Anonymous Doctor

I have a patient who knows too much. Or at least he thinks he does. Every time any of us walk into his room, he's like, "No resident. Just attending." He thinks that means better care. He thinks we're incompetent. The first time I took it personally. But once I saw he says it to everyone, I don't really care anymore. Now we mostly try to keep the attending away from him so he's forced to deal with residents as much as possible. We sent a med student to take his blood yesterday, to practice on him, just because we wanted to see his reaction. Maybe we shouldn't have done that, but, really, don't go into a teaching hospital and complain about seeing residents. 90% of the time, you're going to be dealing with residents. We're the ones scheduling your tests and making sure you're getting the right care. It's probably better to be polite.