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This career advice experience came late in my life but helped me since;
I called the surgical doc on-call, “A 15-year girl presented with lower abdominal pain, burning urination … (patient history continues) … it may be a urinary or ovarian problem but I would like you to see the patient, in case it is appendicitis”.
This was one of my first night shifts in the Emergency room.
The surgeon replied in a sleepy tone, “I don’t feel she has appendicitis, the pain can be due to ovarian or urinary cause, so first run it through the Gynae & Pediatric doctor and then let me know if any concerns.” Undoubtedly, being lazy and making me do his work.
Back & forth I called both teams and spent almost an hour just sorting out and discussing this young girl case with different specialties during the night, ultimately went under surgeons as a case of appendicitis.
During the morning report, Professor asked about the night shift and I told him the whole story about my time wasted due to surgeons. He told me, “Amin, it’s all about the opening sentence. Start with your findings and the things that are relevant to the person you are talking to, such as, I have this 15 years old girl, presenting with appendicitis and relevant findings associated with some urinary symptoms, etc.
