Transcript:
Will: [00:00:00] Knock,
knock, knock. Hi. Hello and welcome to Knock-Knock. Hi, with the Glock Flecks. We are your host. I am Dr. Glock Flecking. I am Lady Glock Flecking. And we are so happy to have you here today. Uh, Kristen is ready. She just slapped herself in the face to get her to wake up a little bit. That’s what it
Kristin: takes to talk to you for this long
Will: shoot.
This is actually the third time we’ve tried to do this introduction because, uh, we could not stop. I could not stop laughing. You’ve got the giggles a little bit. And so we, we got a, a fantastic show for you today. Yeah. Uh, we are, uh, we interviewed, um, Dr. Ial Ben-Zvi, who is a pediatric resident. And we’re gonna get to that in a second.
But, um, it was a fascinating conversation and one that I, I really enjoyed. I, I always enjoy talking to residents, uh, because it’s, [00:01:00] their lives are so fascinating and they’re learning so much, and it just always brings me back to my time in residency.
Kristin: It’s a very formative time in the life
Will: of a doctor. It is.
And, and just for those of you listening who have no experience in residency and don’t really understand what all these words mean anyway, but your residency obviously is right after med school. So you graduate med school and you do your intern year, which is the first year of your residency program.
And so residency can vary in number of years. So like internal medicine, it’s a total of three years. Pediatrics is three years of, of ophthalmology is four years and neurosurgery is 17 years. That’s
Kristin: right. And, uh, wait, here’s a question I always had. And honestly, still don’t really know the answer to why.
Okay. If intern year is the first year of your residency, then why not just call it residency? Why is it like separated out as this [00:02:00] different thing?
Will: Um, I think it, it’s just a, it’s a way to denote, okay, this person is a resident, but they’re a first year resident. So it’s just a, but
Kristin: like, who cares?
Will: Why do that?
Uh, because it’s, it’s really hard to be an intern. I don’t know. Like, is there
Kristin: something qualitatively different about what you do in your intern year compared to the rest of the residency? Sometimes there is. Or is it just a way to say like, this person might need extra support?
Will: I, well, I think that’s a big part of it.
Um, but no, it, it is different. Like my intern year was totally different. I was doing rotations in all different things. Right. Um, and doing very little actual ophthalmology. Right. And,
Kristin: but other residencies, it’s not
Will: like that. Right. I, I don’t know which ones there are. Which ones there aren’t. Uh, I don’t know if there’s like a, there’s no reason that you can say First year resident.
Second year resident, yeah. Third year resident. But intern year is like a, it’s, it’s a, it’s the most difficult. Year of residency for a lot of people because the work [00:03:00] hours are longer typically, and, um, and you’re like flying by the seat of your pants just trying to survive basically. Yeah.
That’s,
Kristin: you’re kind of getting the bulk of the grunt work, but also you get a lot of risk work and you’re, if you don’t
Will: know as much as you will.
Right, exactly. You don’t know as much and, and you’re learning an incredible amount of information like that. That intern year is when you. You learn really the most out of all your years of education and training. I’d say you probably even learn more your first year as an attending, but it’s like a different type of learning.
Mm-hmm. You’re learning different, like the system, more business. But as far as like learning medicine, you, you’re, you learn an incredible amount, uh, during intern year and in my, uh, situation, you forget it right afterwards. Mm-hmm. Uh, most people don’t do that. Uh, it’s kind of a feature of ophthalmology. Um, maybe other ones too.
But anyway, so we’re gonna be talking a lot about residency, uh, during this. Uh, and, and so I wanted to just give a little intro to, for [00:04:00] all of you about. Residency. It’s a, it’s a very challenging time. Um, it’s also very exciting, uh, because you’re, you’re going through it with a, a group of people that you become lifelong friends with, and you’re all learning this field of medicine, uh, under the, the, you know, the guidance of, you know, knowledgeable attendings.
The
Kristin: re I mean, you’re learning the field of medicine in med school, right. But, but residency, you’re now focusing on the area that you’ve chosen, right, as your specialty. Right. You’re actually, you’re, or as your area of practice.
Will: Yes. And you’re, you’re actually making the medical decisions yourself. A lot of, a lot of the time you are
Kristin: practicing as a doctor and they, instead of just learning how to beat
Will: one, Exactly, and the hours are, are very long.
Now there are work hour restrictions in place, but it’s not unusual for interns and residents, uh, to be working 70 plus hours a week. So it’s very time intensive, very stressful. Um, a lot of fun, [00:05:00] uh, at times and also pretty crappy at times. Uh, and so this, um, informs our discussion in this episode about resident unions.
Yeah. So we’re gonna be talking a lot about that
Kristin: because there’s a lot of hierarchy in the medical field that, you know, if you are in the medical field, you already know that. But for those of us who are not mm-hmm. Um, you know, there’s, there’s a whole pecking order of how things, um, shake out. And the residents and the med students are usually toward the bottom.
Will: Right? Yep. There is a, a bit of a, a power dynamics Yeah. And hierarchies. And so, uh, and, and so we do talk about, and that this is something that’s, that has come up a lot more frequently lately. Um, I think unions and residency programs are becoming more common and more popular. And overall, I think it’s a, a, a really good thing.
That’s my, my thoughts on it. We’re gonna talk about it. So let’s get to Dr. Ben-Zvi. So, Dr. Ial Ben-Zvi is, uh, again, a [00:06:00] resident physician at Harbor UCLA Pediatrics. He’s a PGY two, uh, and, uh, he’s got an interesting background. Grew up in Israel, moved to California at age 10, and later returned to Israel to study at the Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine.
Uh, and he has a, a, a couple of interesting hobbies that we’ll get to. That’s right. Uh, so let’s, let’s get into it. All right. Here is Dr. Ben-Zvi. Do it.
All right. Welcome, Dr. Ial Ben-Zvi. How you doing? I’m good.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: How are you? Good to be here. How are you
Will: guys doing? So you’re uh, we’re doing great. Yeah. I mean, uh, you’re taking some time away from residency, which mm-hmm. Uh, is a very busy time of life, uh, for a doctor. Yeah. And so you are in your second year, right?
PGY two? That’s right. Yeah. Um, at, at, uh, UCLA Pediatrics at Harbor
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: ucla. So it’s like a, it’s like one of the satellite
Will: hospitals, I guess. Oh, okay. How many, how many, uh, how UCLA is a big place, I guess, [00:07:00] right?
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Yeah. Um, ucla, well, we, we we’re different residency than the UCLA residency. Gotcha. Okay. And we’re different.
We’re also county employees of the LA County. Oh, okay. Okay. So we’re not UCLA employees. We’re, we’re just, we’re just affiliated
Will: with them. I see. Okay. Yeah, yeah. And so, uh, you’re, is the, the primary hospital that you work at, is that, is it a county hospital then? It
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: is, it’s one of the, uh, it’s, it’s one of the three county hospitals, yeah.
Oh, gotcha.
Will: All right. And then what are you doing right now as a PGY two? Right
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: now I’m on vacation. Um, oh. Which is the, uh, the, the ideal time to be doing this kind of thing. But yeah, uh, I’m in between two rotations, obviously. The one before was pediatric ward, where it’s just constantly, uh, yeah, go, go, go.
And the next one is gonna be an elective rotation, uh, ucla. So I’m gonna be driving up to Westwood, um, and, uh, it’ll be a pediatric cardiology, um, elective rotation. Oh, nice.
