OB was hellish for me, as well. Although, I had the coolest gyn attending. He told me he enjoyed having me on the rotation and added, “…but gyn isn’t your thing.”
“Was it that noticeable”, I replied.
“Your pap technique was like a blind man in a fencing competition.”
So true. Rule and protocol driven medicine without regard for the human as well as early conditioning to back stab and abuse our fellow doctors. One can see it playing out daily.
I once got a really bad evaluation on a Peds Endo rotation in my 4th year of med school. The evaluation ripped me apart for constantly falling asleep during the lectures. It wasn't me, it was the 3rd year medical student. Nevermind I am a white female and he was an Indian male. You wouldn't think they would confuse us, but they did. Same response: We don't change evaluations.
I did my month-long OB/Gyn rotation at a very prestigious West coast medical school in about 1998. My experience was so similar, that today I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. I was actually very fired up about OB/Gyn and considering it as my career path. On my first call night in labor and delivery, the chief resident told me point blank that I should choose another career because "we really don't want any more men going into this field." Perhaps that's because the attendings were a couple old guys who were either suffering dementia or just totally divorced from reality. At the same time, one of my colleagues- a brilliant woman very gung-ho on OB/Gyn- was singled out by the female OB residents for a deficient evaluation because of how she dressed during the rotation. The offense was that she sometimes wore clean, stylish cowboy boots. The rest of us got word-for-word the exact same evaluation; it was a 3-sentence generic evaluation that apparently had been given by the department to every passing medical school student for the last year, whether they were great or scraping by. The OB/Gyns I know today are very nice and collegial and I am at a loss to explain how they got that way.
Ha ha fun story! UCLA ‘75. We med students were treated pretty well on the floors, expected to be seen and not heard and to stay out of the way, of so little use we were not worth abusing. I never did figure out how we were evaluated—ask a semi-intelligent question now and then? Interest? Curiosity? Manners? Energy? Probably all of those.
Maybe you came through after the worst of it, but to me the most egregious abuse was the hours we worked as interns. Some services were every other day with night call. You’d get off after morning rounds, so it was like on 28 hours off 20 for a month. Unsafe for the patients and no good for us. Glad that paradigm collapsed.
My OB-Gyn rotation in med school in the mid 70’s had an attending who written a textbook and bragged that he was too tough for any female resident to succeed. I knew I was not going into that specialty but the female senior resident was and when her frustration overflowed she would disappear to the roof for an hour with a fencing foil. We assumed We knew who was getting an imaginary skewering.
As a med student was told I would need to repeat a short ENT rotation and forego graduating for not attending rounds. In fact it was the attending that never conducted rounds. I went crazy on anyone that would listen. Finally the decision was reversed.
That is simultaneously so hilarious and so maddening! Nicely written, Vinay! My takeaway is to avoid blindly trusting any one given medical professional (always get second, or more, opinions) or health organizations (always find out what Vinay 😆, or another intellectually honest doctor, thinks about the policy) because ego and fallibility are always at play. Reinforces what the pandemic taught me! And also applies to all institutions, because—humans.
I cringed at the idea of sliding a card over after a positive interaction but I am pretty sure this is how nurses rack up those daisy awards.
Makes me appreciate going to UCLA school of dentistry.—1977-1981.
Friendly, helpful, collegial atmosphere with our professors and instructors. They were there to help you graduate and become a great dentist.
Unfortunately, most other Dental schools I had heard were consistent with your experience.
OB was hellish for me, as well. Although, I had the coolest gyn attending. He told me he enjoyed having me on the rotation and added, “…but gyn isn’t your thing.”
“Was it that noticeable”, I replied.
“Your pap technique was like a blind man in a fencing competition.”
So true. Rule and protocol driven medicine without regard for the human as well as early conditioning to back stab and abuse our fellow doctors. One can see it playing out daily.
And that sums up our healthcare system. Bring a lawyer with you everywhere you go. You’re going to need one.
Bad news is, the medical facility treating you will have 5 of their own.
Still trying to figure out why healthcare costs so much.
NOT
I once got a really bad evaluation on a Peds Endo rotation in my 4th year of med school. The evaluation ripped me apart for constantly falling asleep during the lectures. It wasn't me, it was the 3rd year medical student. Nevermind I am a white female and he was an Indian male. You wouldn't think they would confuse us, but they did. Same response: We don't change evaluations.
The OB residents would refer to us students as dirtbags. As in “which of you dirtbags want to come see this surgery?”
I did my month-long OB/Gyn rotation at a very prestigious West coast medical school in about 1998. My experience was so similar, that today I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. I was actually very fired up about OB/Gyn and considering it as my career path. On my first call night in labor and delivery, the chief resident told me point blank that I should choose another career because "we really don't want any more men going into this field." Perhaps that's because the attendings were a couple old guys who were either suffering dementia or just totally divorced from reality. At the same time, one of my colleagues- a brilliant woman very gung-ho on OB/Gyn- was singled out by the female OB residents for a deficient evaluation because of how she dressed during the rotation. The offense was that she sometimes wore clean, stylish cowboy boots. The rest of us got word-for-word the exact same evaluation; it was a 3-sentence generic evaluation that apparently had been given by the department to every passing medical school student for the last year, whether they were great or scraping by. The OB/Gyns I know today are very nice and collegial and I am at a loss to explain how they got that way.
Best one I've read today!
Ha ha fun story! UCLA ‘75. We med students were treated pretty well on the floors, expected to be seen and not heard and to stay out of the way, of so little use we were not worth abusing. I never did figure out how we were evaluated—ask a semi-intelligent question now and then? Interest? Curiosity? Manners? Energy? Probably all of those.
Maybe you came through after the worst of it, but to me the most egregious abuse was the hours we worked as interns. Some services were every other day with night call. You’d get off after morning rounds, so it was like on 28 hours off 20 for a month. Unsafe for the patients and no good for us. Glad that paradigm collapsed.
LOVE this one Vinay. Freakin hilarious! The class of student/trainees don't understand just how great they have it
My OB-Gyn rotation in med school in the mid 70’s had an attending who written a textbook and bragged that he was too tough for any female resident to succeed. I knew I was not going into that specialty but the female senior resident was and when her frustration overflowed she would disappear to the roof for an hour with a fencing foil. We assumed We knew who was getting an imaginary skewering.
Perfect allegory.
As a med student was told I would need to repeat a short ENT rotation and forego graduating for not attending rounds. In fact it was the attending that never conducted rounds. I went crazy on anyone that would listen. Finally the decision was reversed.
Good for you!
That is simultaneously so hilarious and so maddening! Nicely written, Vinay! My takeaway is to avoid blindly trusting any one given medical professional (always get second, or more, opinions) or health organizations (always find out what Vinay 😆, or another intellectually honest doctor, thinks about the policy) because ego and fallibility are always at play. Reinforces what the pandemic taught me! And also applies to all institutions, because—humans.
As I used to say to my students, and then my sons, “fair is something that comes around once a year with turkey legs”…