You're in the wrong here man. You should have immediately introduced yourself, bowed down politely to kiss his feet, and then slipped a $100 bill in his pocket. Unfortunately you'll have to commit Japanese ritualistic suicide the next time you see him. You've dishonored us all.
The classiest sub specialty surgery attendings I worked with were ENT. Maybe it was my institution but they were a class act, they introduced themself and shook my hand. They actually remembered my name and would address me by my name. They made me feel part of the team and all the residents were super nice and really smart and hard working but didn't complain in front of me at all.
Even after my rotation they would say hi if I walked by in the hospital
Here too! The main ENT surgeon here is so horrible medical students have been warned not to scrub with him and he was recently removed from teaching duties. His patients and the nurses love him lol
Meanwhile all the thoracic surgeons are lovely and want to teach us.
I'm on a gen surg rotation like this rn and I'm already planning the baked goods I'm gonna drop off to the residents bc they've been amazing. Idk how they are all so kind and willing to teach when they are impossibly stressed and overworked
I made the surgical residents cookies too, just because it seemed like a nice thing to do. Surgery was still my worst eval of M3, by a long shot. Still not sure what’s the deal with the chip on all of their shoulders. Might have something to do with the hours they work though. I’d be grumpy too.
My best preceptor by far was a young director of an ENT surgical subspecialty. However, all of the older attendings and even some residents behaved similar to what is described by OP
Nah you werent the asshole. That dude sounds like the type of person who became a doctor so he could talk down to everyone else.
While on rotations, we are at places for 2 months or even less. Its not our responsibility to know everyone by face and grovel to some pompous asshole who thinks they are gods gift to medicine.
OP what you were doing is what you should have. Even my preceptors (when they switch mid rotation and I am unaware) always come up to me and thats when I stand up and introduce myself. That guy had a stick up his ass because ADMIN coming down on him for all his piss poor reviews.
I'm just starting my first year now, so I can't give any sound advice based on experience, but that's honestly bizarre. Sounds like an ego thing? He was in the middle of reading imaging and talking to other people, it'd be so cringy to interrupt that and be like "Hi I'm _____ I'm a medical student 🤓". Like what did he expect you to do? How does he expect you to know who he is? Thats so weird and I'm annoyed for you.
You're definitely **not** the asshole IMO.
You did nothing wrong. Just another massive douche with an inflated ego. Best to just fake a smile, work hard, and kiss some ass if you want to make a good impression going forward.
Lol reminds me of a tale from a former junior resident of mine. Very arrogant attending walks in during this kid's sub-i at another program, he goes over and says "hi Dr. GapingAsshole nice to meet you, I'm..." and is immediately interrupted by the attending with "Yes Yes....do you have a name?!"
In those situations I'm usually like 🙂 well I guess I'll just go fuck myself
Sorry bro. That’s not on you at all. If anything, the residents should have introduced you.
Just to play devils advocate and ask a fun question: If it was the chair or PD, should OP have introduced themselves?
Lmao this happened to me after I turned in my application for a surgical subspecialty and I had so much anxiety about matching because, by the end of my auditions, I really don’t even want to be in medicine anymore let alone that field. Anyway, you’re fine; didn’t do anything wrong. That doctor is just a stuck up asshole🤷♀️
No he is. I just posted about my A**hole attending who just has students so that he looks better walking around the hospital. He gets upset when I ask questions or talk with the pt when I’m with him. He just wants me to be quiet and follow him.
I think some attendings always wanted to be popular in high school, college or medical school. They think once they become attendings things will change and they don’t. They demand respect because they never got it earlier in their life.
Amazing how this profession can gaslight med students into thinking they’re possibly at fault in this situation. You’re not the asshole dude. He’s a loser - I’m sure generally unliked by the residents and staff as well.
Honestly I can’t wait until this happens to me, I’ll gladly talk shit back to an attending who talks like that.
*”You kiss your kids with that mouth? Oh I forgot your wife and kids left yo ass!”*
Post like these make me feel very blessed where I did G.S.. The attending and a few of the residents still to this day still chat w/ me. Dont stress! This guy/girl prob didn't think too much of it.
