Notable Quotables: A.D.

"The basics are the most important thing you will ever learn.  You will never rise to the occasion, you will always sink to the level of your training" 

- A.D. [Trauma Surgeon]

I had the opportunity to see a Grand Round lecture done by a prominent Trauma Surgeon who is nationally renowned.  At the start of his lecture he did a brief overview of the basic physiology that is associated with "doing the ABCs" (I'll get to that in another post but in short the first things that need to be assessed in a trauma patient are A: Airway, B: Breathing and C: circulation).  This one liner from him really struck me.  It reminded me not to cut corners in my training because this is the time to meticulously go through every single step.  In the event of a true emergency I can rely on myself and know that no matter what there is a certain algorithm that I can trust that was followed.

Notable Quotables: SC

"You have to decide and ask yourself. Am I starting from scratch with this patient or am I merely laying a hand as they pass by ?" 

- S.C. [Psychiatrist]

An amazing attending I had an opportunity to work with during my inpatient psychiatry rotation once mentioned this in reference to a new admission that came in.  He made this distinction which really opened my eyes up to evaluating your role as a physician, I hadn't realized how much this can vary based on the context in which you are seeing a patient.  The outlook and management you would exercise in a patient who is routinely yours, one that you see in the office once a month who happens to be hospitalized for acute stabilization will be 180 degrees different from a patient that was brought to your hospital because thats where the ambulance came and usually receives care from an outpatient doctor 80 miles north of where you are.  

Notable Quotables: Sir William Osler

"One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine" 

- Sir William Osler 

If you haven't heard of Dr. Osler yet I would recommend clicking here to read a little bit.  He basically invented the idea of residency training and was the first guy who thought maybe medical students should get some bedside training and get out of lecture halls.  I think the sentiment of this quotation is fantastic, it really drives home the core of practice which shies away from the idea of overmedication and really medication at all.

Notable Quotables: MH

"A lot of it is a process of elimination, but when you pick your specialty that better be a process of selection.  Pick something that really just turns your wheel. " 

- M.H. [General Surgeon]

Its dawning on me that I have about a year to figure out exactly what I want to do with the rest of my life. Sometimes people say things to you in passing that really stick with you so keep an eye out for more Notable Quotables, the initials just help to maintain anonymity but still allow me to mentally catalog who it was for future reference.

 Have any of your own from mentors, friends, family or famous folks?