Saturday, March 26, 2011

differences between surgeons and internists

surgeon - green scrubs
internist - blue scrubs

surgeon - in the business of  life and death
internist - in the business of living and dying

surgeon - would never be caught dead with a stethoscope draped around his or her neck
internist - would have an identity crisis without a stethoscope draped around his or her neck

surgeon - loves a pithy aphorism (eg - all pus must be drained,  all bleeding stops)
internist - sucker for maze-like algorithms (you'll have to wait for my post on this, it's coming)

surgeon - act now, mull over it later
internist - mull over it, mull over it some more, cautious action, mull over that

4 comments:

  1. After careful consideration...I must agree with your assessment.

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  2. Grandpa said, “Measure twice, cut once.”

    To be fair, we were building bookshelves at the time.

    But Grandpa never steered me wrong. In fact, he told me that if everyone liked the same thing, they’d all be chasing Grandma.

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  3. All bleeding does stop...my favorite.

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  4. Absolutely love this! I agree, and am delighted that doctors can also have a sense of humor. My mom has just done a stint of 4 months in hospital , critical, kidneys, lungs, heart and breathing, all right on top of each other and all involved was told by me, if you are not going to treat her like she is your own mom, then stand down. The surgeons, internist and staff in ICU and the medical wards were amazing and she was loved back to health. She came out - 2 days fell and broke her hip, back to hospital and surgery and physio and again staff was marvelous. Sense of humor and purpose is an amazing tool to heal all. I admire dedicated men and woman in the medical profession as I saw many rude and obnoxious patients in the 4 months she was in 3 different hospital and I was appalled how they speak to the staff. My mom's jaw dropped more than once with mine when we heard what they call the staff.

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