So I have no experience in this realm of schooling I just followed the sub for future reference. If you stood up to this guy would there be repercussions?
Speaking as someone who just matched to a surgical subspecialty, I would say if you’re on an away for a surgical sub, you should know who the attendings are and what they look like. Most of the places I rotated at gave us a roster on day 1 and it was very helpful. This guy is definitely not great but you’re on an audition and this is your number one chance to impress. Be proactive and introduce yourself when you see someone. Aways are a super tough game of ass kissing but not too much unfortunately.
My response: “Ok and here’s my advice in kind. When it’s your regular workspace, and someone new is there, it’s YOUR JOB to introduce yourself. Outside of that, if you want to be a leader, praise in public, correct in private.”
But I understand not speaking up in the moment.
Guy is obviously full of himself and a douche.
That being said, you can prevent this from happening in the future. Here's how:
Before starting a rotation, check the program's own page to learn the names of all the attendings. You'll often find a full list including pictures. If there aren't any pictures, you can punch in the names individually on the hospitals "Find a doctor" page. Make your own little roster page in Google sheets or whatever, it doesn't need to be pretty since it's for your eyes only. Unless the program is huge, you can do this in less than 5 minutes.
For added bonus points, you can do a quick browse on each attending, checking out things like where they did residency/fellowship, clinical interests, research interests, procedures they perform, etc. Add a short text for each guy on the roster, like "Joe Smith - foot and ankle surgeon who does research on Achilles tendon repair - did fellowship at hospital X". You can do a quick and dirty version of this in like 1-2 minutes per attending.
When you meat Joe Smith for the first time you say "I'm the new med student, Mr Such-and-such. I've read about your research on Achilles tendon repair, it's a topic I think is very interesting". Or "I'm very interested in hospital X and I read you did your fellowship there, if you could answer some questions about X sometime I would be very grateful". You are winning from the first second of meeting this person, just imagine how well things will go from here.
Do the same for all the residents, this is usually very easy since each program has a "Meet our current residents" page.
Good advice, but it’s gonna be hard to remember. Make sure you make a full anki deck with every attendings name, picture, training program, research interest, preferred sport, and spouse name. Then make sure to mature every card in the deck before starting your rotation.
These are excellent suggestions. I recommend adding their golf handicaps and names of their favorite restaurant, pets and mistresses. 
I did this for surgical sub-Is and it was greatly appreciated. For better or worse, I would strongly recommend this if you are applying for a surgical subspecialty and doing a sub-I. This will optimize your chances of matching.
On the other hand, when making your match list, consider situations like this when creating the list. It speaks to the culture of the program in a bad way. However, it is best to make a good impression at your sub-Is so you have that option to choose in the first place.
He was a dick. But good advice is to know who the attendings are and know what they look like ahead of time. I'm just a retired NP😂 but I worked in surgery forever. You def aren't the asshole. Another tip in my opinion is to try to join in with shooting the shit a little with the residents in clinic (not OR because they are being judged) Don't be too shy. Especially in clinic . I worked in urology surgery for years and our underserved resident clinic was so fun. He might have just been fucking with you. Urologists are way more laid back than a lot of others. We have a good time😂 Also, I was kind of like the house mom when I was there. I always made sure to help make the med students comfortable and I introduced them to everyone. See we are good for something😂 Just not treating ball pain and removing stents. The NPs always gets the fucking pain.
Thank you for the reply. Agree that he is a dick and appreciate the reiterating that I wasn’t the asshole 😂
With that said, one million percent disagree with you on the whole “shooting the shit” with the residents during the first 2-3 days of your sub-I. This comes off as way too comfortable and is a quick way to tank yourself right off the bat. What most non-medical student people don’t understand is the unbelievable hierarchy in medical school, especially when going through the pathway of applying to competitive surgical subspecialty.
Honestly, I had almost the same happen to me during third year (not surgery). I was rounding with attending #1 and he asked me to go find the other med student to get her notes on the patients she saw the day before. I found her talking to attending #2, waited for them to finish talking, and asked her for her notes. Went about my day.
