Post: #1

OP Demographics
24 years old
Lives in UK
Black
Male
Junior Doctor

The Issue

Just started working in the NHS. Most of my colleagues are female. Including Doctors, Nurses and Physios, men are outnumbered 4:1 at best. I have this attitude to work, I have worked in labs and have held summer jobs in the past:

Never voice opinions
Focus on the doing the job
Never challenge other peoples opinions
Avoid drama and bert-face/short answers to those who create drama
Be polite
Remember peoples' names
Never brag
Give praise freely, accept feedback humbly
Never talk about personal life or personal beliefs
Never get personal, never take things personally

Impressions

What is wrong with this approach? My attitude at work is more Eric Forman from House than Turk from Scrubs. I'm not here to be entertainment. I'm not here to fool around.I aim to be serious, competent and hard-working. I leave my personal phone at home for this very reason. It helps me remain focused. People have said I'm intense, serious, focused but it's got me this far, so why change?

How can I modify this outlook for this place of work?

All opinions are welcome,

thedarknight

Post: #2

Sorry, I misinterpreted your request.

Good luck with the job! You do just fine.

Post: #3

I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but I don't see what the issue is. You have your mindset right, and you're doing the right things. A few people make comments in passing that you seem serious, focused. Ok. Tell them thank you, yes I am. I don't see why you're concerned. Keep doing what you have been. Don't worry how a few people perceive you, especially since its not even negatively.

Post: #4

Sound like my father.

Where do you fall in the hierarchy? I'm assuming you're not a doctor .

Overall, if you're a no nonsense man who cuts straight to business you'll be very appreciated in that environment. Female nurses and doctors are the worst.

Post: #5

(08-12-2015 10:27 AM)The Beast1 Wrote:  Sound like my father.

Where do you fall in the hierarchy? I'm assuming you're not a doctor .

Overall, if you're a no nonsense man who cuts straight to business you'll be very appreciated in that environment. Female nurses and doctors are the worst.

I'm a doctor. This is my first job out of medical school. Started last week.

I guessed as much.

Post: #6

You didn't mention anything about your patients.

You are there for your patients, not the hierarchy. That's something important to remember.

Anyway, this is stuff I wished I knew when I was a junior doctor. Use at your own risk, though, I've never worked in the NHS so maybe my advice is not appropriate:

Master the art of being kind to your patients. Kindness has a powerful placebo effect. A good doctor should be a placebo effect in and of himself.

Remember to shut up and listen. Don't interrupt your patients, unless they are well and truly rambling on and on. Even then, give yourself five seconds before interrupting.

Be aware that patients improve their stories with each telling. They will tell you, the junior doctor, a draft version. Then they will tell your senior a revised and improved version. They will then tell the professor a definitive version, which may barely resemble the initial version they told you. You may be accused of poor history taking because of this phenomenon.

If you're not making mistakes you are not learning. Unfortunately, you will never get good at saving lives without unintentionally killing a few people on the way. Make peace with God or else start getting philosophical, because the realisation that you killed/lost someone is very very very hard to accept (see http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/03/19/...290.html).

Remember, one day you too will grow old, sick and die. Each of your patients is a mirror in which you see your future self. Stay humble.

Don't take the senior levels of doctors in a hospital too seriously. A lot of these guys are bullshitters. Good doctors are too busy being doctors to waste time on teaching/professorship. Remember, those who can are busy doing, those who can't are the ones teaching.

Remember that textbooks are not written by experienced, busy doctors, because busy doctors are too busy seeing patients to waste time writing books. The only doctors who have time to write textbooks are the one who are seeing fewer patients, and are therefore less experienced. Therefore, textbooks often carry misleading and sometimes wrong information.

Medicine is an art informed by science. I have made some breakthrough diagnoses for my patients by listening to my intuition. Guidelines sometimes guide you in the wrong direction. As you gain clinical experience, start listening to your gut.

Patients generally sue for malpractice when they don't like you. They generally don't like you because you didn't shut up and listen.

Don't be too competent. As the most junior person, you will be dumped with work until you break. Deliberately underperform so that your seniors don't dump work on you.

Post: #7

(08-12-2015 11:03 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  You didn't mention anything about your patients.

You are there for your patients, not the hierarchy. That's something important to remember.

