High school called. They want their drama back.

I read this in another blog and loved it. How perfect is it for vet school? Maybe your schools are more mature than my "whiny" class, but judging from the comments and reading other blogs, I think we are all alike.

I was listening to someone (we'll call them Person 1) vent yesterday about things another person (Person 2) had said during junior surgery this week and I was speechless. Once I found my voice, I jumped on my soapbox and shared exactly what I thought of that person and what they had said. My monologue mostly consisted of screaming in disbelief and sad head shaking because I was flabbergasted by the things said. Person 2 has also committed a multitude of mistakes that I have witnessed and its been driving me insane. Now that I've successfully built this story up, I supposed you'd like to know what happened? Backstory: both involved in that conversation have parents that are veterinarians and owners of their own private practices. That being said, Person 2 was surgeon this week and Person 1 was assistant and gave Person 1 reason to believe that Person 2 is the sole reason that they give pain meds post-op. This being due to the manhandling of soft tissue and blatant disregard of advice from any surgeon, resident, or intern. Instead of visualizing the linea alba to incise the body wall, they made 5 blind stab incisions into the tissue. Luckily, the original incision wasn't even through the subcutaneous layer, so most of the stab incisions weren't harmful (2 had to be sutured because they were in muscle belly). I won't go into more major details of the surgery, but it proceeded along in this manner. Mid-surgery, Person 2 wiped their forehead with their sterile, gloved hands... and didn't want to reglove until the rest of the group demanded it. Later, a resident was checking on the progress of the surgery and accidently contaminated Person 2's hand, so she made Person 2 reglove again. Afterwards, Person 1 and 2 were chatting and Person 2 made comments like, "I wouldn't have regloved if she wasn't standing there" and "People like us need to cut corners where we can - we don't make money from slow surgeries".

Oh dear God.

Maybe this doesn't sound like a big deal - but to me, this was the culmination of a hundred other ways that I had seen Person 2 cut corners in relation to junior surgery and I blew my top - to know that Person 2 is purposely cutting those crucial corners and is aware of it... well, that just about killed me. Not to mention that it could actually kill an animal one day. Plus - what kind of jaded mindset must you possess to be a third year and already think about "cutting corners" in surgery and in practice? How do you "cut corners" on your third surgery? How do you even know what corners are okay to cut at this point in your career?

Excuse me while I jump off my soapbox now.

I also realize that I am creating drama by sharing this with my small online community of friends. But its too crazy just to keep to myself.