Chew 'em up, spit 'em out.

Today, Nicole and I headed a few towns over (just another little Miami suburb, really) to one of the OB's other offices. This one is a little more comfortable than his primary office; these patients are a little more high risk, but it's nowhere near as packed - which makes for some great study time. I mentioned before how I don't like having my plans changed, and I don't like having new folks monkey-wrench themselves into the comfortable rotation between Nicole, PA girl, Sub-I girl, and myself. Today, we received another student - this time from the University of Miami (Miller) School of Medicine. The first thing that rubbed me the wrong way about this girl was that she was wearing a long coat - at first, I thought she was the new OB who was working in that office. You see, that long coat signifies that you're either an M.D., P.A., or lab tech - we as medical students wear short-coats (they're actually called "consultation coats"), because to do otherwise would be misleading. So she introduced herself, and Nicole and I shared a "what-the-hell-is-she-doing" glance.

The next thing that rubbed me the wrong way was her tone. Despite the mind-numbing advances in technology and our triumph over [some of] the pestilential killers of yester-year, medicine is still a conservative old-boy's club. There's a certain amount of implicit politeness, of deference, of respect that should go into every word that issues forth from the mouths of lowly med students [and nurses]. Thus, it pissed me off a little when her tone was less than deferential - actually, it bordered on accusatory. A patient came in today with some pain on urination and supra-pubic tenderness. He examined her and had her pee in a cup for culture. The UM med student said something along the lines of "Aren't you going to do a UA (urinalysis) to rule out pyelonephritis?" First of all, generally, as a third year med student, our thinking is a few giant leaps behind the doctor's - if they didn't do it, there tends to be a damn good reason. Secondly, I know that we can microscopically check for casts and all.....but this woman presented with symptoms of cystitis, and since she was just pregnant, he wouldn't get a clean-catch for a UA anyway.

Apparently, when I was interviewing the patient with the OB, this new med student got a phone call from one of her professors who'd called to check on her site placement. Nicole and PA girl tell me she answered the phone with a "Hey", or a simple "Hi", instead of the expected "Good afternoon Dr. So-and-so". I know....that sounds incredibly picky....but it's one of those things that rubs me the wrong way.

UM must have some weird philosophies on medical education (at least now they do). Apparently, this girl will only be here for three days - she's not following him around like we do, but is rather being placed here and there - she'll be getting a few weeks in L&D, maybe a few in gynecology. She only did an afternoon with a pediatric endocrinologist, and some other asinine amount of time in something else. The fact of the matter is that, apparently, the program would rather expose them to a lot of stuff on a really broad scale, rather than have them get to know anything really well. *I slap my forehead, rolling my eyes* So anyway, this girl had scheduled some dinner plans today, and thus couldn't be available all evening. When questioned further about it, since the doc had to run, she said something along the lines of "I mean, I'm not going to drive back out here..." followed by obnoxious laughter. All of this after remarking that hypertension and diabetes bore her, and that during internal medicine, she wanted to dig her eyes out. I don't like her.

The icing on the cake, though, was when she admitted that she "screwed the pooch" (an epithet I'd never heard until today) on step 1, and so was getting a jump on Step 2. So this unprofessionally impolite, semi-lazy, arrogant US med student didn't do so hot on her boards? Rich, double chocolate icing on my cake. It may sound as if I have a chip on my shoulder, being a Ross student, and that her shortcomings validate me somehow - but this is what that icing really tastes like: if that is my competition, I shall feast like a king......if those are my opponents, I shall glut myself on the hordes of them. If that's what I'm up against, I'll eat 'em for breakfast!

In MERP, one of our junior faculty told us that Ross students were more dedicated because they had something to prove; they came earlier, stayed later, and worked harder. I'll climb over a hundred US med students to get to where I'm supposed to be - I guess that starts tomorrow!