Pre-Med Pro-tip #34059: Being nice to hospital staff, including non-physicians

[n3xa]

You'd think this would be fairly obvious, but apparently not as I was informed otherwise this morning in regards to a student of mine.

And the reason why I am posting this in the non-trads section is that I deal with post-bacc students.

I don't think being nice to hospital staff, particularly ones that are doing YOU a favor (ie LETTING YOU SHADOW), is an unreasonable expectation to have. Is it? Have I really gone mad?

*deep breath*

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[FrkyBgStok]

i agree. i work as a transporter at the hospital, which on the hierarchy of the hospital, may be the only thing under med student (lol). Many of my coworkers get in arguments with nurses, doctors, etc. and i can't help but think, "seriously, all of these people can torch your career." as a transporter I am fairly close with an ER secretary. She is in turn very close to all of the ER doctors. So you never know who is connected with who in the hospital. Always be nice to everyone. I have seen housekeepers eating in the cafeteria with doctors. You really never know.

 

[medceg]

Pre-Med Pro-tip #34060a
Be nice to everyone you meet because you never know what or who will come back to bite you in the ass.

Pre-Med Pro-tip #34060b
"The true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good." ~ Ann Landers

 

[vc7777]

You'd think this would be fairly obvious, but apparently not as I was informed otherwise this morning in regards to a student of mine.

I sense you are grappling with how exactly to de-identify this scenario enough to make it anonymous for posting when in fact the sheer audacity / heinousness of the situation is rather unique. I, for one, have COMPLETE faith in your ability to do so. I look forward to the details that precipitated this thread in the very near future.

 

[Nasrudin]

Pre-Med Pro-tip #34060a
Be nice to everyone you meet because you never know what or who will come back to bite you in the ass.

Pre-Med Pro-tip #34060b
"The true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good." ~ Ann Landers

Nice. And thread too.

I couldn't agree more. Being nice to the evaluating class but not others is blatant horribleness. No one in the upper offices gives a f@ck enough to deselect these war criminals.

If ever there's a violent nasrudin d'etat of the medical establishment. I will hang all of these sycophants by sundown.

 

[n3xa]

I sense you are grappling with how exactly to de-identify this scenario enough to make it anonymous for posting when in fact the sheer audacity / heinousness of the situation is rather unique. I, for one, have COMPLETE faith in your ability to do so. I look forward to the details that precipitated this thread in the very near future.

Sort of. People in my program know who I am on here (I told them) and in between the internetlulz.jpegs there's enough info to put two and two together. And there's a good lesson to be learned from all of this. One dean at a particular local medical school always talks about how applications get automatically tossed if an applicant is rude to *anyone* in the admissions department during app season. I dig it.

Perhaps teh deets can be taken to pms after tomorrow.

 

[eablackwell]

Pre-Med Pro-tip #34060a
Be nice to everyone you meet because you never know what or who will come back to bite you in the ass.

Pre-Med Pro-tip #34060b
"The true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good." ~ Ann Landers

This applies when you are the interview trail as well. Be nice to the people at the front desk, and pretty much everyone you meet. Being rude to anyone is bad news.

 

[Nasrudin]

Sort of. People in my program know who I am on here (I told them) and in between the internetlulz.jpegs there's enough info to put two and two together. And there's a good lesson to be learned from all of this. One dean at a particular local medical school always talks about how applications get automatically tossed if an applicant is rude to *anyone* in the admissions department during app season. I dig it.

Perhaps teh deets can be taken to pms after tomorrow.

Good for the dean. But unfortunately that's an extremely low sensitive screen. Your basically talking about immaturity and lack of focus in a subset of a larger pool of the insincere, disingenuous, and malevolent personalities.

What never fails to amaze me about medical culture is the inverse selection of people who master a certain type insincerity. Subconsciously from years of behavior modification. My information has deans waxing poetic about the academic potential of borderline autistics or worse....

It's not a majority. But a large portion can mask ****ty personalities with well-practiced schmarm. And do spankingly well.

I'm hoping wards catch some. But from what I'm hearing. The desire for people up the chain to have their butts licked outweighs any possible neutralizing effect of ill behavior.

So. In short. The person who didn't get in at said school. Will somewhere else with enough practice. Grades, MCAT, and schmarm. Will get you to the top 99% of the time--that's an official N-value statistic.

In medicine. It's really up to the individual to swim upstream. To not be an @sshole. And to treat people lower on the ladder with respect and dignity.

 

[n3xa]

I sense you are grappling with how exactly to de-identify this scenario enough to make it anonymous for posting when in fact the sheer audacity / heinousness of the situation is rather unique. I, for one, have COMPLETE faith in your ability to do so. I look forward to the details that precipitated this thread in the very near future.

LOL.

I set up shadowing experiences for pre-health students (mostly post-baccs, some undergrads) at a local hospital. Must be nice not having to hustle for a shadowing spot, ain't it (I recall familyaerospace's blog involving driving 3 hours and cold-calling a bajillion people)? In order for students to get cleared they have to go through HR and EHS first.

Perhaps working in an all-male lab back in the total synthesis days hardened my personality a bit, but there are certain things I just can't tolerate, and acting out at this point in people's careers/lives is one of them.

 

[shantster]

This applies when you are the interview trail as well. Be nice to the people at the front desk, and pretty much everyone you meet. Being rude to anyone is bad news.

Very very true. I tour guide at my school and we are given a list of the names of people and put in any comments about them that get put into the application file that they see when discussing them. Usually groups are great, but I had one group last week where I had one person that was interested and the rest a so-so group, including a person who was very obviously disinterested. Luckily the one person was good but I've had some other groups where the whole group acts like that before we started giving feedback. It's completely a waste of my time if you don't act like you want to be there.

 

[mafunk]

Yes, I agree that we students should be grateful to those medical professional who allow us to shadow them. In my experience the folks I work with/shadow are quite nice to work under.

One exception, I volunteered in transport at the hospital for one day... but I stepped down immediately because the situation there was the person that was training me (transport tech) talked AT me like I was 5 years old. I think he was trying to be helpful, but I think he also had a need to prove how important his job was. I mean really dude, I don't need a 30 minute remedial dissertation on how to make a gurney.

The other two places that I (still) volunteer are great. They take the time to teach me stuff and let me help out, which I appreciate greatly.

 

[n3xa]

Wow. I just received an email from a student whining about how they really would've preferred to have shadowed a plastic surgeon and was a bit miffed about having to set that up on their own.



Let's just forget the fact that I arranged three separate dates for you to hang out in the hospital, twice IN THE OR.

I find it very difficult to deal with situations like this, especially ones that involve people who are trying to go into the same field (medicine). When I have my HIV counselor hat on and dealing with clients, my dynamic/outlook is completely different.

In better news, I am now the proud owner of this tshirt, which will be going under my scrub top for anatomy lab this summer. Gunners gonna gun. SOCAL COME AT ME BRAH.

 

[UpwardTrend]

Wow, unbelievable. I send a thank you not to my volunteer coordinator at the end of each semester and chat in her office often to let her know how great my experiences are. Maybe thats why I am either in the ER or OR every semester. Once I'm on my volunteer gig, I am pollite to everyone in the room/department. I can't imagine not being grateful for the opportunity. Now that I'm in the OR, its the techs and CRNA's that have taught me the most and who will go out of their way. Anyone who disrespects an allied health staff, especially as a pre-med, should be blacklisted. They shouldn't even be volunteering in the gift shop IMO. Kids these days...