Will: Which is, uh, something [00:08:00] you are interested in doing for your career, right? Yes, yes, it is. I am never, uh, I’m amazed by the, the never ending supply of fellowship opportunities that, that you have in pediatrics.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Yeah. It, it was, it was one of those things that when I was considering a specialty, especially in, in medical school, when I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do, I was thinking emergency medicine, but I was thinking, well, mm-hmm. If I wanted to deviate away from that, it’ll be a little more difficult.
And then internal medicine, I wouldn’t be able to do emergency because I was interested in that. But pediatrics, I could do pediatric emergency medicine, I could do pediatric cardiology, I could do general pediatrics. So it, um, you know, coming into the residency, I knew I had a lot of different fellowships that were
Will: available.
Nice. And then so you just, uh, got off of, uh, what, by the way, thank you for deciding to spend like some of your last remaining moments of vacation. Yeah. On a podcast. It’s my pleasure, really with a, a TikTok, uh, ophthalmologist and his lovely [00:09:00] wife. Um, and so the, you’re, you just got off, you fit it before you got on vacation.
You were in, you were on the wards. Yes. Uh, which yeah, I, I don’t really remember. Like, my time rounding in pd, like inpatient peds. I remember what it’s like in, in internal medicine. And is it, is it very similar? Are you like on your feet for like several hours every day? Rounding, uh, seeing how many patients are we talking about?
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Yeah. Um, well, yeah. Some of it is on, on our feet. So most of the time, uh, we do, uh, patient-centered or family-centered rounds where we round throughout, you know, the, all the patient rooms and we go into each patient room and we talk to the patients or to the families. Um, in as plain of language and try to explain everything that’s going on and summarize.
Um, but yeah. How many patients? It could be anywhere between, usually it’s capped at 10 per intern and as a senior I have Oh, gotcha. The whole team. So, uh, we generally see anywhere between, you know, if it’s really slow, maybe we have [00:10:00] three, four patients on our team. Um, and if it’s pretty busy, we will have 12, maybe 13
Will: patients.
Something. How many interns are you, are we talking about each team
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: give you Each team has two interns.
Will: Two interns. Okay. And, and are are, are you a nice, uh, senior resident for, for the interns? Do or you
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: like to? I’d like to think so. Um,
Will: I’m sure you are, you seem, you seem, you see every, everybody in in pediatrics I feel like is is pretty down to earth.
Yeah.
Kristin: I don’t think I’ve ever met like a really mean pediatrics. Professional. I don’t know. I’ve met some that are maybe quieter than others, but never anybody that’s like rude. Yeah. Seems like a good group of people. Well, you gotta
Will: have like a sunny, a bit of a sunny disposition, like in your Yeah, a lot.
Patience because you’re in a lot of patience to not, not people,
Kristin: patients quality. The virtue of patience.
Will: Because, because obviously interacting with, with children. And at what point did you know pediatrics was the way you wanted to go?
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: So, before medical [00:11:00] school, before I even considered medicine as a, as a field, I, uh, I worked as a, as a Hebrew school teacher, um, throughout college.
And I knew that I liked working with kids. I knew that I like different age ranges. I worked with fourth graders and seventh graders. But when I was going into medicine, I was interested in like emergency. I was an E M T before. Oh, gotcha. So I wasn’t interested in emergency medicine. Um, and then in med, in medical school, when I went onto the pediatric wards and I started rounding in peds, I said, you know what?
I, I like this more.
Will: So, and this wa and this was whenever you went back to Israel to study at the Tel Aviv University? That’s right. Yeah. Right. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so what I know about your background is you, you, um, you grew up in Israel, then you moved to California, uh, for a lot of your childhood. Is that right?
Yes. And then you went back over there. To study medicine. Yep. And then you came back in, so did you just go straight to residency? Uh, [00:12:00] here, I just
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: like to, how does that work? I just like to rack up miles, so I
Will: just kind go back and forth. Can’t decide where you wanna be.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: I, yeah, I mean, moving, moving when I was 10 to the, to the United States was not my choice.
Uh, it was something that mm-hmm. Sure. Obviously my parents were, you know, had this right opportunity, right. So they came to the us It was supposed to be a short trip, like a two year trip where we’re gonna see Yosemite and Yellowstone and do a, you know, a lot, lot of travels. And then we were gonna go back, but then my dad’s workout extended and so we stayed longer, a little longer.
Oh, gotcha. And we ended up staying in the US and I always wondered, ever since I was a kid, what it would be like to live in Israel as an adult. Like what it would be like to live a regular daily life. Uh, knowing my parents’ culture, my parents, you know, how, how they grew up and how they became adults there.
So I, uh, I had this opportunity when I got into medical school in Israel to say, you know what? I can, I can experience that. Yeah. So I, I took That’s very
Will: cool. [00:13:00] That’s a
Kristin: cool opportunity. You know, that’s the same way I got stuck in Texas. It was supposed to be temporary and then Yeah, that’s where you end
Will: up because your family’s all, her family’s all in Oregon.
And so, um Oh, okay. But they ended up in, that’s where we met and yeah.
Kristin: So, but that, but your story really resonates with me of the, like, so when are we leaving? Exactly. And then it just turns out to be never.
Will: Yeah. And then after you, so after you did your medical, uh, medical school in Israel, uh, then you came, did you have to repeat medical school here?
Or does, how does that work? Um, so were you able to just go straight into, as like a foreign medical graduate? Is that basically how it
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: works? Yeah, that’s exactly it. So we, um, okay. It was actually a, a special American program in the Tel Aviv University that’s been around since the, I wanna say seventies.
Oh. Um, and what, you know, American students would come to Israel to study Americans and Canadians. Uh, to that specific program, and they would do their four years of [00:14:00] medical school, take their us m l e, step one, two, um, and then, you know, come back to the US to, to do residency.
Will: Oh, okay. All right. Were you always trying to get back out to California?
I,
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: I think, you know, when, when I was, when it came down to match and to thinking like, where am I gonna go when I’m gonna end up? It wasn’t quite clear, but I think that, In the back of my mind, I always wanted to come back to California. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Will: And did this, um, now at what point, uh, did you decide to become, in all of this timeline, at what point did you decide to be, um, become like the national champion in Latin ballroom dancing?
Because I honestly, I, I feel like I could just talk about this for the next 20 minutes. Uh, yeah, please enlighten us, uh, because not everybody has that kind of background.
Kristin: It’s a heck of an
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: extracurricular. It was, it was quite the extracurricular. So I, in college, I medicine was not on my mind. I was [00:15:00] not thinking I was going to go to medical school.
I wasn’t preparing to go to medical school. So I had to do a post back later. Um, and what I was doing, I was studying psychology and I had a minor. I was doing a minor in dance. Oh, really? In that time, I was, every single day in the afternoon, I would go to the gym and with my team I would practice Latin Ballroom.
It would be Cha cha cha Rumba pasodoble, the the five international dances. And, uh, we had a coach that, you know, came up with a routine and we as a team competed in that routine in the US and we went to nationals in Ohio and we won. Wow.
Kristin: That is incredible. That’s awesome. Can we, um, can we see some,
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: is this, is this,
Will: is this available on YouTube?