Anyway, this is stuff I wished I knew when I was a junior doctor. Use at your own risk, though, I've never worked in the NHS so maybe my advice is not appropriate:

Master the art of being kind to your patients. Kindness has a powerful placebo effect. A good doctor should be a placebo effect in and of himself.

Remember to shut up and listen. Don't interrupt your patients, unless they are well and truly rambling on and on. Even then, give yourself five seconds before interrupting.

Be aware that patients improve their stories with each telling. They will tell you, the junior doctor, a draft version. Then they will tell your senior a revised and improved version. They will then tell the professor a definitive version, which may barely resemble the initial version they told you. You may be accused of poor history taking because of this phenomenon.

If you're not making mistakes you are not learning. Unfortunately, you will never get good at saving lives without unintentionally killing a few people on the way. Make peace with God or else start getting philosophical, because the realisation that you killed/lost someone is very very very hard to accept (see http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/03/19/...290.html).

Remember, one day you too will grow old, sick and die. Each of your patients is a mirror in which you see your future self. Stay humble.

Don't take the senior levels of doctors in a hospital too seriously. A lot of these guys are bullshitters. Good doctors are too busy being doctors to waste time on teaching/professorship. Remember, those who can are busy doing, those who can't are the ones teaching.

Remember that textbooks are not written by experienced, busy doctors, because busy doctors are too busy seeing patients to waste time writing books. The only doctors who have time to write textbooks are the one who are seeing fewer patients, and are therefore less experienced. Therefore, textbooks often carry misleading and sometimes wrong information.

Medicine is an art informed by science. I have made some breakthrough diagnoses for my patients by listening to my intuition. Guidelines sometimes guide you in the wrong direction. As you gain clinical experience, start listening to your gut.

Patients generally sue for malpractice when they don't like you. They generally don't like you because you didn't shut up and listen.

Don't be too competent. As the most junior person, you will be dumped with work until you break. Deliberately underperform so that your seniors don't dump work on you.

Amazing. I bolded the bits that resonated most strongly with me.

Post: #8

(08-12-2015 10:40 AM)thedarkknight Wrote:  

(08-12-2015 10:27 AM)The Beast1 Wrote:  Sound like my father.

Where do you fall in the hierarchy? I'm assuming you're not a doctor .

Overall, if you're a no nonsense man who cuts straight to business you'll be very appreciated in that environment. Female nurses and doctors are the worst.

I'm a doctor. This is my first job out of medical school. Started last week.

I guessed as much.

Sorry, I totally skimped over the part that said "Junior Doctor".
Focus on your patients and argue on their behalf. So long as you care about your patients you can blast through the BS hierarchy stuff.

Post: #9

nice posts

Post: #10

2 Months in. Spent 3 weeks in Acute Medicine and 5 weeks in Geris.

1) Loads of the consultants have huge egos.
2) Many of the seniors are super insecure. Any signs of disagreement are taken as personal insults
3) Most of the female staff talk and complain way too much
4) Junior doctors - especially the females- behave like spoiled brats and think they are the center of the universe. Every sentence starts with the letter 'I'
5) Some consultants like asking very niche, exam type questions just to make you feel bad or to make them feel good. If you're gonna ask a question, make sure the person can figure it out.
6) Consultant meetings are basically platforms for consultants to suck each other off and arenas for them to look "smart" and "important" and "special"

I see my ward job on Geris as a tool to earn money and develop a good bedside manner. My side interests are two research projects in academic Rhematology that i'm working on in my spare time.

Thanks

Post: #11

A problem has come up

Issue
Getting some shit from two of my female newbie doctors. I've been called selfish and not a team player. Not "the most hard-working" as I seem to leave near or close to my allocated time. The funny thing is.... I come the hospital half an hour early and I get up 3 hours before work to study. I leave my social phone at home so I can focus at work. Pfft.

Response
Have I ever endangered patient safety? Have I ever been told off by a superior? Am I incompetent? As the answer is always no to those three questions, fuck'em.

I'm here for my patients,not to pander to emotionally insecure co-workers.

Any advice?

Post: #12

(03-28-2016 12:43 PM)thedarkknight Wrote:  A problem has come up

Issue
Getting some shit from two of my female newbie doctors. I've been called selfish and not a team player. Not "the most hard-working" as I seem to leave near or close to my allocated time. The funny thing is.... I come the hospital half an hour early and I get up 3 hours before work to study. I leave my social phone at home so I can focus at work. Pfft.

