Surgery Flashback

"I told Dr.K I didn't want medical students, but he's making me take you guys." - Dr. R

That's how my classmate and I were greeted this morning as we started our first day of adolescent psychiatry. Not exactly welcoming, but I chose to ignore that statement. My last two weeks of psych have been awesome, and every psychiatrist I met has involved us med students.

Right after Dr. R said that to us, he went on to teach us quite a bit about adolescents. It didn't seem at all like he didn't want us there, so I actually felt quite comfortable when the time came to see patients.

Our first teenager had run away from home. Through her interview we learned a bit about past sexual and physical abuse, anger towards a parent, trouble with school... the typical profile for a teen psych patient.

When Dr. R finished, he asked the social worker if she had any more questions for the patient. She had a couple. Afterwards, she looked up towards my classmate and me. I wanted some more details on the patient's siblings and home life, so I went ahead and asked questions.

Through my questioning, we discovered some intense physical abuse toward the patient and her siblings. After I finished and the patient left, Dr. R turned towards me and my classmate (but more specifically me) and bitched us out.

"I ask a very specific set of questions. These are MY patients. I don't need a PCP running her mouth asking a whole bunch of questions. It reveals a whole bunch of problems that may need to be addressed, and I've already decided what I want to handle. Asking more questions adds MORE WORK that I DON'T want to do."

I felt like I was back on my surgery rotation. I was flabbergasted and immediately retreated... just like I did on surgery. My classmate, too, was in awe of what just happened. He shut up too.

But I don't regret what I did. The only extra "WORK" I added to his workload was a 2 second phone call to DHS to investigate the situation. How dare anyone complain about something as important as keeping a child safe?

I am beyond shocked at what happens to children that brings them into the psychiatry unit, so there is no way in hell I'm going to shut up when help is available.

Fuck You, Dr. R.