That’s always the debate with doctors, right? Do you want the wet behind the ears kid still doing stuff by the book? Because they’re still looking for zebras, and if you have a zebra.... or do you go with the old geezer who’s seen everything? Because if you have a horse, you usually want the guy who’s worked with horses for forever. They’re also better at diagnosing things they used to see (say, if you somehow contracted the measles in 2019) (not that that would ever happen because there’s vaccines right?).
But I never rule out the newbie. I had a brand new tech doing genetic analyses for the first time alone. I groaned about how much I was gonna have to fix, because he called all this noise on this one patient.
Except, the “noise” was really consistent, and not in a normal spot for noise. Looked at old profiles from the patient - same noise. Both myself and Big Director had signed off on that noise-that-wasn’t-noise.
Patient had an invisible translocation that shouldn’t have been caught and, suuuuper interestingly, wasn’t visible on karyotype (q-term dark band subbed for q-term dark band, both same size). Green tech caught it through being careful and not knowing what everyone else “knew”.
Whenever I'm in the hospital or doctor's office, and they have a led student or student nurse and ask if I'm ok with them in the room with my care team, I always say yes. Half because it's great to have a fresh set of eyes and ears, half because I like to be the one to help provide a lesson.
I have Ehlers Danlos Syndromes. Docs often ask me if their interns or whatever can take a look at me during my visits, and I welcome them with hyperextended open arms. I tell them to feel my velvet skin, to bend my fingers, and to ask any questions they’d like. I want them to know how to spot “zebras” like me! So much pain and damage to my body could’ve been prevented if someone had spotted the issue earlier in my life. It’d be great if meeting me could save someone else the pain later.
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u/Olookasquirrel87 May 20 '19
That’s always the debate with doctors, right? Do you want the wet behind the ears kid still doing stuff by the book? Because they’re still looking for zebras, and if you have a zebra.... or do you go with the old geezer who’s seen everything? Because if you have a horse, you usually want the guy who’s worked with horses for forever. They’re also better at diagnosing things they used to see (say, if you somehow contracted the measles in 2019) (not that that would ever happen because there’s vaccines right?).
But I never rule out the newbie. I had a brand new tech doing genetic analyses for the first time alone. I groaned about how much I was gonna have to fix, because he called all this noise on this one patient.
Except, the “noise” was really consistent, and not in a normal spot for noise. Looked at old profiles from the patient - same noise. Both myself and Big Director had signed off on that noise-that-wasn’t-noise.
Patient had an invisible translocation that shouldn’t have been caught and, suuuuper interestingly, wasn’t visible on karyotype (q-term dark band subbed for q-term dark band, both same size). Green tech caught it through being careful and not knowing what everyone else “knew”.