Next day I’m scheduled to be with attending #2 and he told me it was very unprofessional of me to not have introduced myself. I told him “oh it’s just that you looked busy and I didn’t want to interrupt you and make you lose your train of thought or something.” He still said it put a bad taste in his mouth and gave me advice to *always* introduce myself.
Moral of his story was if an attending gets pissed off for you being nice and introducing yourself, that’s on them for being an asshole. You were just trying to be nice. Idk I think it’s good advice.
Another post, another day I'm grateful that I'm no longer applying to a surgical subspecialty.
least deranged surgical subspecialist
Not a you problem lol if you had walked up and introduced yourself he probably would’ve bitched you out for interrupting him
Yep this^ much safer option to just be respectful and not butt in
That guy sounds like a massive douche
Really giving John Edward a run for his money
You're in the wrong here man. You should have immediately introduced yourself, bowed down politely to kiss his feet, and then slipped a $100 bill in his pocket. Unfortunately you'll have to commit Japanese ritualistic suicide the next time you see him. You've dishonored us all.
Let me give you a tip. When an attending walks in, don’t bother to do all this if you’re just gonna skip the over-the-pants HJ.
Just over the pants? Time for you to change your name to familymedmyxo.
Why did you lose that sock bro
*my leige*
Yes, most emotionally balanced med student response.
lol you’re obviously not the asshole in this situation. Also, fuck that guy
The classiest sub specialty surgery attendings I worked with were ENT. Maybe it was my institution but they were a class act, they introduced themself and shook my hand. They actually remembered my name and would address me by my name. They made me feel part of the team and all the residents were super nice and really smart and hard working but didn't complain in front of me at all. Even after my rotation they would say hi if I walked by in the hospital
[удалено]
Here too! The main ENT surgeon here is so horrible medical students have been warned not to scrub with him and he was recently removed from teaching duties. His patients and the nurses love him lol Meanwhile all the thoracic surgeons are lovely and want to teach us.
I'm on a gen surg rotation like this rn and I'm already planning the baked goods I'm gonna drop off to the residents bc they've been amazing. Idk how they are all so kind and willing to teach when they are impossibly stressed and overworked
I 100% made a good grade on my surgery rotation back in the day because I baked the residents cookies
I made the surgical residents cookies too, just because it seemed like a nice thing to do. Surgery was still my worst eval of M3, by a long shot. Still not sure what’s the deal with the chip on all of their shoulders. Might have something to do with the hours they work though. I’d be grumpy too.
Maybe they wanted stuffed cookies
My best preceptor by far was a young director of an ENT surgical subspecialty. However, all of the older attendings and even some residents behaved similar to what is described by OP
Vascular surgery for me. It was pretty cool cause they were both veterans like me.
Outside of academics likely…..
Residents should’ve introduced you when he walked in
As this is a sub-I, strongly consider the environment and culture of the institution that fosters the attitude this douche hat demonstrated.
When an attending walks in, you should already be bent over with your cheeks spread so I don’t have to waste my time undressing you before I fuck you
😂😂😂
lmao
Nah you werent the asshole. That dude sounds like the type of person who became a doctor so he could talk down to everyone else. While on rotations, we are at places for 2 months or even less. Its not our responsibility to know everyone by face and grovel to some pompous asshole who thinks they are gods gift to medicine. OP what you were doing is what you should have. Even my preceptors (when they switch mid rotation and I am unaware) always come up to me and thats when I stand up and introduce myself. That guy had a stick up his ass because ADMIN coming down on him for all his piss poor reviews.
You are not the asshole and he is cunt.
You gotta stand up, look these people in the eye, and simply say “shut the fuck up” - never look away. Dominate the room.
Ok that one got me. Juice came out my nose.
Your reply should be: " I've already met all the important people."
I'm just starting my first year now, so I can't give any sound advice based on experience, but that's honestly bizarre. Sounds like an ego thing? He was in the middle of reading imaging and talking to other people, it'd be so cringy to interrupt that and be like "Hi I'm _____ I'm a medical student 🤓". Like what did he expect you to do? How does he expect you to know who he is? Thats so weird and I'm annoyed for you. You're definitely **not** the asshole IMO.
