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The Rules
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Alan & Steve's rules to live by:
- Be early.
- Pay attention -you'll save yourself a lot of reading if you understand it when it happens.
- Always follow up on any study that is ordered. Know lab results before the resident does.
- Always look at the films yourself.
- Be thorough.
- Use cheat sheets for formats - Maxwell is great for admit notes, procedure notes, etc.
- Use Sanford every time anyone mentions a bug.
- Don't try to honor. Just try to do a good job.
- Just be yourself, only a more respectful, pleasant, and interested version of yourself.
- Assume someone can always hear you, and think before you say anything you wouldn't want repeated.
- When asked to do something, do it - you can complain later.
- Don't complain later.
- If someone is listening to or looking at something, listen and look with them - don't wait to be asked.
- Offer to do what you can and to learn what you don't know. Don't wait to be asked.
- Speed is a function of efficiency, not of hurrying.
- The attending is right.
- Make sure you understand why a test is ordered. If you don't understand, ask.
- Make sure you understand why a drug is prescribed. If you don't understand, ask.
- Know the patient better (both medically and otherwise) than anyone else on the team.
- Check your patients' labs and overnight vitals as soon as you walk in the door.
- Even if you order a consult, think through the problem yourself.
- Read consult notes critically and carefully.
- Always use consults as learning opportunities - a well written consult note can teach you as much as a textbook chapter.