Wardround 23iii7

This week’s two minute tutorials were on the investigation of a patient with abnormal LFTs. My test, if it can be called that, for each talk is to ask “Would it be useful for a new resident”. I am not sure that the talks did that. The bones of what to do and what it means seem to have been lost in the telling. Could I ask each person to post one sentence in the comments, please - on your topic.

The reading was Lying to Each Other. When Internal Medicine Residents Use Deception With Their Colleagues. Michael J. Green, et al. Arch Intern Med. 2000;160:2317-2323. An unsuspected side effect was that several of you could not access the paper. Try again. Remember to log in to the elibrary before navigating to the paper. The conclusion of the paper was, in brief, “A substantial percentage of internal medicine residents report they would deceive a colleague in various circumstances, and the likelihood of using deception depends on the context. While lying about clinical issues is not common, it is troubling when it occurs at any time. Medical educators should be aware of circumstances in which residents are likely to deceive, and discuss ways to eliminate incentives to lie.” We discussed ways of controlling lying. One being to be open to criticis. Perhaps the more insidious lies though are those we use internally to guide decisions. They are not open to scrutiny and will remain hidden, but can exert significant effects.

The two minute talks for next week are about diarrhoea. So two minutes please on:
Clinical assessment for diagnosis and definition TJ
Traveller’s diarrhoea DK
Investigation DL
Hospital acquired CS
Elderly out-patients DF
Keep it precise and concise. Make the handout count.

The reading for next week is Clinical decision-making: Coping with uncertainty. A F West; R R West. Postgraduate Medical Journal 2002;78:764

Interesting topics

Cor Pulmonale

TRAPS


MJM