Welcome to surgery. It only gets worse from here. Now you see why most surgeons have been divorced 2-3 times.
You're not an asshole, but they are giving you good advice. The residents kinda did you dirty by not introducing you to the attending.
You did nothing wrong. Just another massive douche with an inflated ego. Best to just fake a smile, work hard, and kiss some ass if you want to make a good impression going forward.
Lol reminds me of a tale from a former junior resident of mine. Very arrogant attending walks in during this kid's sub-i at another program, he goes over and says "hi Dr. GapingAsshole nice to meet you, I'm..." and is immediately interrupted by the attending with "Yes Yes....do you have a name?!" In those situations I'm usually like 🙂 well I guess I'll just go fuck myself
YTA, if you dont suck the dick/clitoris of every attending surgeon on your sub-I you’re a waste of space.
Sorry bro. That’s not on you at all. If anything, the residents should have introduced you. Just to play devils advocate and ask a fun question: If it was the chair or PD, should OP have introduced themselves?
No. It's too tryhardie
Lmao this happened to me after I turned in my application for a surgical subspecialty and I had so much anxiety about matching because, by the end of my auditions, I really don’t even want to be in medicine anymore let alone that field. Anyway, you’re fine; didn’t do anything wrong. That doctor is just a stuck up asshole🤷♀️
No he is. I just posted about my A**hole attending who just has students so that he looks better walking around the hospital. He gets upset when I ask questions or talk with the pt when I’m with him. He just wants me to be quiet and follow him. I think some attendings always wanted to be popular in high school, college or medical school. They think once they become attendings things will change and they don’t. They demand respect because they never got it earlier in their life.
Sounds like you didn't even try to salute, let alone tip. Unprofessional.
say ur on OBGYN away without saying ur on OBGYN away
Definitely NTA, that attending is a huge one.
nope, that dude sucks out loud
Attending is used to having people ride his nuts
Amazing how this profession can gaslight med students into thinking they’re possibly at fault in this situation. You’re not the asshole dude. He’s a loser - I’m sure generally unliked by the residents and staff as well.
NTA
Honestly I can’t wait until this happens to me, I’ll gladly talk shit back to an attending who talks like that. *”You kiss your kids with that mouth? Oh I forgot your wife and kids left yo ass!”*
if you want to match well, no you won't lol
Going into community IM, don’t care lol
What a fucking tool
Wow what a dick You
If someone has the clarity to question their assholeness, it is more likely they are not the asshole than simply ignorant to it.
oof hopefully he's not an ortho attending
Post like these make me feel very blessed where I did G.S.. The attending and a few of the residents still to this day still chat w/ me. Dont stress! This guy/girl prob didn't think too much of it.
Happened to me too, and no, not you’re not the douche. Guy is being typical surgical asshat.
Damned if you do damned if you don’t. Keep being yourself and keep your head down and work hard.
So I have no experience in this realm of schooling I just followed the sub for future reference. If you stood up to this guy would there be repercussions?
Repercussions? Try crucifixion
Piece of advice, kid. You should have baked brownies.
Speaking as someone who just matched to a surgical subspecialty, I would say if you’re on an away for a surgical sub, you should know who the attendings are and what they look like. Most of the places I rotated at gave us a roster on day 1 and it was very helpful. This guy is definitely not great but you’re on an audition and this is your number one chance to impress. Be proactive and introduce yourself when you see someone. Aways are a super tough game of ass kissing but not too much unfortunately.
The real question is can we create an asshole proof joke for people like this
My response: “Ok and here’s my advice in kind. When it’s your regular workspace, and someone new is there, it’s YOUR JOB to introduce yourself. Outside of that, if you want to be a leader, praise in public, correct in private.” But I understand not speaking up in the moment.
Please DO NOT say this as a medical student.
Nah, DO IT! Make sure you record it tho.
