Yet Another Third Year Phenomenon

[AmoryBlaine]

I have yet to see this described anywhere on these boards...

The Chief Resident Walk

As an M3, you will not be allowed to walk next to a Chief Resident in the hallway, said Chief will always be several steps ahead of you. The Chief accomplishes this by an exaggeratedly fast walk and you cannot possibly keep up. It is obvioulsy not kosher to actually break into a run on rounds so your only hope is to walk as fast as possible. My theory is that at the end of each day the Chiefs gather in the basement for a one-hour session of griping about med students and working out on elliptical machines and StairMasters.

If you don't believe me try to walk next to your Chief all day tommorrow, you will be gasping for air and searching for the nearest tube of Icy-Hot by 11:00am.

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[Flobber]

I have yet to see this described anywhere on these boards...

The Chief Resident Walk

As an M3, you will not be allowed to walk next to a Chief Resident in the hallway, said Chief will always be several steps ahead of you. The Chief accomplishes this by an exaggeratedly fast walk and you cannot possibly keep up. It is obvioulsy not kosher to actually break into a run on rounds so your only hope is to walk as fast as possible. My theory is that at the end of each day the Chiefs gather in the basement for a one-hour session of griping about med students and working out on elliptical machines and StairMasters.

If you don't believe me try to walk next to your Chief all day tommorrow, you will be gasping for air and searching for the nearest tube of Icy-Hot by 11:00am.

hilariously true.

 

[Bobblehead]

The difference between salaried and hourly pay employees in the hospital is how fast they walk. In general all doctors will walk quickly because the sooner all the work is done, the sooner they get to go home.

 

[littlepurplepil]

I actually did break into a jog trying to follow after my R3 once...I got quite a chuckle from the nurses and residents hanging around the nursing station who saw me dart after his flapping white coat-tails.

 

[AmoryBlaine]

I actually did break into a jog trying to follow after my R3 once...I got quite a chuckle from the nurses and residents hanging around the nursing station who saw me dart after his flapping white coat-tails.

That's just what they want you to do.

 

[loveumms]

Just ask them to slow it down a little. I'm a 5'1'' girl who has legs that are short - short. Last year when some of the surgery residents would get going I would just say "hey, could you slow it down a tad - I'm much shorter and slower and can't run to keep up". Most of them chuckled and slowed down - I'm sure I was the butt of some jokes but, don't care as long as I'm not running after super speed walkers.

 

[tr]

If you don't believe me try to walk next to your Chief all day tommorrow, you will be gasping for air and searching for the nearest tube of Icy-Hot by 11:00am.

Why are you guys following your residents around all day?
Don't you have your own stuff to do?

 

[velo]

The difference between salaried and hourly pay employees in the hospital is how fast they walk. In general all doctors will walk quickly because the sooner all the work is done, the sooner they get to go home.

damn that's true, but I never made the connection between salary vs. hourly until you mentioned it...I just thought the slow walkers were lazy.

you can really tell walking in in the mornings...heading down the long corridor I fly past non-physician employees and patient's families but am more or less on pace with physicians and other students

then again I'm 6'4" with most of hte height in my legs, so I can really cook when I need to

 

[Dunce]

Just ask them to slow it down a little. I'm a 5'1'' girl who has legs that are short - short. Last year when some of the surgery residents would get going I would just say "hey, could you slow it down a tad - I'm much shorter and slower and can't run to keep up". Most of them chuckled and slowed down - I'm sure I was the butt of some jokes but, don't care as long as I'm not running after super speed walkers.

If my name were Chuck Darwin, I would predict that you will not be a surgeon.

 

[Flobber]

Why are you guys following your residents around all day?
Don't you have your own stuff to do?

Ah, the obligatory tough-guy post. Yes, we're all lazy leeches except for you, you trail-blazing pioneer. None of us have found our own way yet as students, where you simply show up on the wards and start PRODUCING. You are a god among men. Bravo.

 

[werd]

hmm, our chief residents take hours each week to teach us stuff and stop us in the halls to ask if there's anything that could be done better...

 

[tr]

Ah, the obligatory tough-guy post. Yes, we're all lazy leeches except for you, you trail-blazing pioneer. None of us have found our own way yet as students, where you simply show up on the wards and start PRODUCING. You are a god among men. Bravo.

wtf??

 

[THP]

wtf??

you gotta admit that's how you came off.

 

[velo]

hmm, our chief residents take hours each week to teach us stuff and stop us in the halls to ask if there's anything that could be done better...

oh yeah ours too, the chiefs are uber-nice and seem to regard teaching as one of their primary responsibilities. Chief resident's rounds always have great, useful stuff.

I just love the observation that, other than doctors, people in the hospital walk soooo..... f*cking.... slooooow.......

 

[tr]

you gotta admit that's how you came off.

OK kids, sorry for offending. Aren't we a little sensitive. Jeez.

But seriously, this is my 5th rotation (I'm off sequence, having taken time off for research) and at no point did any of my residents require me to follow them around like a little puppy dog. The way it works here is you see your patients, preround with the residents, then present to the attending during rounds. After that the med student, intern, and resident split up all the scutwork and meet back at various points during the day to compare notes and deal with recent developments. Of course if you're observing or learning a procedure then you do that together with the intern or resident.

I'm happy with this arrangement and frankly I'd be more than a little upset if some resident decided I should just follow him around all day. If I were you guys I would rebel.

(And btw I have never noticed the 'hierarchy' thing on ambulatory rounds either. Order of walking is random and varies over time, as with any group of people. Maybe I just lucked out with an egalitarian hospital.)