Can I, can we go? It is, it
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: is on YouTube. Yes. Oh,
Will: there you go. Uh, so this is a team competition. You mm-hmm. You won as a team. That’s, that’s so cool.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Yeah. I think it’s, it’s ball dancing is so [00:16:00] interesting because controlling your own body is hard enough. Yeah. But then with a partner and trying to go through a space without partner is also difficult.
And then taking eight couples and a team and making formations. Just a lot of layers of coordination. Sure. Thinking in spatially like spatial awareness. Yeah. Now,
Will: how did that help you become a doctor, become a better doctor
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: now? I like to think, well, I like to think that that spatial, that visuals, spatial reasoning, uhhuh that I, that I’ve developed through dance and, uh, through some other things, uh, I really, that’s one of the reasons cardiology speaks to me so much.
You have to think so much in three dimensions. You have to kind of turn it in multiple ways and think about the flow. Um, yeah, sounds horrible,
Will: but again, I’m an ophthalmologist actually. You know, you would’ve, you would’ve been a a, a fantastic ophthalmologist. Because we have to flip everything around in our head because when we’re looking at the back of the eye, everything [00:17:00] is inverted and Oh,
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: yeah.
Backwards, upside down, right?
Will: Yep. And so we just naturally like learn how to flip that image, um, whenever we’re That’s interesting describing where, where like lesions are, it’s like we see it, it’s up until the left, but it’s actually down into the right. So you have to like, you have to reverse it. Reverse it, yeah.
Yeah. But you know, it’s fine. You wanna be a cardiologist, whatever. I’m not gonna hold it too much against you. Um, but,
Kristin: but pediatrics, so
Will: he’ll be a nice one. Yeah, no, we, yeah, it’s, we need obviously lots of, uh, good non ophthalmologist in medicine. If everyone was an ophthalmologist, we’d have problems in society, but vision would
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: be great.
Will: Oh, everybody would see really well, yeah, abs absolutely. Uh,
Kristin: so, well, he’s not just a champion at ballroom dancing, you know? I also, yes. He also, yes, that’s right. You have a black belt. Yes. Is that right? Did you, when did you do that?
Will: Yeah. Save some accomplishments for the rest of us really, if you [00:18:00] would like, do you have to be good at everything you do here?
I mean, I,
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: uh, well, thank you. Um, so when I went, when I moved to Israel, um, for medical school, there was a vacuum of dance in my life. Um, all of a sudden I wasn’t really as active as I wanted to be. And in first year where I was living, there was a karate studio that was nearby. Um, and I did karate when I was a little kid, like, you know, yeah, I was, I was doing some extracurr outside of school.
Um, but when I was there, I went to the first class and I really fell in love with the way that they were teaching the philosophy of it. And it kind of just drew me in. So I started to practice in medical school when I was, whenever I wasn’t in anatomy class or you know, doing my clerkships, I was, um, either studying or practicing.
Kristin: That seems like a really good way to let off steam during a stressful time. You know, med school’s really stressful. It’s like a physical, so you’re moving your [00:19:00] body, you’re getting that exercise, but it’s also got that mental component, I feel like would really be helpful when you’re going through something like
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: med school.
Absolutely. There was, there’s a component of it. Every single, um, every single time session, every time, single time we met, there was, um, uh, a meditation. Like it’s 30 seconds Yeah. To a minute where you just sit down and you close your eyes and you, and you breathe. Everybody does this together. And in that time it was my time to kind of put things in a box and say, okay.
All of the, you know, all the physiology assignments I have to do, I’m just gonna put them away and I’m gonna think about what I’m doing now. The, the physical activity that I’m doing now, and at the end of the class, we do this again where I’d allow things to come back so I can, okay, what do I need to do for the rest of the day?
What is my next, what is my week looking like so I can Yeah. And help me structure.
Kristin: Yeah. That is so helpful. I think that’s, that’s helpful just in life, I think, to be able to do things like that. But especially in a career like medicine where, you know, you’re seeing one patient and then on to the next patient and on to the next patient.
Sometimes, I mean, generally [00:20:00] speaking, I don’t really love the idea of putting things in a box and I guess it’s just a problem if you don’t deal with it. But then that, that piece of bringing it back when it’s an okay time to deal with it, I really do like that. I think that would be really helpful.
Will: You’re trying to say something about me, is that
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: what
Kristin: you’re There’s no box I can put you in.
You’re too big.
Will: It probably also, your, your history with dance, karate and things can really have a a a there’s a lot you could do as far as like conversation starters with, with patients and their families or pickup
Kristin: lines.
Will: Your choice. That’s right. Um, but I wanna talk a bit about your, uh, um, re your residency experience, uh, because, um, you just, like, we all do, part of the reason I love having people like you, you know, people early in their training, um, on this podcast is, is because there are so many interesting formative experiences that you have.
In training that, uh, are at times embarrassing, [00:21:00] sometimes amusing and, and, and, uh, just kind of incredible. Right. And so, uh, you gave us, you came with a list of a few of your, um, kinda notable experiences so far in your medical education. Just a couple. Just a Yeah. Yeah. It was a quite an impressive list, which I was, you wrote us a novel I was very happy to see.
And one, a couple of these really, uh, stuck out to me. Um, uh, one was about a, um, 16 year old in a pregnancy test. I’d love for you to tell that story.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Yeah, that was, that was wild. It was kind of a, it was in the ed it was an afternoon, kind of early evening. And was this, what, what year
Will: of your, uh, was this in your
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: intern intern year?
In my intern, yeah. In my intern year. I think this is a little bit later on in an intern year, so I was kind of a li a little bit more comfortable. Um mm-hmm. She was, she was came coming in and I honestly don’t even remember what she came in for. Uh, but a lot of times we just do [00:22:00] pregnancy tests, um, on, uh, on females of reproductive reproductive age, just to make sure that if they need any support and they needed resources, they can get those.
Um, and hers came out positive. Um, so it was one of those things that I came into the room, I asked mom to step out, um, you know, to do the, the one-on-one exam. Um, and to just kind give her a space to, to talk if she needed to. And when it came to asking her, you know, are you sexually active? Are you da dating anyone?
She said, no, I’m not. I’m, and I said, mm-hmm. Um, I just wanted to let you know that, uh, your pregnancy test came back positive. Um, were you, uh, you know, is this something that you’re expecting? And she kind of, which went wide in the face and was like, that’s impossible. And I was just, I, I sat there like, I don’t know how to respond to that.
You
Will: know, like, what do you say? What do you do?
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Oh my gosh. And, and, uh, I said, you know, we can repeat it just to make sure just to the extra extra shirt. She’s like, yes, please repeat it. [00:23:00] And, and I said, do you want me to, to bring your mom back in? She’s like, no, please do not. Uh, and I said, okay, that’s, that’s perfectly fine.
Uh, we, we went ahead and repeated it, and this time we did a quantitative, uh, uh, H C G to make sure that, do we know it’s not just a positive or negative, we get number. Yeah. And it came back and it was completely negative. It was zero. Yeah. Or it was very close to zero at least. So,
Will: which is probably the definitive test.
Yeah.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Yeah. Right. So I went to the attending and I said, have you ever seen this before? Have you ever had a, a beta h c g, you know, qualitative. A qualitative that was, that was positive, but then a quantitative that was negative. And they said, no. Not really. I mean, oh wow. So it just kind of, maybe he was a, a fluke in the system like that another test was sent in by accident.
