Dr. Giesecke, I almost always read your editorials in the NEWSLETTER, and indeed Doug Bacon’s before you. Mostly I agree with you, but I think the one in the April 2014 issue definitely contained some questionable points (“It Isn’t Necessarily What We Say, But Rather How We Say It”).
In order:
Availability: If the surgeons you’ve worked with on a regular basis can’t understand that you can’t always be available for their unscheduled cases – that you don’t just wait around to follow their orders – you’re better off without them. You can’t be on call 24/7, and they shouldn’t demand it. It shows a total lack of respect on their part, and as I always tell my residents, we deserve as much respect from the surgeons as they expect from us.
Affability: I’m all for it, and I try to be as friendly and cooperative with the O.R....