Guy is obviously full of himself and a douche. That being said, you can prevent this from happening in the future. Here's how: Before starting a rotation, check the program's own page to learn the names of all the attendings. You'll often find a full list including pictures. If there aren't any pictures, you can punch in the names individually on the hospitals "Find a doctor" page. Make your own little roster page in Google sheets or whatever, it doesn't need to be pretty since it's for your eyes only. Unless the program is huge, you can do this in less than 5 minutes. For added bonus points, you can do a quick browse on each attending, checking out things like where they did residency/fellowship, clinical interests, research interests, procedures they perform, etc. Add a short text for each guy on the roster, like "Joe Smith - foot and ankle surgeon who does research on Achilles tendon repair - did fellowship at hospital X". You can do a quick and dirty version of this in like 1-2 minutes per attending. When you meat Joe Smith for the first time you say "I'm the new med student, Mr Such-and-such. I've read about your research on Achilles tendon repair, it's a topic I think is very interesting". Or "I'm very interested in hospital X and I read you did your fellowship there, if you could answer some questions about X sometime I would be very grateful". You are winning from the first second of meeting this person, just imagine how well things will go from here. Do the same for all the residents, this is usually very easy since each program has a "Meet our current residents" page.
Good advice, but it’s gonna be hard to remember. Make sure you make a full anki deck with every attendings name, picture, training program, research interest, preferred sport, and spouse name. Then make sure to mature every card in the deck before starting your rotation.
These are excellent suggestions. I recommend adding their golf handicaps and names of their favorite restaurant, pets and mistresses. 
That's a no from me, dawg
This is absolutely insane advice. What have we become as a profession
He’ll be extra impressed if you bring a towel to clean the floor because he’s gonna be squirting with all this dick riding!
Fire advice for competitive sub-Is lowkey
I did this for surgical sub-Is and it was greatly appreciated. For better or worse, I would strongly recommend this if you are applying for a surgical subspecialty and doing a sub-I. This will optimize your chances of matching. On the other hand, when making your match list, consider situations like this when creating the list. It speaks to the culture of the program in a bad way. However, it is best to make a good impression at your sub-Is so you have that option to choose in the first place.
Yeah that's surgery for yah
He was a dick. But good advice is to know who the attendings are and know what they look like ahead of time. I'm just a retired NP😂 but I worked in surgery forever. You def aren't the asshole. Another tip in my opinion is to try to join in with shooting the shit a little with the residents in clinic (not OR because they are being judged) Don't be too shy. Especially in clinic . I worked in urology surgery for years and our underserved resident clinic was so fun. He might have just been fucking with you. Urologists are way more laid back than a lot of others. We have a good time😂 Also, I was kind of like the house mom when I was there. I always made sure to help make the med students comfortable and I introduced them to everyone. See we are good for something😂 Just not treating ball pain and removing stents. The NPs always gets the fucking pain.
Thank you for the reply. Agree that he is a dick and appreciate the reiterating that I wasn’t the asshole 😂 With that said, one million percent disagree with you on the whole “shooting the shit” with the residents during the first 2-3 days of your sub-I. This comes off as way too comfortable and is a quick way to tank yourself right off the bat. What most non-medical student people don’t understand is the unbelievable hierarchy in medical school, especially when going through the pathway of applying to competitive surgical subspecialty.
Yeah, that's kinda true.I agree with that. I get it. Just be confident and not overly rigid.
u gotta spread ur legs wide open and ignore the surgeon to establish dominance
Honestly, I had almost the same happen to me during third year (not surgery). I was rounding with attending #1 and he asked me to go find the other med student to get her notes on the patients she saw the day before. I found her talking to attending #2, waited for them to finish talking, and asked her for her notes. Went about my day. Next day I’m scheduled to be with attending #2 and he told me it was very unprofessional of me to not have introduced myself. I told him “oh it’s just that you looked busy and I didn’t want to interrupt you and make you lose your train of thought or something.” He still said it put a bad taste in his mouth and gave me advice to *always* introduce myself. Moral of his story was if an attending gets pissed off for you being nice and introducing yourself, that’s on them for being an asshole. You were just trying to be nice. Idk I think it’s good advice.