Not, yeah, it’s not exactly
Kristin: clear, but that’s where my mind went. Are we
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: sure that was hers? Maybe? Yeah. Yeah. You know, human error happens. It’s just, you know, unavoidable sometimes. But it could have been the, the sample itself that was contaminated in some way. Yeah. Unclear. So going back to the room positive.
Yeah, [00:24:00] going back into the room, it’s like kind of right outside of her, her door. I was like, okay, you got this, I could do it. And I go into the room, I said, you know what? You’re, you know, it, it, it came back negative. I’m, I’m so sorry. I don’t know how that happened, that the first one was positive and I’m so sorry that I freaked you out.
You know, it must be, it must be so terrifying to be told that you’re pregnant by a doctor in the emergency department. Oh my god. Yeah. And, you know, she was just kind of like, okay, uh, yeah. That, that makes, that makes more sense. And, and I just kinda left with, you know, I, I don’t even remember how I left. I just kind of left the room and Yeah.
Didn’t know what to feel about
Will: that. But you basically, uh, gave someone like the worst scare of their life Yeah. But then also the most reassuring thing they’d ever heard. Yeah. Yeah. What a whirlwind with emotion. Pregnant. I, I didn’t know that was even a possible thing. I
Kristin: mean, every test has some amount of, you [00:25:00] know, false negatives and false positives and whatnot,
Will: but Woo, what a fun experience to have as an intern.
Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Definitely fun. And, and nobody else that I’ve talked to has ever had anything similar, so, just a fluke. Yeah. Wow.
Will: And you, you also have a, a great story that I actually related to quite well because it’s a, a thing that I would not do very well with. And that’s, uh, things that have to do with nails.
Ooh, toenails. Fingernails,
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: yeah. Terrible. That
Will: was, Everyone’s got a thing, right? Everyone’s got like a thing in medicine that you just, yeah. We’ve talked about this before, that you just don’t do well with, like for me it’s like teeth. It’s teeth. Teeth. For you. It’s eyes. Yeah. Uh, which is funny. Being
Kristin: well for me, pretty much anything.
Bodies are gross.
Will: And what happened to you?
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: What did you have? But Kristen, I think that ice thing is pretty common. I, I Oh yeah, I’ve heard that before. That’s very common. I think
Kristin: he’s the weird one in that.
Will: Yeah. Oh yeah. No, it’s, it’s just a, it’s a question you get asked when you’re interviewing for residency is, do you think [00:26:00] eyeballs are gross?
Are they icky? Yeah. You have to be able to answer that one correctly. It should be a prerequisite question. Yes. It should be on applications. Absolutely. Do you realize eyeballs can be a little, little nasty at times? Yes. No, but you had, you had an experience with a toenail.
Kristin: Oh, oh. And it’s a toe. I was hoping it was a fingernail.
It was a
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: big, a big toenail. A big toe. A big toe, yes.
Kristin: Oh, okay. And, and
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: this is not an uncommon raise myself. This is not an uncommon thing in the emergency department either. Yeah. So we have to
Will: ever remove a toenail,
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: basically. Yeah. Or you remove a part of the toenail, so, yeah. Uh, I know, and this is, I’m not sure I’m gonna make
Kristin: it through, but,
Will: okay.
In what situation would you have to do that? So when
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: there’s an ingrow to ingrown toenail. Oh, okay. Um, all right. When the, to the nail grows into the side of the, of the tissue and starts to get infected, and so you have to remove it to let the part heal and then it, you know, the patient will go back and, and
Will: you almost passed out, [00:27:00] happened to do this?
I
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: almost did. Um, I, it was the first one, so I went with another, I wanted with one of them, my seniors. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and we went to the, to the patient’s bedside and we got everything ready to go. And then he starts injecting the lidocaine into the joint space. I said, you know what? I’ve seen injections before, but into the joint space, you know, a little bit.
No, questionable, but fine. Okay. I’m, I’m okay so far. Yeah. And then, you know, do you feel this? Do you feel this? The kid says, no, it’s okay. And then it comes to the pliers. Where Digging underneath the nail, flying, like putting, clamping it down, and then the twists, right? So you twisting the nail out of the nail bed, like from the side.
And then once it’s out and vertical, then you can clip the bottom of it off. Ugh. So then you, you know what rest left? Like half the nail is remaining. Why did you ask
Kristin: him about this one?
Will: I, I thought it was interesting. There were so many
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: to choose from. [00:28:00]
Will: I can totally see how that could really, uh, you know, uh, you know, induce some kind of vaso vagal response.
Yes. So, um, this is another reason why I don’t think I could ever be an emergency seen black. Yeah. Right. Now, are you, are you feeling little lightheaded yourself? Yes. Well, you
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: know, I, I did, you know, I, I was there, I was helping, I mean, I was, I was doing the procedure and, you know, with my senior, it was really nice that he, that he was there, because if he wasn’t, I don’t know that I would’ve been able to do it all the way through, at least on the first time by myself, obviously.
Yeah. Yeah.
Will: But, and then now, and then now as a, uh, you know, as a, you’ve been a, a pediatric resident now for a couple years, and, and at least
Kristin: their toenails are smaller.
Will: At least they’re smaller. But I’ve always been very impressed by, especially my colleagues in pediatric ophthalmology that are able to do procedures on children, like even at a fairly young age.
Um, and sometimes you can do them without like general anesthesia and you’re
Kristin: able to, we can’t even get [00:29:00] our kids to go to bed, so, so
Will: I find it very impressive. Yeah. Uh, that, that you’re able to, you know, get as much done for kids, uh, that you’re able to do. I don’t know. What’s your approach to like, you know, I guess how often are you able to, I mean, that’s not something you’d be able to do to a, to a kid without putting ’em out, right?
I don’t know. Do kids even get ingrown toenails? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a kid with an ingrown toenail.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Kids do. I mean, I think, I think especially school-aged kids or even teenagers. Yeah. And they would still come to the pediatric emergency department, so Gotcha. You know, up to 21 years old. But there are, you know, like small babies you need to do a lumbar puncture for sometimes.
Oh yeah. And you know, instead of sedation, they give them sugar. Sugar. Like sugar. What? Really? Yeah. There are these, uh, they’re these sweeties that’s like a syringe of, of glucose that you give them a little bit and they just kind of like mellow out. Really? Yeah. Oh, that’s interesting. It was amazing when I, when I first saw [00:30:00] that where you give them a little bit of sugar, they’ve never had so much sugar before and it’s just such a, they’re just like, it’s a sugar high.
Yeah. Oh my.
Will: Oh, I had no idea that happened that I’ll put that on the list of, of kid related, like baby related things that I had no idea happened like that. Uh, they give, uh, caffeine sometimes. Oh, yeah. In the nicu. Mm-hmm. That’s something I learned just because I had to make this stupid video about, uh, neonatology.
Uh, I mean, I had to like do a lot of research for it, and that’s one thing I learned is that actually, you know, caffeine is given for certain things. Well, maybe
Kristin: we should try the sugar trick next time they won’t go to
Will: bed. Oh, our kids have had plenty of sugar already. That would not phase them. That’s true.
You know, it’s
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: actually the caffeine thing is, is, uh, is, is a funny experience that I had when I got a call from pharmacy saying that I actually don’t remember which, which it was, but D five or, or like 5% dextro. So normal saline versus normal saline. Um, and the pharmacist or the pharmacy assistant was asking, Hey, hey doc, are you sure [00:31:00] that we can give caffeine with the, the D five normal saline and not just the normal saline?
