its a cruel world...

I knew that medical school was going to be brutal, but I had no idea that it would ever be this bad. It was not a good day for tact in the medical profession. First, in a cervical spine treatment lab, my female partner was told by one of the instructors that she had a "fat neck" and I would need to attempt to treat her with alternate techniques. After making said comment, the instructor paused, realized what she had said and realized that there was no recovery from this obvious insensitivity. This experience obviously desensitized me to any sense of inappropriateness as I proceeded to reveal my stereotypes for all the cliques in our class (e.g. "The Dirty Granolas," "The Dirty South," "The OBs" [yes, like in Scrubs], "The Sorority," "The Boy Sorority" [formerly referred to as "The Fraternity"], "The Mormons," etc...) over lunch... in public... in the hospital cafeteria. Yes. But it doesn't stop there. We then had a small group session with a clinician where we reviewed videotapes of a simulated patient encounter. Our doctor singled out one of the girls (out of five people in the room) and said that her school ID picture looked nothing like her. I will say that she attempted to tactfully state that the student had obviously lost some weight and she looked thinner now. However, as astute clinicians, we were able to translate "you look happier and more... mmm... relaxed now" to "holy crap, you lost a shit-ton of weight." So, yes. Today was not a good day for tact in medicine.