Dear Dr Weingart. I am very happy that somebody speaks about those topics that are also a very important part of wellbeing. I am a prehospital em doc, family medicine and this year I enrolled in family and relational psychotherapy study. I find one thing very useful in defusing an angry consultant. Its apology. Not a guilty, i-make-myself-small, sorry to disturb you, like. But empathic apology which I make because of myself. It is hard to find that in a moment before reacting, but if you do results are surprising. An example would be: I am really sorry that my… Read more »

Gentleman I really enjoyed this talk. I’ve presented on this subject and struggled with my response to rudeness. I historically have been a very visceral responder and have many examples of scenarios where in retrospect my counter aggression was misplaced. I think EM attendings are often treated as residents. This culture in part relates to our notably non-hierarchal system where staff are always present in the Department and our sterotypical relationships with residents is more collegial, friend-like. This may seem a positive thing but its not when assholes are involved. We have to disrupt the daily activities of others to… Read more »

Thanks again Scott from bringing up this very interesting topic. I am a French ER physician with a 12+ years experience and we too are often facing this type of behaviors. Two years ago in my department, we reached a point where some of our trainees were scared of calling some specialists (mostly surgeons) for fear of being in a bullied. It was mostly towards ER trainees or young ER physicians. And that is where we thought it started to become dangerous for our patients, when doctors where avoiding doing the right thing for fear of being bullied. Some of… Read more »

Thanks so much for these podcasts on rudeness. I’m still in my first few years of ED training (having practised in other areas prior) and find this a very difficult topic. I’ve experienced rudeness much more frequently in ED than any other area I’ve worked in and I think this is for 2 reasons; firstly because some, not all, but some, hospitalists think that we’re not ‘the specialists’ and our medical opinions are not worth anything. And second, because the specialist teams perceive us as creating more work for them when they’re already stressed and busy. Being made to feel… Read more »

Always great to hear my old colleague Pete speak. Question for the two of you “is being rude ever appropriate”. And what constitutes rudeness? As both an EM and Intensive care physician I see lots of Disposition-EM being practiced. Humbly I propose that a consultant should be utilized to further the patients needs; after exhaustion of the skills within the scope of ones specialties, Using consultants to lessen ones workload or disposition angst – I would suggest is rude – albeit in a passive aggressive manner. This is becoming the culture – the drivers of which are many. Always happy… Read more »