And I was like, You know, I sometimes take sugar in my coffee, so I, I mean, I’m just thinking like, would that make a difference? Yeah. What’s
Will: the answer? Answer’s fine. That’s
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: fine. Yeah, that’s fine. Because
Kristin: sometimes with kids it’s different, you know? Yeah. They, they’re buddie
Will: That was gonna be something like, you know how sometimes the farm, in order to make you not feel bad as like a brand new doctor, they’d be like, are you sure you didn’t mean to order this?
Right. That’s actually the correct thing and not the terribly incorrect thing you just ordered. I, that’s why I love pharmacists. Yeah. They always, there’s, there’s, there’s so nice about that
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: stuff. I’ve been saved several times by Oh, benevolent pharmacists.
Will: Well, I wanted to, another thing I wanted to talk with you about, uh, which is a little bit unique in, in your experience is, um, is your experience with the union that you have for your residency.
Now, this has been a topic that’s really, uh, It seems on social media, [00:32:00] on Twitter in particular, you see more and more programs and residency programs that are doing this. Uh, and so tell us a little bit about, uh, the union and your experience with it.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Okay. Uh, so our union is here Without getting in
Will: trouble, I don’t wanna get you into trouble.
Of course
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: not. Um, I, uh, I actually, I wanted to make sure I, I emailed our union saying like, Hey, by the way, I have this, uh, public facing, uh, you know, event uhhuh that’s coming up. I just wanted to make sure that everything is fine. Um, and we had a chance to chat a little bit too, so. Oh, good. Um, yeah, our union has been, um, honestly, I had really great experiences with them.
Uh, when I came on as an intern, our salaries were probably one of some of the lowest in the, in the nation. Um, and during my intern year, there were, um, a lot of bargaining sessions with the county to, you know, advocate for the residents, to advocate for us to have better benefits, better salaries, [00:33:00] a housing stipend that’s, that’s significant for the area that we live in.
And our union was able to, you know, provide that for us and was able to come to an agreement with the county about, you know, making that change
Will: possible. Now, was the union in place before you got
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: there? Yeah, it’s been around I think since the seventies. Um, oh, wow, okay. Yeah. Here specifically. But now I think throughout the nation, not just in medicine, you know, you have all these, uh, you know, Chipotle, Amazon, Starbucks, all four unions are being a lot more, uh,
Will: encouraged.
Yeah. I just ha I, I, I feel like I’m hearing it more with, with residencies in particular. Um, and so is this a, a union that’s, it’s not specific for pediatrics, is it? Or is it No, it, it’s, it’s all the residency programs Yeah. Under at, that are affiliated with the hospital that you’re at. Is that at, with the county.
And so what would you say to, to that type of criticism of resident unions?
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: I think there are, I mean, [00:34:00] as a resident and, and I know there are people who know more about this than me that can bring up facts and, and, and research about this. Um, but I think that the, the counterargument is that if you are able to, if you’re in the hospital for 96 hours, how well are you actually learning?
What are you getting out of that experience as opposed to having set, you know, our limits so that when you do come to the hospital, you are fresh, you’re ready to learn, you’re ready to take care of your patients, and. You’re, you’re at a place that you are financially, you’re more secure. You have benefits, you have healthcare that you need so that you know when all of your, your hierarchy of needs is being met.
Mm-hmm. You are able to provide, um, that, that care for the patients that deserve, they have quality
Kristin: over quantity of education. And I,
Will: and I think also the, the quality of life in terms of like financial stability, like you mentioned is, is huge because that, that’s a burden on, [00:35:00] you know, These students are coming out, you know, with several hundred thousand dollars of debt and to, to Yeah.
Ex meet us too. Yeah. Um, and, and it’s not me, just you, and to, to just be able to advocate for yourselves to, to just have a, uh, be able to live and not have to be able to focus on your residency education. Yeah. And not have to worry that you are going to be able to survive financially in some places like where you are.
Uh, that’s pretty expensive place to live, right? Yeah. Um, and so, uh, you know, it’s more than just the hours, you know,
Kristin: I think it has a good, a big effect on mental health too, right? Like right now there’s this big crisis of physician suicide and, um, I think, you know, that’s obviously a complex problem with many facets, but one of them I think is, is that you put so much.
Investment in a medical education that if at some point along the way you [00:36:00] realize you don’t wanna do this career, you feel so trapped because you are, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and how else are you gonna pay that off except to follow through with this and try to specialize in something that pays enough.
Um, and if that’s not something you wanna do and you just don’t see any way out, I think that can be a contributing factor sometimes. So if we were to, you know, make it where residents could be a little more financially stable and not be so reliant on loans, I feel like that would go a long way in that problem as well.
Will: Well, and they’re, they’re getting loans earlier too, and
Kristin: Yeah. And so undergrad and med
Will: school and, and, uh, yeah, I think, um, just trying not to disillusion doctors. You know, too soon. I mean, I mean that’s like, that’s part of it, right? You don’t want, you don’t want, uh, you know, new physicians coming out of training and ha already being so beaten down that they, they no longer love medicine.
Yeah. And I, I [00:37:00] see the unions as a way to help, you know, foster the, the, just an improvement in mental health, an improvement in, and where doctors are from physically and mentally once they graduate and start really the bulk of their career. You know? I
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: absolutely agree. And I, and I think that having a union and being a member of the union, it’s one of those things I don’t think about every day.
I don’t think about, oh, you know, my union’s there, but the fact that they’re there for me as a, as a support, as like a safety net in a way. Mm-hmm. And I know that I can reach out to them and say, Hey, I’m having this issue, or, or Hey, this is something that’s going on and, you know, can you guys help? Is huge.
It’s huge to have that, um, Kind of advocacy for on, on our behalf and, and that support. Yeah. And it’s
Kristin: not like you guys are advocating for anything crazy, like
Will: Well, we’re, we’re gonna get to that. Oh, because I’ve got, we’re gonna do a little thing after the break. Okay. Let’s, let’s, let’s, let’s take a quick break and we’ll be back with, uh, Dr.
Albin. David. [00:38:00] Hey, Kristen. I have a PSA for you and all of our listeners from our friends from Tarsis. Let’s hear it. You know how sometimes you can get red itchy, irritated eyelids? Okay. Well, do you know what that might be? What? Eyelid Mites? No. Yeah, it’s true. No, it’s a disease. It’s called demodex Blepharitis.
That’s disgusting. It’s pretty common. That’s horrifying. So if you have itchy, red, irritated eyelids, go talk to your eye doctor. They can take a look at you, tell you if you’re not alone. That’s right. But don’t freak out. Just get checked down. All right. To find out more, go to eyelid check.com. Again, that’s eyelid check.com to get more information about Dex Blepharitis.
Today’s episode is brought to you by the nuanced Dragon Ambient Experience, or Dax for short. This is AI powered ambient technology. It just sits there in the room with you, just helps you be more efficient and it helps with, uh, reducing clinical documentation burden. Yeah. And that
Kristin: can help you feel less overwhelmed and burnt out, and just kind of restore the [00:39:00] joy to practicing
Will: medicine.
And we all want that. So stick around after the episode or visit nuance.com/discover. Dax, that’s N U A N C e.com/discover dx.
All right, we are back with, uh, pediatric resident, uh, Dr. Alban David. Uh, so I, all I, this, this whole union conversation really has me thinking. Um, and so what I wanted to do was a, a, a little activity here that I call, can the union do this? See, I’ve never worked in a union. I don’t know much about unions. I don’t know what they can do, what they can’t do.
