Today I got to do my very first full genealogical exam
unassisted while being observed by our assigned babysitter. I was pretty
confident that I had everything under control and that I could handle the
situation just fine given that I have only performed one speculum exam and
no pap smears in the past 6 weeks of my OB/Gyn rotation.
I got everything organized and then went to grab the gloves. I
couldn’t find them. I looked all over the cart and then because this was the
first time in this office and to speed things up asked the doctor quite
innocently enough I thought, “where are the gloves?”
The guy kind of freaked out. Apparently asking questions in front
of patients scares them and undermines our roles as medical providers. I
was supposed to ask all questions pertaining to the exam before the patient
came into the room.
A two minute lecture ensued which centered on the topic of
destroying patient confidence in our abilities to do our jobs. I’ve been yelled
at enough that it generally doesn’t bother me, but this doctor definately
succeeded in scaring the dickens out of me for a second or two. Who knows what
this momentary “freak out” did to the patient who was lying on the bed spread
eagle for the entire thing.
He never answered my question so I after that I spent another
minute looking for the stupid things. As it happens the gloves were on the
ultrasound machine behind the screen and covered in a bunch of used speculum
packaging. My question was legitimate.
I
feel bad for the patient, but I’m still laughing about the whole situation. I
mean seriously?
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