Surprise!

Fun thing to do to the specialist rounding on your patient...make him work on the floor.

Patient has small, nasty wound requiring mechanical debridement, since the enzymatic debriding agent is not working well anymore.

Said specialist, also the chief of specialty service, comes with his own assistant and the whole medical staff of Hotel Rehab, including our chief, follows him around on rounds recently. Specialist, however, does not bring tools or other goodies from Washington, while slumming at Madison with us.

Yours truly sees the group moving from room to room, then dives into supply closet and packs a debridement tray, scalpels and extra gauze into scrub pockets, and gets back to room just as the pack of doctors comes by.

All my goodies for the patient's wounds I hadn't yet dressed were all set up on the table. Specialist sees this and checks out patient really well. "Looks like it needs debridement," he says, motioning to the nasty, necrotic wound.

"Do you need a kit?" I ask.
"Why, yes, I do."
"Well, here you go." I say to specialist, fumbling for my pocket and coming up with the debridement kit.
Specialist just shakes his head. Rest of room of MDs just look.
"And would you like a #10 or #11 scalpel?" I ask.
"No 11." says the assistant. "He only uses 10s."
"Did I tell you I was thinking of being an OR nurse, once?" I use to change the subject. No dice.

Specialist proceeds to debride my patient, on his first meeting. He grouses, he gripes, because we didn't have the hemostats, etc., that he likes. "You know we don't get the good stuff down here, remember?" I say repeatedly. He still works, carefully removing the dead stuff and providing his assessment to the rest of the medical staff in the room.

"As for you," he says pointing at me, "I'll remember this."
"Me, too. " I say and smile. "See you next year."

Nothing like making the doctors work on the floor.