Internal Medicine – Day 3

We had a substitute attending. Both the attendings I’ve worked with so far have been pretty young. Like late 20’s early 30’s looking. He was a super friendly guy with a very amicable and loose way of talking, as if we were his buddies and we were hanging at the bar. Except instead of beers we all had black coffee. And instead of sports, we were talking about anion gaps and how to spot right bundle branch block on an EKG. He put a lot of pressure on me when I was up to present my patient. He wanted me to read an x-ray and give a full assessment and plan for a patient, who I honestly had no idea what was going on. As we went through the presentation I maybe started to piece somethings together as processes were running in the background while I was speaking, trying not to repeat myself too much. When he actually asked for my assessment, I paused for a while, and stammered a bit, but eventually pulled a diagnosis out my ass, and he actually agreed. At first I thought he was doing one of those things where they just humor you at first as a teaching point and make you defend your case and describe your thought process even if you’re wrong. It felt good, and even for all the stress I had throughout the process I appreciate that he made me go through it and also didn’t make me feel too stupid when I said dumb things. Overall I’d say it was a good day for learning.