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Most embarassing moment with your SP


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Figured I would post a fun post. So I had several embarassing moments in the first few months on my job. But the one that has continued to stand out was about 1 mo or so into my job. Still had very little idea what I was doing (and still wasn't seeing patients on my own yet) since my job is so specialized. Still hadn't read enough of the large spine book I purchased, especially since I started working only 5 days after my official grad date from PA school. I had ordered AP and lateral L-Spine xrays on a patient and taken an H&P, when my SP comes in after I am done to meet the patient and do his own quick assessment. So my SP points to something on the AP and asks me what it is and my response was "uncovertebral joint?" then there is a pause on his part and he simply says "No," then corrects me and tells me that it is a spina bifida occulta. So when I get home, I try to refresh my memory on what an uncovertebral joint is and remember that it is a joint in the NECK not low back! I was COMPLETELY off and felt about as small as a pea for the whole weekend. I still think back at that sometimes and and just hope he has forgotten lol

 

I also had another moment when a patient was talking nicely about a pain management doctor we refer to a lot to my SP and I was facing the computer doing something on it; I thought he was talking about me and said "Aw thank you" twice until I realized he wasn't talking about me! Opps

 

So if you aren't too ashamed to share, what are your most embarassing moments with your SPs?

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how about most embarrassing moment to date as a PA?

 

About 2 weeks ago i was sewing up a young chap who cut open his leg... 2 layer closure. His BEAUTIFUL sister is standing beside me watching; so quiet in the room you can hear the walls sighing.

 

I turned to grab something off my tray....and before I could stop it, before I EVEN KNEW IT WAS HAPPENING, I farted.

 

Just a little one, almost like a child fart.

 

...

...

 

Seriously.

 

 

What do you do when that happens? WHEN DOES THAT HAPPEN?? I MEAN, HONESTLY?

 

I totally played it off. Said something about my shoe squeaking and how I need to get a new pair, and kept on trucking. Never even missed a beat.

 

 

I know they laughed their asses off all the way home at my expense; glad I could humor them.

 

J

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Internal Medicine rotation.

 

Guy comes in (tough tattoo kind of guy walk in with his girlfriend) awful MRSA type infection on his forearm, he is whining and my SP turns to him and says.

 

"Quit crying like a little *****"

 

It was really awesome and uncomfortable at the same time. The guy was in shock from what the doc said. The girlfriend just looked at me and said "Did he really just say that?"

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Still one of my top ones was when I first started working at Mayo Clinic. They couldn't find an office for me on the main floor so I had one way off the beaten path. It was the first time I worked in a heavily EMR setting and we all communicated via e-mail so I would not see any of my SPs face to face for days.

 

I was also somewhat novice to the Internet . . . at least big time. We had dial up at home in the very rural place I used to live but it was soooooooooo slow that I never surfed (and I had to compete with five kids who needed it for school).

 

One day I was fooling around on the Internet. I discovered Ebay. I couldn't believe all the things that you could find. The hottest item was Elian Gonzales' raft (look it up if you were too young to remember). It was a couple of logs and a tire and the bidding was near 1 million dollars.

 

So I tried to find the strangest thing I could think of on Ebay. Armless GI Joes, Half eaten pizzas . . . you name it and it was on Ebay. Finally in my most extreme trial I typed in "Used Enema Bags." A whole page of such items appeared (mostly antique but some were simply used enema bags.) I couldn't believe it. While I was sitting there alone in that remote isolated office, suddenly I heard someone clear his voice. Directly behind me, and looking intensely my computer screen, was one of my future SPs coming in (unannounced) to meet me for the first time.

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Ob/gyn rotation.

 

My preceptor DO had let me deliver a couple of times, but for this one he said, "I want you to watch the technique".

 

He dropped the baby. Into the afterbirth bin.

 

The father: "whhhaaat ..."

 

Priceless. For the rest of the day, whenever he would talk seriously to me about teach blah blah, I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing. Needless to say, I burst out laughing at inopportune times for the rest of the week.

 

And yes, the baby was fine!

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Ob/gyn rotation.

 

My preceptor DO had let me deliver a couple of times, but for this one he said, "I want you to watch the technique".

 

He dropped the baby. Into the afterbirth bin.

 

The father: "whhhaaat ..."

 

Priceless. For the rest of the day, whenever he would talk seriously to me about teach blah blah, I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing. Needless to say, I burst out laughing at inopportune times for the rest of the week.

 

And yes, the baby was fine!