And so, uh, you know, to the best of your ability, uh, I, I came up with some things I thought would be like, awesome. As a resident to have. And then, uh, I’m gonna ask you, can the union do this? And, uh, and so these are things that like, okay, you’re like, you have an idea. You’re like, okay, you go to your union rep.
Is that how it works? Right. You [00:40:00] just, you go and talk to your, is it a resident rep?
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Lemme text them real quick. Let just, uh, get ’em on the, she get
Kristin: them on the line. Yeah.
Will: Or, or like, so if you have a rec, something you think needs to change, who’s, who’s the first person you go to? Is it your own co-resident rep?
Or is it somebody outside of your residency that you’re contacting? I think,
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: I think it’s outside of the union. It really depends on what it is. I think most of the time there’s, I don’t go to the union directly, but rather to my program directors or my chiefs. Gotcha. Because a lot of the, a lot of the moving parts are within the program itself.
Mm-hmm. Right. So I, I, I don’t think that I’ve ever really needed to go to the union for, for anything major. But yes, if there was anything that was. I would go
Will: the rest. Sorry. So here we go. Here. Can, can the union make this happen? Can the union, all right, here’s the first one. Um, get the day off on your birthday every year.
Can the union make that happen? What do you think? I think,
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: I mean, I think theoretically they [00:41:00] might be able to do it. Yeah. Oh, they should. It’s your birthday. It, it could be a part of the contract that that’s, oh, now every resident on, you know, on their birthday has the day off. It’s, it’s mandated. There you go.
Can,
Will: can you put it in the contract?
Kristin: You’re not thinking big enough though. We need to go to birthday month.
Will: Oh, I, I think, you know, I think asking for a month off around your birthday is a little bit much. Well, I, I
Kristin: was planning to take one, just so you know. Well,
Will: you, you got a little bit more of a flexible schedule, so, okay.
So, uh, put it in the contract. I like that. Put it in the contract. Um, all right. Free parking. Do you have free parking right now? Mm-hmm.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: That’s always I do. You do? Is
Will: that very lucky? Do you think that’s a, a, a something that the union helped you put together?
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: You know, I, I actually be, I’m not, I’m not sure.
It could
Will: be if your residency program, if you’re listening and your resident, if they don’t have free parking. All right. Get, get the, get the union on it. Mm-hmm. I, I think that’s something the union should be able to do. That’s a contentious issue. [00:42:00] I mean, parking, you know, in the past we’ve asked for feedback on like, uh, when I’ve talked to like administrators in hospitals, that’s like the number one thing.
People like want, like they want better parking, they want close to the hospital, they want free parking. It’s a huge deal. Um, yeah,
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: thankfully we have, we have a parking structure. I think it used to be one floor, and then they built a structure. So,
Will: and they let you park there?
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: We are allowed to park there, yes.
Good,
Will: good. That’s good. I remember in, uh, when I was in med school, so I was at Dartmouth, uh, which is a big, a big campus, and there was a, a lot that all the residents had to park at, um, which required like a shuttle bus to get to the front of the hospital. Not great. Not great. All right, here we go. Snacks, just everywhere.
Snacks, uh, the call room. Call room. Snacks. Uh, workroom snacks. Just, just snack. Are you, how are you doing on snacks? A you know what?
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Do we need to send you some? [00:43:00] We, the, I think one of the perks of being in peds is that our chiefs buy us snacks and we have a candy bowl in our resident workroom that’s always filled.
It’s stop. It’s, it’s like a bottom list. It’s a bottomless candy bar.
Kristin: Somebody’s looking out for
Will: You guys. See people, I think they underestimate, uh, peds in that way that there’s, uh, it’s, it’s one of the snack heavier specialties. Mm-hmm. That’s, how
Kristin: about stickers? Do you have it? Never ending stickers next to the candy?
You can probably, you got some
Will: stickers right there. Oh my God. We said that he pulls up a, a whole sheet of sticker, a whole sheet of stickers. Oh, one second. Sorry. That’s amazing.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Just a second. Sorry. Got lots of, is that, oh, he
Will: also is wearing a unicorn, rainbow unicorn headband. He
Kristin: stepped it up a notch. His better than
Will: yours.
That is actually, I’m, I’m a little bit jealous about that. Yeah.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Two,
Kristin: you see this, two unicorns. There’s two rainbow
Will: in between two unicorn heads and a rainbow in between. That’s [00:44:00] amazing. I should’ve done PS I don’t, I don’t know. It’s, uh, whew, man. We could use you in Ophthalm. Hey, do you wanna, do you wanna like go back and do a different reon?
Do you wanna do ophthalmology residency real quick? And then you can do like just an additional op uh, pediatric fellowship and then become a pediatric ophthalmologist. I’m just tempting know, like, think about totally changing your entire career around, uh, so that, so that I could personally benefit and my practice.
Right, right. Um, anyway, just an idea. I
Kristin: heard a job offer. I don’t know what you heard.
Will: All right. So we, we’ve established that, uh, there’s no shortage of snacks in, uh, but I feel like the union could help with snacks. I, I think they
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: probably could again,
Will: uh, meal card. I don’t know. Like something, you know, something,
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: you know what the, our union did part as part of this new bargaining session.
They, we now have offsite, um, like money allotted for meals. Oh, good. Per day. So we have, you know, [00:45:00] our meals, if we do outside s per, we have a, every day we have a certain amount of money for meals. There you
Will: go. Which is great. That’s good. The union can do it. Yes. That’s good. See, that’s one thing like, like if you’re as far as helping out just mental health and burnout, like I know the joke is always, oh, another pizza party, whatever, but.
But honestly like feed the residents as much food as they want. Like, I, I really think that would go a long way to just overall happiness.
Kristin: Right. I mean, you guys, we are at such a low point that all it takes is basic human needs. Yeah. Let’s, if you just were to fulfill the basic human needs,
Will: let’s raise the floor a little bit.
Everyone, and then, and then we can go from there. Let them sleep,
Kristin: let them eat, let them pee. I mean, this is what you’re asking for at this point. It’s really
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: That’s right. The bar’s low and it props to Harbor ucla. We have three meals a day for the residents. Oh, nice. Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah, so that’s, uh, that’s something that’s, uh, it’s a, that’s and [00:46:00] time to go eat them.
Most of the time. I, most, most of the time I think it really
Kristin: a little hesitation
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: there. Let’s grab and go, you know, if it’s a really busy day, sometimes it’s like, okay, well somebody will get it for the whole team, but, oh, okay. I think for the most time we we’re, we’re able to manage that. The point
Will: is, you never have to eat anything off of a patient’s tray because you have food available
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: to just pick it off.
Right out, like on the walking by the paper room, just picking it as you’re walking. You
Will: know, kids, they don’t eat their vegetable patients love it. You could. Um, alright. All right. How about, um, how about student loan repayment? I don’t think I’ve ever heard that from you. Can the union pay your student loans for you?
Don’t answer that.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Don’t answer that. I’m, I’m gonna go ahead and pass on that one. I
Will: you’re gonna, you’re gonna, the fifth plead, plead the fifth on, on the student loan repayment. Um, okay. I, I, I just think it’s possible, you know, it’s, Hey, these are just ideas. Think about it. Can
Kristin: union take it back to your rep?