 

[esposo]

Ah, the obligatory tough-guy post. Yes, we're all lazy leeches except for you, you trail-blazing pioneer. None of us have found our own way yet as students, where you simply show up on the wards and start PRODUCING. You are a god among men. Bravo.

[Standing Ovation] Well done! I too can't stand people like that.

 

[SoCuteMD]

I'm a shortie (5'0") but can keep up with any speedwalker due to being raised in a Northeastern city!

Thanks Mom and Dad!

 

[renox9]

I thought the whole point of the original post was that they walk fast during ROUNDS.....do you not follow rounds?? Wow, you really ARE independent.

OK kids, sorry for offending. Aren't we a little sensitive. Jeez.

But seriously, this is my 5th rotation (I'm off sequence, having taken time off for research) and at no point did any of my residents require me to follow them around like a little puppy dog. The way it works here is you see your patients, preround with the residents, then present to the attending during rounds. After that the med student, intern, and resident split up all the scutwork and meet back at various points during the day to compare notes and deal with recent developments. Of course if you're observing or learning a procedure then you do that together with the intern or resident.

I'm happy with this arrangement and frankly I'd be more than a little upset if some resident decided I should just follow him around all day. If I were you guys I would rebel.

(And btw I have never noticed the 'hierarchy' thing on ambulatory rounds either. Order of walking is random and varies over time, as with any group of people. Maybe I just lucked out with an egalitarian hospital.)

 

[tr]

I thought the whole point of the original post was that they walk fast during ROUNDS.....do you not follow rounds?? Wow, you really ARE independent.

All right, snarky. The OP specified "all day" in his post, implying also during not-rounds. Unless he is actually rounding all day, which is unlikely unless he has the misfortune to be on his neuro rotation.

Okay children, you can all stop being offended now. It's really all right. You don't all have to spring to defend your med student honor against a two-line throwaway post on an internet forum. Save your energy for following your residents.

 

[Mr. McDuck]

I follow mine with a bucket so he doesn't have to stop to use the bathroom.

 

[DoctorPardi]

I've noticed the brisk pace in shadowing a surgeon doing rounds. He is flying from room 332 to 367, then shooting up stairs to give a consult on someone else's patient. No elevators involved.

 

[Mr. McDuck]

Elevators take too long. I once stood in the elevator lobby for almost 10 minutes before one finally came. Luckily, this was early in the morning when I didn't have to be anywhere.

 

[VincentAdultman]

All right, snarky. The OP specified "all day" in his post, implying also during not-rounds. Unless he is actually rounding all day, which is unlikely unless he has the misfortune to be on his neuro rotation.

Okay children, you can all stop being offended now. It's really all right. You don't all have to spring to defend your med student honor against a two-line throwaway post on an internet forum. Save your energy for following your residents.

Lot of that all day rounding bullsht on int medicine

 

[tr]

Lot of that all day rounding bullsht on int medicine

Might depend on the hospital. Our int med rounds were usually pretty focused. Neuro rounds inevitably degenerated into the attending pontificating endlessly about some clinically irrelevant detail while everyone else in the room zoned. It was painful.

 

[carrigallen]

Painful moments:

1. When a fellow medical student spends like 10-15 minutes presenting a patient..and ends up missing the critical points in the history. ugghh there's something to be said for brevity.

2. Medical student cuts & pastes UptoDate text into powerpoint, and then reads word for word off the slides. Highly educational.

3. Attending begins an impromptu lecture by drawing the Loop of Henle below my progress note instead of signing it. He burns through three pages of the patient's chart with scribbles of nephrons.

4. Medical student worried about whether he heard an S4 or a split S2 in a patient being discharged to hospice for lung cancer with painful bony metastases. Same medical student is concerned that patient is not on a statin for high cholesterol.

 

[dynx]

Painful moments:

1. 4. Medical student worried about whether he heard an S4 or a split S2

thats a hell of a split.

 

[Caffeinated]

When I was on vascular, I considered getting one of those Razor scooters for rounds. I was going to strap it on my back, and then when I got too far behind I would break it out. I still chuckle when I think about how well that would have gone over with the team.

 

[Dr. J?]

Painful moments:
4. Medical student worried about whether he heard an S4 or a split S2 in a patient being discharged to hospice for lung cancer with painful bony metastases. Same medical student is concerned that patient is not on a statin for high cholesterol.

 

[Dunce]

When I was on vascular, I considered getting one of those Razor scooters for rounds. I was going to strap it on my back, and then when I got too far behind I would break it out. I still chuckle when I think about how well that would have gone over with the team.

Just get some of those shoes with the hidden wheels inside so you can skate around the wards like those 12 yr olds that I see scooting down the aisles at Target all the time.

 

[SLUser11]

Lot of that all day rounding bullsht on int medicine

"That guy's a d!ck."

"Yeah well he got the highest Step One score in the class!"


Is that an actual quote, or is that the dialogue you hope goes on about you behind your back?

 

[HouseHead]

Our chief just today told me she has to remind herself that 3rd years are m u c h s l o w e r than residents are. I have to switch gears at the hospital, because I'm used to having to *slow down* to walk with my husband, who is 6'2" with legs up to his neck!

 

[m1234d]

another phen i noticed: the chief residents mumble. so i'm on sugery (week 1) and i'm trying to get the plan during rounds. and even if i stand DIRECTLY NEXT TO my chief resident, i still have no idea what he is saying during rounds. the senior gets it, the interns get it. the other student is also lost, so i don't think it's me. i can't wait until i'm a chief resident so i can mumble and laugh at the ms3s over there trying to have any idea what is going on. kidding.