Up to the second day of my John Flynn Placement Program.
Today I went in to the radiology clinic and the reception staff ushered me straight towards the doctor's room. I was there for about ten minutes, minding my own business and reading my CXR textbook (1) when the doctor comes in. Introductions aside, I put my book away and pay attention as he goes through the images to report.
Dr JB starts his work. I'm leaning forward, trying to listen as he dictates - it seems these radiologists all take classes on how to talk super quickly and quietly. It probably takes me a good half hour to adapt to his accent, which isn't particularly thick or difficult to understand but when doing the radiologist talk makes it harder again to understand.
I quickly notice some difficulties between Dr JB and Dr PL. Dr PL was super fast - his OPG interpretation took less than 30 seconds and I never managed to figure out what he was saying for those with all the initialisms and acronyms. Heböitzed through the waiting images at our location, and did some fpr another location where he knew the doctor rostered on there was slow and guess what? Dr JB is the slow guy.
Dr PL was doing ultrasounds, x-rays, OPGs, CTs and the occassional MRI. He also did a bit of interventional radiology. I saw a triple tested thyroid biopsy and a few CT guided cortisone injections. Dr JB does no intervention (his choice) and seems to either be the junior of the doctors or the one not well liked as he got given all the MRIs to do.
The main difference I noticed though is attitude. Dr PL seemed to view it as a job. He was methodical and fast and just did what he had to do. Dr JB.... well, by the end of the day I was concerned he was burnout.
He was slow. He groaned when he was told by the boss that he was to do MRIs today. He kept complaining of a headache and pausing to rub his back, shoulders or lay his head on his arms on the desk. He would say his brain was too dead to be doing MRIs and kept trying to convince me that he usually wasn't this bad. I know he was using me for a distraction, asking me about how you get in to med school in Australia and as the day progressed becoming more and more thorough (read: long winded) in answering my questions about radiology in general, as long as it did not relateto the image he was looking at.
With 20-60% of doctors exepriencing burnout or depression depending on the sub-population) (2), I was very aware that I could be seeing this first hand. He didn't seem to enjoy his job, the company required him to travel for hours each day to a new location in the state from his home in Sydney, he may have been feeling unappreciated at work as he was being given the images no one seems to liek to do which take longer and don't give him the satisfaction of getting a wholelot done each day and he had generalised physical symptoms.
I spent the majority of the day perched on my chair being quiet and invisible unless he initiated concersation as I tried not to make his job worse and come up with soemthing that could help.
References:
(1) Akhtar MR, Ahmed N, Khan N. The Unofficial Guide to Radiology: 100 Practice Chest X-rays, with Full Colour Annotations and Full X-Ray Reports. 1st ed. Rodrigues M, Qureshi Z, editors. Zeshan Qureshi; 2017. 222 p.
(2) Lynch JW. The epidemic of burnout, depression and suicide in medicine: One doctor's story [Internet]. Parkville, Victoria (Australia): The Conversation; 2015 May 18 [cited 2017 Jan 8]. Availabel from: http://theconversation.com/the-epidemic-of-burnout-depression-and-suicide-in-medicine-one-doctors-story-41800
Today I went in to the radiology clinic and the reception staff ushered me straight towards the doctor's room. I was there for about ten minutes, minding my own business and reading my CXR textbook (1) when the doctor comes in. Introductions aside, I put my book away and pay attention as he goes through the images to report.
Dr JB starts his work. I'm leaning forward, trying to listen as he dictates - it seems these radiologists all take classes on how to talk super quickly and quietly. It probably takes me a good half hour to adapt to his accent, which isn't particularly thick or difficult to understand but when doing the radiologist talk makes it harder again to understand.
I quickly notice some difficulties between Dr JB and Dr PL. Dr PL was super fast - his OPG interpretation took less than 30 seconds and I never managed to figure out what he was saying for those with all the initialisms and acronyms. Heböitzed through the waiting images at our location, and did some fpr another location where he knew the doctor rostered on there was slow and guess what? Dr JB is the slow guy.
Dr PL was doing ultrasounds, x-rays, OPGs, CTs and the occassional MRI. He also did a bit of interventional radiology. I saw a triple tested thyroid biopsy and a few CT guided cortisone injections. Dr JB does no intervention (his choice) and seems to either be the junior of the doctors or the one not well liked as he got given all the MRIs to do.
The main difference I noticed though is attitude. Dr PL seemed to view it as a job. He was methodical and fast and just did what he had to do. Dr JB.... well, by the end of the day I was concerned he was burnout.
He was slow. He groaned when he was told by the boss that he was to do MRIs today. He kept complaining of a headache and pausing to rub his back, shoulders or lay his head on his arms on the desk. He would say his brain was too dead to be doing MRIs and kept trying to convince me that he usually wasn't this bad. I know he was using me for a distraction, asking me about how you get in to med school in Australia and as the day progressed becoming more and more thorough (read: long winded) in answering my questions about radiology in general, as long as it did not relateto the image he was looking at.
With 20-60% of doctors exepriencing burnout or depression depending on the sub-population) (2), I was very aware that I could be seeing this first hand. He didn't seem to enjoy his job, the company required him to travel for hours each day to a new location in the state from his home in Sydney, he may have been feeling unappreciated at work as he was being given the images no one seems to liek to do which take longer and don't give him the satisfaction of getting a wholelot done each day and he had generalised physical symptoms.
I spent the majority of the day perched on my chair being quiet and invisible unless he initiated concersation as I tried not to make his job worse and come up with soemthing that could help.
References:
(1) Akhtar MR, Ahmed N, Khan N. The Unofficial Guide to Radiology: 100 Practice Chest X-rays, with Full Colour Annotations and Full X-Ray Reports. 1st ed. Rodrigues M, Qureshi Z, editors. Zeshan Qureshi; 2017. 222 p.
(2) Lynch JW. The epidemic of burnout, depression and suicide in medicine: One doctor's story [Internet]. Parkville, Victoria (Australia): The Conversation; 2015 May 18 [cited 2017 Jan 8]. Availabel from: http://theconversation.com/the-epidemic-of-burnout-depression-and-suicide-in-medicine-one-doctors-story-41800
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