Just
Will: think about it. Unions, can you help a little bit with a little, you know, income based or payment maybe? [00:47:00] Um, okay. Can, uh, now maybe I’ve, I’ve seen too many movies, I don’t know. But, um, can the union, uh, physically in intimidate mean surgeons to make them nicer to students and residents?
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: I think that the union generally is on the surgeon’s side.
Not against the students, but the residents that are the surgeons. Oh, oh,
Will: oh, okay. I, I guess I meant like attendings. You mean the attendings? Yeah. Like, yeah, like the mean attendings. Yeah. I think
Kristin: that’s your job. I think that’s what you’re doing is shaming attendings into better
Will: behavior, I guess. I guess that’s what I try to do, but again, that’s why it’s like, I don’t know, d does the union have like muscle?
Like, uh, they should hire
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: some muscle. Yeah.
Will: You know, like real intimidating people. Yeah. Uh, there’s like, like stop throwing things in the OR or they’ll bust your knee caps, that kind
Kristin: thing. What’s
Will: that group? Or maybe I’m thinking of the mob. They might be thinking of the mob. I think
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: I’m just imagining like, uh, a big guy in, in like, uh, aviator sunglasses just peering through like [00:48:00] an or win like, uh, the window from the, the door.
Just
Will: Exactly. Hey, be you better be careful. We’re part of the union. Yeah. I’m watching you. Uh, okay. I got one more. Um, so I, I don’t, well, and so just to recap that one, I, I, I guess the union probably doesn’t want to hire people. I think that’s a no muscle to intimidate people that aren’t behaving appropriately.
Okay. That’s a little bit pushing it. Uh, ael, what is your favorite thing in the cafeteria at your hospital? Um, what do you like, what do you like to eat there? I
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: think so they make really, I think pretty, pretty good plantains on on Taco. Interesting. On Taco Tuesdays we have plantains. Yeah. And I, I think, I really enjoy that.
That would be beyond meat. Like vegetarian option.
Will: Okay. All right, here we go. So, LA County. Um, can we, can the union please get some all you can eat, uh, plantains and, uh, yes, that would be, and taco, taco Tuesday. [00:49:00] Just all, you can eat tacos, as many plantains as you want. Uh, you want some, you want some, some guac?
Uh, you can please. Yes.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Guac would be, would be much
Will: appreciated. I absolutely, yeah. I think, uh, that should be doable for the union. All right. So, excellent. Anyway, that was, can the union do this? Um, did I miss anything? Is there anything else the union can do? Is there anything that’s like in, like you guys are talking about, maybe you can’t even say this, but, uh, like what’s, what’s next?
Is there something I feel like, is there always something that the union’s working
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: on? I think, um, right now they’re working on making minimum wage for all healthcare workers $25 an hour. And that’s specifically in California? I think it’s in California, but they’re trying to, you know, raise that and it’s a bill that’s going through, uh, government right now.
Oh, nice. That they’re working on. Yeah.
Will: Very nice. And the, the California legislature you mean or is this a federal?
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: I I think it’s
Will: California. I’m not sure one of the two. Anyway, it’s a, it exists and I think that’s great. [00:50:00] $25, yeah. $25 per hour minimum wage. How does that work
Kristin: when you get like a, like a monthly stipend instead of paid by the hour?
Like
Will: Well, I think there we’re probably thinking more for like hourly workers. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, cause there’s a lot of, lot of hourly healthcare workers salary. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That’s great. I love it. All right, well, let’s take one more break and then, uh, we will come back with some stories.
All right. We are back with Dr. Alban David, and we are going to look at some of our favorite medical stories that were sent in by you, the listeners. All right. I also, we got a couple good ones here. We got a fan story number one from Jess. Dear Dr. G, thinking of funny moments from my medical training recently and thought I’d send you this one.
I was working as a resident on a cardiology rotation, and we were gathered around the telemetry screens listening to the registrar talk about some gripping [00:51:00] cardiology topic like P waves. I’m sensing some sarcasm. Do you know what telemetry screens are?
Kristin: Um, ish. They’re the ones that move
Will: around, right?
Yeah. So like, and then when, so you have all the patients submitted in the hospital and there’s a, a screen that has all their heart tracings on ’em, so it’s like me, like monitoring all their heart rhythms. Oh,
Kristin: okay. That’s not what I thought. I thought it was, do you know the ones that are on? It’s like a really boring tv.
They’re like
Will: mobile. Uh,
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: nevermind. What are you talking about? We’ll talk about it later. I think you’re thinking like the vitals machines maybe? Yeah. So take like a blood pressure. Oh, I don’t think
Will: she knows what she thinking about. Dunno what I’m talking about. Anyway, so we’re, so we got a resident. Okay.
Pee Wave resident on a cardiology rotation, gathered around telemetry screens, talking about something fascinating like P waves. Suddenly one of the monitors showed ventricular tachycardia. The registrar sprung into action and ran into the room of the patient with his arm held high above his head and gave the patient who was lying eyes closed on the bed.
An [00:52:00] almighty pre cordial thump. And then tried to commence c p R. The patient’s eyes popped open and he struggled to sit up while the registrar was attempting to start chest compressions. Oh no. The patient batted him away, groggy and bleary-eyed from his sleep and growled at him. I’m not dead yet.
Kristin: See this prove I always tell people when I’m advocating for learning c p r, you can’t hurt them.
If they don’t need it, they’ll let you know. That just proves my point. That’s
Will: true. Oh, man, I, I can’t say I’ve ever been in that situation. No, you were dead, so. Well, I was the yeah, the, the patient side of things. Yes. Um, a pre cordial thump. Have you ever, gi, have you ever given out a pre cordial thump by all?
I’ve never
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: thumped a patient. I’ve, I’ve never th Yeah, not yet. At least not,
Will: not yet. All right. Let’s hope you never have to. But, um, nobody in this room, in this, on this, uh, podcast has ever thumped a patient. Well, I don’t have, I. I [00:53:00] don’t think you, did you ever
Kristin: thum me? I don’t. Good.
Will: Just compressed me compressions, that’s all.
No thumps. I don’t even know what that even it’s, I think it’s like a real hard tap, like, like wake up kind of thing. I don’t know. Or like, Stu, please don’t like that you just pre cordial thumped me. Did I? I
Kristin: didn’t even know what that
Will: meant. I assume that’s what it is. I’m an
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: ophthalmologist, so you don’t
Will: know either.
Okay. Fan story number two. We have Helen. Helen says, Fledgling trainees passing out in the hospital or in anatomy lab is a pretty classic tale. That’s true. We’ve already talked about that. Mm-hmm. When I was shadowing in the emergency department in undergrad, I saw all of these normally traumatic events, someone shins run over by a lawnmower, gunshot wounds, a patient with ultra mental STA status who checked an IV pole at me.
I was actually really unfazed by all of these sites, and it was honestly exciting to be in the middle of the trauma bay. But during a lull, I followed a resident into a room with a suspected stemi, so a heart attack for the ophthalmologist who haven’t read [00:54:00] an EKG in years. Thank you for that, Helen. I really appreciate that.
Um, it’s, it’s good to know your audience. And the patient was a nice old man sitting up in bed with his wife next to him. They hadn’t even started an IV on him yet. He smiled at me and said, hello, young lady. How are you doing tonight? And I felt my ears go numb and my vision go black all around the edges.
