Take Your Parents to Work Day
Your daily dose of snark.
Take Your Parents to Work Day
The first annual Take Your Parents to Work Day occurred at Hospital Woeisme last week. The idea stemmed from the resident wellness committee; they reasoned that the experience would show families what the day-to-day life of a resident truly entails. Trainees from each specialty were given permission to have their parents shadow all patient-care activities, including procedures, rounds, and conferences.
For surgeons, Take Your Parents to Work Day happened to fall on the day of their morbidity and mortality conference, commonly known as M&M. Typically, M&M involves a resident presenting a patient case where an error, or near-error, in patient care occurred. The mistake is discussed with the goal of preventing anything similar from happening again.
The surgery resident, Dr. Sam Bovie, presented a case where he did not perform a required post-operative evaluation on a patient during an overnight shift. Just as the surgery attending started to ream Bovie about his time management skills and work ethic, his mother, Mrs. Bovie, who happens to be a successful attorney, jumped in to defend her child. Mrs. Bovie proceeded to grill the attending and cross-examine her child. She presented a compelling case, arguing that her son could not mathematically have had the time necessary to perform all his required tasks on that particularly busy trauma night, especially since his co-resident Dr. Cutter had recently quit residency.
By the end of M&M, she had successfully gotten the attending to admit that Bovie could not physically be in two places at once, the post-op patient never had any complaints or concerns, and that he himself could have checked on Bovie or even done the post-op check himself had he been so concerned. On attempting to interview Bovie, who incredible embarrassed, at the end of the M&M conference, Mrs. Bovie jumped in and said, “My client will not be answering any further questions,” and directed him towards the cafeteria.
Meanwhile on the medicine wards, the parents of the internal medicine residents were being treated to the never-ending joy that is rounding. The residents had recently begun using scooters to cross the hospital to expedite the speed of rounding. A couple of the fathers had taken to racing the scooters up and down the wards, while the residents and medical students continued presenting patients.
When the patients were asked if they minded having their doctor’s parents present during rounds, their responses were universal. Patient W summed up the general consensus among the patients by saying, “Well, none of the residents look old enough to be doctors anyway, so we feel better having their parents there to supervise them.” When it was clarified that most of the parents were not doctors themselves, the patients shrugged and did not change their opinion.
At the end of rounds, internal medicine intern Dr. Two planned to go to lunch before tackling his to-do list. However, his parents intervened and demanded, “No, son, you have a lot to do. Finish your notes, orders, and procedures first, and then you can eat.” When he tried to object by stating how famished he was, his parents threatened to ground him. Dr. Two sulked off to the resident lounge, muttering something about never again opting into Take Your Parents to Work Day.
A different scene could be witnessed in the emergency department. The typically packed ED stood bare, with a few scattered patients and an empty waiting room. The ED residents normally jump between patient rooms, never sitting down, and always juggling an impressive - perhaps borderline dangerous - number of tasks. A recent interruption to the hospital supply of turkey sandwiches had resulted in a mass exodus from the ED, with no return of patients in sight.
Dr. Lobo Jr., an ED intern, tended to one of the only patients in the ED. The patient had a simple laceration on his finger that needed suturing. Dr. Lobo Jr. had brought his father, the eminent plastic surgeon Dr. Lobo Sr., to work with him that day. Lobo Jr. set up his tools, and Lobo Sr. stood by, promising to remain quiet and watch. Shortly after Lobo Jr. began the repair, Lobo Sr. made a suggestion about his son’s technique. As the repair continued, Lobo Sr. jumped in with pointers and tips with increasing frequency. After the twelfth such interruption, Lobo Jr. threw down his tools and yelled, “Forget it dad, you do it!” Lobo Sr. picked up the tools, smiling and humming to himself as he finished the repair.
As the other ED residents had no patients, they could not show off to their parents how they normally see and do so much. The residents ended up giving their parents a tour of the ED and the operating rooms, showing off the newly renovated hospital lobby, and then bringing them to the helipad where they enjoyed panoramic views of the city. Then, still having nothing to do, they all left early to catch a matinee showing of Med School Musical.
Although originally supportive of the initiative, the residents were uniformly against making this an annual tradition. The attendings, other than the surgery attending, felt the day to be a success. The parents and patients also enjoyed the experience, and look forward to Take Your Parents to Work Day at Hospital Woeisme next year.
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