Response
Have I ever endangered patient safety? Have I ever been told off by a superior? Am I incompetent? As the answer is always no to those three questions, fuck'em.

I'm here for my patients,not to pander to emotionally insecure co-workers.

Any advice?

If it's cropping up in conversations: Agree and Amplify.

"Yes, I indeed do not have to work hard, because I look after my patients so well that I don't have to spend two hours after work just to fix the mess made in the morning."

"Yes, I am indeed lazy. I'm so lazy that I make sure my patients are on properly managed, because I prefer not to spend two hours after my shift fixing up sloppy mistakes that should not have been made in the first place."

"Yes, I am not a team player. I'm that good a doctor, I don't need colleagues dragging me down."

"Yes, I'm incompetent, that's why all my patients have already died yesterday, they just haven't got the memo yet."

"Yes, I'm selfish. I'm so selfish that the hospital is going to give me an award for it."

Don't bother with logic and reasonable arguments, it won't work on females. Just agree, and then amplify. If you can't think of a good amplification, just opt for something utterly ridiculous as your amplification : "Yes, I am a danger to my patients. This is something I deeply ponder whenever I parachute into southern Afghanistan."

Post: #13

Listen Bruv

Don't mess around with your money. READ THIS 4X. READ THIS YOU FUCKING WANKER. YOU NIMROD. I had to gethe your attention


*********American doctors make a lot of money. Do not fuck around with women at your job. You do not want that. Sooner or later you will be desired much more bc the others are giving g it up but you. You do not want the potential drama. Approach outside of work.

I've been to LONDON. It's massive. You should have problem approachIng 5 women a day....easily. If you're not day and night gaming, ....start asap.

Listen up again...do not start gaming. Flirt. Tease, maybe but do not try to get closed. It's nother worth the risk.


Knockoutkid

Post: #14

(03-28-2016 07:04 PM)knockoutkid Wrote:  Listen Bruv

Don't mess around with your money. READ THIS 4X. READ THIS YOU FUCKING WANKER. YOU NIMROD. I had to gethe your attention


*********American doctors make a lot of money. Do not fuck around with women at your job. You do not want that. Sooner or later you will be desired much more bc the others are giving g it up but you. You do not want the potential drama. Approach outside of work.

I've been to LONDON. It's massive. You should have problem approachIng 5 women a day....easily. If you're not day and night gaming, ....start asap.

Listen up again...do not start gaming. Flirt. Tease, maybe but do not try to get closed. It's nother worth the risk.


Knockoutkid

Goodbye to you.

To the OP: Do some more searches man. Lothario has a great hospital game thread out there you should refer to:

/thread-5442....t=Hospital

I've met Lothario and seen him hunt. He's the real deal.

Post: #15

...so it makes me a troll to say don't game at your job. Not cool, nor fair. I'm not nor have I ever been a doctor COBRA. Are you a doctor?

I wonder if there are any old sayings that could apply here. What if they made a saying that said don't eat, where you shit.

I guess that little saying is trolling to.

Cobra, do you have a.jon that can net you millions of income over a lifetime?.....the OP does.

Yes, I guess I am trolling. London is a desolate city that has no women to talk to in the daytime or at night. Guilty as charged.

Post: #16

(03-28-2016 07:45 PM)Cobra Wrote:  

(03-28-2016 07:04 PM)knockoutkid Wrote:  Listen Bruv

Don't mess around with your money. READ THIS 4X. READ THIS YOU FUCKING WANKER. YOU NIMROD. I had to gethe your attention


*********American doctors make a lot of money. Do not fuck around with women at your job. You do not want that. Sooner or later you will be desired much more bc the others are giving g it up but you. You do not want the potential drama. Approach outside of work.

I've been to LONDON. It's massive. You should have problem approachIng 5 women a day....easily. If you're not day and night gaming, ....start asap.

Listen up again...do not start gaming. Flirt. Tease, maybe but do not try to get closed. It's nother worth the risk.


Knockoutkid

Goodbye to you.

To the OP: Do some more searches man. Lothario has a great hospital game thread out there you should refer to:

/thread-5442....t=Hospital

I've met Lothario and seen him hunt. He's the real deal.

You guys have missed the point of the thread. OP is not asking how to game female doctors.

OP is just asking for advice on how to deal with bad colleagues in a hostile environment. Let's keep the thread on topic.