And next thing you know, the resident is in tears laughing at the kid who was absolutely rabid over the gory traumas and got cod by a grandpa. The patient turned out to be fine, and I have now pledged to join a specialty that only requires me to see the goriest of traumas.
Kristin: Helen, you and I are very different
Will: people.
Yeah, that’s to, that’s totally backwards. That’s so interesting. I’ve never heard that. Like, you’re fine with all the gross, gory stuff and then it’s like the medical what even. Heart attack Grandpa that Yeah. That made it happen. What would’ve
Kristin: triggered that being talked to?
Will: I don’t know. That’s a good question.
But, uh, that’s, that’s [00:55:00] fascinating. Thank you Helen. Yeah. Uh, you can send us your stories. Knock, knock high@humancontent.com. Uh, I all thank you so much for joining us. It’s been a pleasure talking with you.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Thank you so much for having me. It’s been such a pleasure.
Will: Before we go, do you have anything you wanna share with our audience?
I
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: think to all the residents who are currently, you know, and attendings and medical students about to be residents or that will someday be residents, just treat your patients like, you know, their extended family to some degree. You wanna make sure that you’re giving them the best, the best care that they deserve.
Um, and the way that I always think about it is just like I think about ’em, like a nephew or a sister, or my own, you know, father when I was working in adult medicine once a month. Yeah.
Will: Well said. Well, uh, thank you so much again for joining us, and good luck to you with, uh, residency with, uh, however many fellowships you have to do to get to where you end up being in life.
If
Kristin: you wanna cash in on that job offer,
Will: just let me know. I’m [00:56:00] just saying just, you know, think about it, ophthalmology. We could use any more pediatric ophthalmologists. Uh, and then also, uh, uh, good luck with your union. Get them on those, uh, infinite plantains. Um, that’s right. I, I don’t think it’s too much of an ask.
I think I’ll, I’ll write a
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: strongly worded email. Yeah,
Will: sounds good. All right. Take care, Al.
Well that was fun talking with, I love, again, talking with, uh, people earlier in their
Kristin: career. Yeah, it’s my favorite too. Cause they’re just so like, Smart and eager, and they haven’t just been totally destroyed by the system yet, like the
Will: rest of us. Which doesn’t necessarily have to happen. Everyone. Yeah.
It’s just, it just
Kristin: Can the union do
Will: that? Can the, can the, can the union just a fair asks, can the union, uh, preserve the, uh, enthusiasm for medicine? Yeah. Just in general. I don’t know. Across the board.
Kristin: Yeah. Doesn’t seem like too much to ask
Will: actually. It does seem like a lot to ask, but, but, uh, [00:57:00] anyway, that it was a lot of fun talking to him.
We need to get, we need to get more residents and kinda young Yeah. Med students, early career people on med. Get some med students on here. Yeah. Uh, maybe even a pre-med.
Dr. Eyal BenDavid: Ooh,
Kristin: now you’re just getting, how about a child? Crazy.
Will: How about like a child, 10 year old? Can we, should we get
our
Kristin: kids in here? Oh, eventually
Will: let them run the show.
Um, and so let us know what you thought. Uh, I’m just rambling on at this point. Oh, we, I guess we should probably wrap up this episode. Uh, let us know what you thought and, uh, do you have any suggestions for stories or doctors or, or anybody that we should have on the show? Lots of ways to hit us up. You can email us, knock knock high human content.com.
Uh, we’re on all the social media platforms, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, all of it. Uh, and you can also hang out with us in our Human Content Podcast family on Instagram and TikTok at Human Content Pods. Thanks to all the wonderful listeners leaving feedback and reviews. We [00:58:00] love seeing those reviews. If you subscribe and comment on your favorite podcasting app or on YouTube, we can give you a shout out like today.
Uh, 23, Dr. Kim on Apple said, funny and educational. Short and to the point. Yeah, I love it. That’s, that’s, I’m a big fan. Have you seen ophthalmology? I like both of those things. We are. Big on acronyms and, um, and, and we try to keep it short and sweet, short and sweet, and, and not as short as the orthopedic surgeons.
They have, they have the, they win for the, the, the brevity.
Kristin: Do they just say bone or not bone?
Will: Well, it’s always bone. If there’s no, if it’s not, if it’s not bone, why, why are they doing anything? Um, but yeah, point, essentially it’s, it’s either that or all emojis. Um, so keep sending us your stories, jokes and guest ideas.
Uh, YouTube episodes are up. Every full, full video episodes are up on my YouTube channel every week at d Glock and Flecking. We also have a Patreon, lots of fun perks, bonus episodes where we [00:59:00] react to medical shows and movies. Hang out with other members of the knock-knock, high community. Lots of really cool people over there, by the way.
Yeah, come join like much cooler than us. Uh, we’re there and, uh, would love to interact with you. Uh, you can, um, uh, get early ad free episode access, interactive q and a livestream events much more. patreon.com/glock flein or go to glock flein.com. Speaking of Patreon, community Perks, new members, shout out to Mark K, Laura, K, Donna, Melissa, S and May Q.
Welcome. Thank you so much for being here. Shout out to all the Jonathans, Patrick, Lucia, C Sharon, s, Omer, Edward, K Stephen, g Robox, Jonathan f Marion, w Mr. Grand, Caitlin, c Brianna, l Chav, w Jonathan, a Leah d and k l a virtual head. Nod to you all. Patreon roulette. Shout out to this old, we home what Paton roulette is.
Yes, it’s an emergency medicine tier of Patreon. Uh, we give you a random [01:00:00] shout out. So, uh, drum roll. Shout out to Jonathan, a for being a patron. Thank you. Woo. Thank you Jonathan. Uh, and thanks for listening. We are your host, will and Kristen Flannery, also known as the Glock Flecking. Special thanks to our guest, Dr.
Ayal Ben-Zvi. Our executive producers are Will Flannery, Kristin Flannery. Aron Korney. Rob Goldman, Shanti Brooke. Our editor and engineer is Jason Porta. Uh, Jason Porto. Sorry, Jason. Our music is by Omer Ben-Zvi. To learn about our NUN Knock Highs program disclaimer, ethics policy submission verification, licensing terms and HIPAA release terms, you can go to clock and plucking.com or reach out to us at knock knock high human content.com and with and with any questions, concerns, or, I’m having trouble talking.
Kristin: Are you stroking out? Do I
Will: need to be worried? I don’t know what’s happening. Anyway. I’ll be better next time. Knock Do High is a human content production,[01:01:00]
knock, knock.
Hey, Kristen, do you know why I got into medicine in the first place To spend your
Kristin: evenings on documentation? Of course. Uh,
Will: no, actually that never even crossed my mind. Hmm. Weird. I got into medicine to actually take care of patients to, to be able to form relationships with them, that is a better reason.
And care for them to listen to them, to actually look at their eyeballs while I’m treating their eyeballs.
Kristin: Well, I would hope that you look at where
Will: you’re treating. It’s an important part of being an ophthalmologist and it’s easier than ever with the nuanced dragon ambient experience, or Dax for sure.
This is AI powered ambient technology. It’s just in the room with you and it helps you be more efficient and reduce clinical documentation burden. Uh, it basically lets you get back to being a physician and practicing the way you wanna practice. So it’s like
Kristin: having a Jonathan.
Will: It really is. To learn more about the nuanced dragon ambient experience or [01:02:00] Dax, visit nuance.com/discover.
Dax. That’s N U A N c.com/discover. Dx.
