Faking It

Don't let 'em see you sweat.  That was some kind of antiperspirant tag line, right?  Doesn't matter because it is pretty much universally applicable.  

Have them throw you a curve ball.  Have them present you with something unexpected.  Just play it off as though you've seen it five times a day every day for the last twenty years.  

On my first day as an intern, I saw another doctor anesthetize a patient's groin, stick a large bore needle into the femoral vein, thread a wire into it then pass a larger needle over the wire to gain access to a large vessel.  Afterwards, she said, "You're doing the next one."

I learned two things.  First, don't ever get sick in August and if you do, don't go to a training hospital.  Second, for a patient's peace of mind, deception is not always a bad thing.  I didn't tell him it was my first central line.  I didn't tell him it was my first day.  I went in with an air of confidence, non-verbally presenting myself as seasoned.

I wasn't as quick.  I wasn't as adept.  I wasn't as neat.  Actually, it was a little bloody.  But, in the end, the patient got the central line.

It was the same with my first heart attack, my first cardiopulmonary arrest, my first seizure...been there, old hat, done that.

And ten years later, things are generally not too surprising.  It really has become been there, done that.  Usually...

I gotta say, however, that the shy twenty-one year old girl who had come in for a routine physical got my sweat glands working overtime: "Can I ask kind of a weird question?  How do I have anal sex?"

Comments

[ThatGuy]

Well, that's certainly a subject that you won't have to fake. LOL

[gwyneth cornrow]

well, what did you tell her?

[wnovg jyanrv]

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