Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Stupid, stupid, stupid...

I did an incredibly stupid and completely embarassing thing this week. To say that it was negligent is a little far, but I'm sure if this goes to a trial it would be found that way.


Yeah, you read that right. This event could, if the patient wanted to, go to trial. I'm not going to discuss what the infraction was that I committed, but needless to say it was not done with malice of forethought. Rather I was just trying to be proactive and fucked up royally. My ability to think ahead was apparently impaired and I went about the task without considering the magnitude of the undertaking at hand. When I informed the nurses of my findings their looks and gasps were enough for me to understand how truly screwed I was.


I was talked to at least 4 times yesterday by increasingly higher levels of power within the OB/GYN program. Just grateful that they were understanding to a degree, but I could sense how concerned they actually were. When you're scrubbing into a C-section and get pulled out, already gowned up, you begin to understand how big a deal this is. When they use the terms: "You could go to jail for something like this" (well actually the nurse said that, but still) you're apprehension heightens.


And all of this after I hated this rotation so much, but have begun to get a feel for it, feel like I can accomplish some tasks without being completely deflated and demoralized, and was not dreading everyday as I had the first couple weeks. But now...

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

5 comments:

OMDG said...

MSG, you can't just leave us hanging!!! What did you do? Please share so that we may avoid similar mess-ups.

pinkie said...

All of us make mistakes... that's part of medical school. And feeling guilt about it keeps you human. All of that aside though, what did you do??? =)

Anonymous said...

I'm dying to know...

A girl said...

Oh oh... MSG, I don't know what you did, but hell man, we all fuck it up sometimes... Learn from it, this is the best thing you can do. I am sure you will not make the same mistake again.

Anonymous said...

I also did a very dumb thing on an ob/gyn rotation (not big enough to get pulled out of the OR for, though - wow). Don't say any more about it online, that would be way too dangerous. But you'll learn from it, and at least won't make that specific mistake again.