 

I have been laughing for 10mins now!!... if I were you, if I passed him by I would say "I want you to watch this technique"... if I were iin there an he dropped the baby in there I would say "goooooaalllllll"! That story was sooo funny

 

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

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Definitely had some "doh, I should have known that " moments as a PA. My most embarrassing, though, was actually from PA school. Day #1 hour #1 of rotations #1 (OB-GYN). I was dropped off in front of the OR and told to go in and introduce myself to the the scrub nurse/tech and ask the attendings if I could scrub for a fibroid removal. There were no residents to lend a helping hand and this was my very first hour of my very first rotation. I'm extremely nervous to say the least. As soon as I walk into the OR, I'm immediately asked to leave by the scrub nurse. Why? My mask was on backwards. I was mortified at the time, but everyone else got a good laugh out of it, and I can now too with a couple years of distance from the event lol.

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During rotation,a friend of mine was asked when he was going to become "a full blown doctor". The phrase 'full blown' always cracks me up when I think about it.

 

And the correct answer is "whenever I make enough money to afford to hire some 'entertainment' for the evening..."... lol

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • Administrator

It's not just gross, it could be actionable sexual harassment--even if he didn't mean it, even if he's never behaved inappropriately directly towards the employee--based on hostile work environment. At the very least, I would expect a stink were evidence of such workplace conduct brought to the medical board's attention.

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My FP preceptor shared this story with me immediately after performing my first rectal/prostate exam in his office: He looks at me with this weird grin and asks: Well? And I said, "the prostate is normal size, firm, no nodules, and the rectum is without appreciable hemorrhoids or fissures." He and the patient bust out laughing! Seems at the patient's last annual physical, the PA student was asked about the rectal exam by the preceptor and answered: "It felt good to me." LOL!

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  • 9 months later...

Ok, not a SP-related incident, but nevertheless my favorite embarrassment story.

 

I'm in my first year of practice. My next consult is a psychiatrist, so I'm inordantly nervous before the encounter. Leave my desk to wash my hands in anticipation of it; I walk in the nearest restroom and it smells like a honey dipper's truck wrecked in there (honey dipper = those guys vacuuming out portajohns). Finish washing my hands, all but needing intubation, and just as I open the door this really HHHHOT young lady was just reaching for the knob to come in.

 

Hurray. I was 29 and single at the time, double hurray. It wasn't even "my brand".

 

I quick pop back to my desk, mortified. Just then, one of the MAs sticks her head in:

 

"Tom, I'm done rooming your next patient; she just stepped out to use the restroom"

 

FML!!

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Ok, not a SP-related incident, but nevertheless my favorite embarrassment story.

 

I'm in my first year of practice. My next consult is a psychiatrist, so I'm inordantly nervous before the encounter. Leave my desk to wash my hands in anticipation of it; I walk in the nearest restroom and it smells like a honey dipper's truck wrecked in there (honey dipper = those guys vacuuming out portajohns). Finish washing my hands, all but needing intubation, and just as I open the door this really HHHHOT young lady was just reaching for the knob to come in.

 

Hurray. I was 29 and single at the time, double hurray. It wasn't even "my brand".

 

I quick pop back to my desk, mortified. Just then, one of the MAs sticks her head in:

 

"Tom, I'm done rooming your next patient; she just stepped out to use the restroom"

 

FML!!

 

Now that's funny!

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Ok, not a SP-related incident, but nevertheless my favorite embarrassment story.

 

I'm in my first year of practice. My next consult is a psychiatrist, so I'm inordantly nervous before the encounter. Leave my desk to wash my hands in anticipation of it; I walk in the nearest restroom and it smells like a honey dipper's truck wrecked in there (honey dipper = those guys vacuuming out portajohns). Finish washing my hands, all but needing intubation, and just as I open the door this really HHHHOT young lady was just reaching for the knob to come in.

 

Hurray. I was 29 and single at the time, double hurray. It wasn't even "my brand".

 

I quick pop back to my desk, mortified. Just then, one of the MAs sticks her head in:

 

"Tom, I'm done rooming your next patient; she just stepped out to use the restroom"

 

FML!!

 

Look on the bright side...you won't be conflicted about the emotional struggles of maintaining the line of not dating patients. After the bathroom incident you won't have a chance in Hades so in essence, it made it much easier. :-)

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Charted a patients mole removal as "mold" removal.

 

Another time when I was studying to be a Paramedic, I was observing a spinal tap it the ER. That second drop of CSF pulled me all the way to the floor amongst much clattering of trays in a pile of former sterile field material.

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