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Thursday, October 23, 2014

Just a Few More Days

To say that the morale of our equine surgery group is low would be quite accurate.  The clinician who is on surgery right now has never been known for his amazing bedside manner and friendliness.  However, I have never seen the effects of chronic rudeness on a group of people as I have now.  Here are a few quotes coming from him to us fourth years in the past few days:
"You are not going to be paid to stand there with stupid looks on your faces" (spoken in front of clients)

"When I ask a question, you need to answer me, you HAVE to have an opinion.  I have an opinion, and really that's the only one that counts"  (again, spoken in front of clients)

My classmate: I think she looks better than she did
Clinician: I don't, I think she looks worse and I'm better than you

It's rather unfortunate that the learning environment on this rotation has become so negative.  When students are not willing to talk because they know the clinician is just going to get on their case about it, I would rank that as a dismal learning experience.   This is just a sampling of his encouraging words he has been sharing with us.  Today, he laid into me pretty hard, grabbed the lead rope of the horse from my classmate, and told me (in a not so gentle tone) to watch the horse as he ran her down the hallway (part of a lameness exam).  He did end up apologizing to me later, the first apology I believe any of us have gotten.  Fortunately, the resident surgeons have been alright (although one of them has made some not very nice comments to people other than myself).  It really just drags the group down and we are all ready to get out of this rotation. 

On a good note, my big ol' draft horse went home today!  He spent 12 days in the hospital but is gone and doing well which is awesome!  I did also have a horse with left front lameness today.  We were able to send him home so he didn't have to stay in the hospital which means that tomorrow morning is the first morning on this rotation that I don't have a patient to care for. 




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