One afternoon in the clinic, I was told by my supervisor to help a fellow student with putting one of his patients on a tilt-table. As I had more experience than the other student with tilt-tables, I did my best to help organise things and avoid any potential problems. When the student was out of the room getting a wedge, the supervisor told me to just be a passive assistant and let the other student take charge. This put me in an awkward situation when the student returned, as it seemed natural to me help someone in an area where I had more experience. Also, the other student was not aware of my role change but I was worried about offending the supervisor if I had informed the student about the conversation. In the end, the student got drilled by the supervisor for his performance, which made me feel a bit guilty and sorry for him.
Has anyone been in a similar situation, or would have handled the situation otherwise?
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2 comments:
Hey Steve, tough call. During my final ax on neuro I encountered a similar situation where I had to be a passive assistant, however, it was made quite clear to the other student that that was to be the arrangement. I think you should have said that you had been asked to pull back, just so that the other student had some warning and maybe could have picked their game up a bit. I don't think this would have offended the supervisor at all, plus its never nice if everyone else in the room knows whats going on except you. It does seem wierd that although you had more experience you had to take a step back. Sometimes the best way to learn is to watch and learn from others with more experience, so no comment there. Difficult call though. Do you think yourself that if you encountered the same situation again you would deal with it differently? (Oh is that allowed, asking a question in a comment?) xo
Hi Steve, yeah that is an awkward situation. I think you had to do what you did though..I think most students in your situation would have acted in the same way mainly because we are just so scared of getting the supervisor off side! I guess even though you had more experience the other student does have to learn and sometimes the only way to learn is to do it yourself and if you make a mistake you learn from that and do it better next time. I guess there comes a point though when you need to take over, for example if the pt was in danger because the other student was doing something unsafe then I think it is totally acceptable for you to jump in!
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