. Dev, made some mistake during his presentation. Promptly Dr. Chaturji gave Dr. Dev a verbal blasting. Used to such things, Dr. Dev continued presenting the cases. Again Dr. Dev made some minor mistake to which Dr. Chaturji responded even more aggressively than before. Dr. Dev got suspicious that Dr. Chaturji is being more strict than usual and tried to think what may have put in such a foul mood.
When Dr. Dev made his third mistake Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji himself confirmed the reason; “Look at this donkey. Making such silly mistakes and he had not even bothered to shave before coming to the hospital.”
Enlightenment dawned on Dr. Dev. Professor Tarun Kumar Chaturji was a staunch believer in that a smart doctor is a smart appearing doctor. According to him, a clean shave is must for a smart looking doctor. In his rush to complete the presentations, Dr. Dev had neglected to shave and came few minutes late to the meeting after the faculty members had already arrived. These two things had angered Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji and Dr. Dev’s even minor mistakes appeared to Dr. Chaturji as major infractions.
The surgical-radiological conference was finally over. Dr. Dev, Professor (Dr.) Tarun Kumar Chaturji and other faculty members and residents started moving towards the ward. When they reached the stairs near the junction of the AB and CD ward block, Dr. Dev gave the surgical-radiological conference register, the x-rays, etc. to his junior and rushed to the ward, situated at 7th floor, by stairs.
Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji along with other members of the unit continued till they reached the private ward elevators (lift). This was time before the fast elevators were installed near the private ward for the use of the staff at AIIMS, New Delhi. They took the old elevator and reached the 7th floor where the surgical ward was situated.
When Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji started the ward round he found Dr. Dev already waiting for him in the ward. Dr. Chaturji stared hard at Dr. Dev’s face. Dr. Chaturji started listening to the daily clinical notes of the admitted patient’s status at each of the bed one by one. But all the time he was staring at Dr. Dev’s face. Finally, by the 7th patient he could not hold back and asked Dr. Dev in amazement, “You were unshaved in the radiological meeting in the morning, but how come you are having a shaved face now?”
To avoid what happened in the surgical-radiological conference, while Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji slowly walked to the elevators, which being morning rush hour stopped at each floor to slowly reach the 7th floor, Dr. Dev had rushed to the 7th floor by stairs. On reaching the duty room, he took his shaving kit from his locker and hurriedly shaved before the ward round started. Yes, Dr. Dev had completed shaving faster than Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji made his way from the conference to the ward. Needless to say, Professor Tarun Kumar Chaturji was now in a much milder mood during the ward round as compared the radiological meeting.
Most people keep on working until the last minute of the allotted time while preparing some presentation, reports, case-study, project, etc. It is better to stop working early and use the last few minutes to polish the appearances, whether personal or of the work.
Tip: It is better to present an incomplete but polished work than present a complete but unpolished work. Polish here means activities such as arranging the presentation material in proper order, checking for any spelling mistakes and uniformity of fonts and style.
Tip: People are more likely to overlook mistakes by polished presenter than one who is unkempt in appearance. Polishing your appearance means wearing a neat well-ironed dress, a clean-shaved face, well-groomed appearance.
Tip: And always reach the venue before time.
In Dr. Dev’s case, he should have stopped working at around 7.40 am, and used the time to arrange the patient’s files in proper order, should have shaved and changed his shirt and left the ward by at least 7.55 am to arrive at the venue at or before 8.00 am.
(Based on true incident)
— ND
© Author. All rights reserved.
If viewing from Mobile, switch to Webpage view to see a list of popular posts and index of topics of previous posts.
DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behaviour illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost.
DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behaviour illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm.
You can share this post on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, etc, using the Buttons above 'Labels' and below 'Posted by:'.
Please give your valuable feedback via comments below. Please note that comments will appear after moderation.
You can receive notification on latest post by subscribing via clicking on the bottom of the page on the Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment