I would be most happy to edit the title of the thread if you would so kind as to reply with your title of choice.
| QUOTE (OldManDave @ Jul 27 2003, 03:04 PM) |
| The tactic I employ is to ask them leading questions. This is especially effective when I think they may be making an error. This serves 3 main purposes: 1 - By asking leading questions I can frequently hand hold them toward what I am thinking w/o appearing to guide them, appear as though I am challenging them or sounding like a know-it-all, pain-in-the-ass med student/resident. 2 - From the content of my leading questions, I can clearly demonstrate my level of expertise in a nonthreatening, non-arrogant manner. 3 - Once you've established a Q&A-acceptable situation, then it becomes permissible, even expected, for you to inquire as they why they interpretted x, y & z to mean a, b & c. |
Howdy Dave!
I like your question approach and have used it many times as a paramedic and as a medical student. From very recent experience (last week on cardiology consult service), let me add a fourth objective accomplished by this method:
4) It doesn't make me look like the complete idiot I would have if I'd directly challenged the other person and I turned out to be wrong.
Pilar, please note that I'm not directing this at your situation, I'm just commenting, in general, about OMD's approach.
In my case, I feel fairly confident when it comes to ECGs. I thought I saw a bifasicular block on an ECG and the attending disagreed. Using your approach, I prefaced my question with the statement that perhaps I was confused about the criteria for such a block. I then asked if he could help clarify and listed my criteria. Sure enough, my criteria were correct. Unfortunately for my ego, there were other confounding variables the negated what I saw.
Using this approach, I managed to 1) question something I thought was wrong, 2) not offend my cardiology attending, 3) not look like an idiot when it turned out I was wrong and, most importantly, 4) learn something new.
Take care,
Jeff Jarvis, MS-III
UTMB
Galveston, TX
Dave, please post the topic under “personal experience”. Thanks