December 11, 2009

• A moment

  A short list of the people who helped influence my medical personality along the way. Even though I doubt any of them will ever read this, I wanted it set down somewhere so I dont forget. And now, in no particular order

  Raj Kalsi: My resident during my 3rd year trauma surgery rotation at Masonic. Hated every moment of trauma, loved the team. Thank you for not only treating me like an equal instead of your scut monkey, but of showing me the importance of documenting documenting documenting everything you think say or do with the patient for a medicolegal standpoint, and of how to befriend the nurses so you dont get quite as many bullshit pages overnight. You showed me how to make even terrible rotations or parts of rotations fun, and are one of the residents who I have tried to model myself after

  Jonathan Davidorf: Not only one of my wonderful physicians, but one of the ones who had a pretty significant amount of influence on my remaining determination as I powered through. You helped show me what the business and private practice side of medicine is like, and took a chance on a young college premed student looking for some experience, and turned him into a trained opthalmic surgical technician with a skillset and ability to learn from my mistakes and criticism. While you may not always have been the best boss, I would still send my family and friends to you as an amazing doctor

  Michael Lotke: For a while you had me seriously considering pediatrics as a field because you made it so entertaining. You showed me that it was okay for a physician to have outside interests like performing, or cooking, or whatever else helped to keep me sane outside the job. Pimping was never about making the student feel bad, it was about engaging their curiousity and getting us to think before we acted. You were also one of the few physicians who took the time to teach us as students what to do when patients died: how to talk to the family, how to take some time for yourself to let it all sink in, and how to accept that it is going to happen and its just another part of the job

  Charles McCormick: My first real medical school professor, you taught me physiology from the old school busting out a dry erase pen and light board while everyone else was in the world of powerpoint and electronic aid teaching. One of the few people who genuinely had an open door policy, I never felt any hesitation about wandering in and chatting with you if I had a question or just wanted to say hello. You helped show me that teaching could be as important as learning, and both could be enjoyable when done by someone interested in the subject material

  Dad: One of the only non-medical professionals on this list, you supported me from the beginning without ever pushing me into medicine. I got the feeling I could have been painting on a street corner, making soup in culinary school or doing research to cure cancer and you would have been equally proud. While you did not live long enough to see me make it all the way into med school, you saw me slip in the back door and a desire to make you proud after your death continues to push me to constantly improve myself, and helps keep me honest. You showed through your action two of the most important lessons I probably carry around in my head as a doctor, that a person is only as good as their word, and just because you dont like someone is no reason to be rude to them, and if that doesnt sum up how I get through most days, I dont know what does.

  The List goes on, and this entry was more for me than for anyone else reading, but in case you guys were wondering what shaped me, above is a brief but important subset of people who had a pretty big hand in it.

  • 1:43 am
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