The French Cut Beard Doctor

Dr. Dev (fictional name) met his friend from AIIMS, New Delhi after a long time. His friend had shifted to his hometown to do private practice after completing his post-graduation from AIIMS.

Dr. Dev was surprised to see that his friend was now sporting a ‘French Beard’ or ‘French Cut Beard’. During his entire stay at AIIMS, his friend had always been clean shaved. Dr. Dev could not stop himself from asking his friend for the new style.

His friend replied, ‘On shifting to my home town, although I was well qualified and experienced due to my higher studies at AIIMS, but to my patients and even colleagues I appeared young and inexperienced. You know that a clean-shaven face makes you look younger.' 

'In contrast, a beard gives you a mature and experienced look. It makes you appear as having superior knowledge and expertise in your field. All this helps in quickly establishing good practice and clientele in private practice. So I adopted a bearded look after remaining clean-shaven for my entire life in AIIMS.’

‘But why the ‘French Cut’ and not just a full beard?’ Dr. Dev wanted to know who was not fully satisfied with his friend’s explanation.

His friend elucidated, ‘A full beard may make you look too old or aged. You may look outdated and out of sync with the modern world and medical science. You may appear careless if the beard is not well kept and groomed.’

‘So as to balance between appearing too young or too old, inexperienced vs. outdated, a neatly maintained French cut beard with well-shaved rest of the face was a good option.’

Not just doctors but many other professionals adopt the French cut beard early in their career for that experienced, mature, but well-groomed appearance to quickly impress their patients and clients, and even their employers. 

— ND

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your 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. 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 NMC and other Board norms. 

 

The Surgical-Radiological Conference

 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 7^th 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 7^th 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 7^th 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 7^th floor, Dr. Dev had rushed to the 7^th 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
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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. 

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The Clean Shave

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer. —  Charles Caleb Colton

Preface

While preparing for oral or viva exams, remember, the examiner is only human. Unlike Vulcans (e.g. Mr Spock), human being, alas, are not 100% rational creatures. Human beings, including the examiners, may get influenced by non-academic factors such as the student's appearance, dress, mannerism, etc.

This may affect how he dispenses marks or his attitude towards the student during the exam. An examiner with positive attitude might overlook minor errors and put the students at ease and increase his comfort level.

An examiner with negative attitude may castigate the students for minor errors, may upset the student with his strict demeanour, make the student uncomfortable effecting his ultimate performance.

A smart student even after good and regular study looks for non-academic means to improve his/her performance in exams.

Exam Tip

One point is facial hair for male students. A clean-shaved face is likely to create a favourable impression than the one with the moustache. A face with a moustache is better than one with a beard. A face with an unkempt beard, 3-4 days old stubble gives the worst shabby appearance. The examiner may assume that this shabby appearance is a sign of a shabby mind. 

Therefore, don't think that a 3-4 day's unshaved face might impress the examiner that the student was studying so hard that he did not even have time for shaving. You are likely to create a negative image of a lazy and careless student.

Therefore go with a clean shaved shining face for a clean sweep shining performance in viva and interviews.

There is one exemption though if a student is having a beard for religious reason than the examiner is not likely to form a negative impression. But, go with a neat well-groomed beard. If permitted in your religion get it trimmed and shaped by barber before an exam.

— 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 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. 

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