The Case of the Justified Junior presented a case of a learner that disagrees with his senior resident,  a senior resident that may be biased in her decision making, and an attending faced with the opportunity to teach around this whole situation. And at the center of it all, we have a patient that may be at risk if the wrong decision is made.

In keeping with our mandate with the MEdIC series, we launched this case last week and waited for the crowd to speak up and help us solve the case. We also asked two esteemed colleagues to prepare some expert consultations on the case.  Continue reading to see what they thought.

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“With great power comes great responsibility…”  – Stan Lee

‘Tis the season of transitions.  This summer marks the annual promotion day for most medical professionals.  We transition between junior to senior, from clerk to resident, from resident to new attending.  And with this comes increased responsibilities, including teaching.

This month, we ask you to come and help us think through a difficult situation that might occur between various levels of learners and supervisors.

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The Case of the Exasperated Educator presented an attending at the end of a difficult shift with a learner that just didn’t seem to “get it.” As the new attending coming on shift, how can we help our colleague and his student? How can we avoid getting ourselves into a similar situation? No matter patient we are, odds are that we will all find ourselves in these roles at some point or another. Check out the ALiEM community’s discussion of the case.

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Image credit: wstera

Teaching in the emergency department can be a challenge. Distractions and interruptions are everywhere and there always seem to be more things to do than there are people to do them. These challenges are magnified when our learners are struggling. In The Case of the Exasperated Educator, we will discuss these issues and how we, as educators in emergency medicine, can address them as effectively as possible.

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The Case of the Unexpected Outcome presented an attending trying to deal with a poor outcome in one of their patients despite competent medical management. No matter how good of a clinician we are, odds are that at some point this will happen to all of us. In addition to being potentially emotionally devastating, a serious miss can make us question our competence and shift our practice patterns from evidence- to anecdote-based. Check out the ALiEM community’s discussion of the case.

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Cry By Clala1220

Emergency medicine is a specialty that requires a level of comfort with uncertainty. No matter how good of a clinician you are, at the end of the day there will be patients that, despite solid medical care, will have an unexpected outcome. In addition to being potentially emotionally devastating, a serious miss can make us question our competence and shift our practice patterns from evidence- to anecdote-based. Dealing with these issues productively will be the topic of discussion in this months MEdIC.

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The Case of the Not-So-Humorous Humerus presented an attending faced with a patient complaint about a resident. This is a situation that all of us will almost certainly be faced with at one point or another and there is no easy way to address it. This month we asked you to tell us how you would approach this difficult conversation to successfully determine what the problem was and how it should be addressed.

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