Transcript All I need to know to be an Assistant Professor…I DIDN’T

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All I need to know to be an
Assistant Professor…I
DIDN’T learn in Residency
(or Medical
school or
Fellowship for
that matter)
Daniel S. Eiferman, MD, FACS
Asst. Professor of Surgery
New Faculty Orientation
Sept. 16, 2014
An honor to be asked to give this talk
However, some not convinced selection committee got it right!
Disclosures
 NONE of the following is supported by level 1
evidence
 (Or level 2 or 3 or 4 for that matter either)
 “My advice has no basis more reliable
than my own meandering
experience” --Baz Luhrmann
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Because I have clinical competency,
I must also be skilled at:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
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Communicating Effectively
Building a Team/Leadership
Process and Quality Improvement
Interacting with Patients & Colleagues
Doing research and writing scientifically
Health care finance
How I Learned How To Take Care of Patients
 Wife and I struggling with infertility
 Undergo IVF to try and start family
 Our physician is pregnant herself and starts having severe 1st trimester
complications
 Physician gets placed on bed rest and partner assumes care for us
 Partner reviews our labs and images and cancels our cycle
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How I Learned How To Take Care of Patients
 Our physician (while on bed rest and in the process of losing her own
pregnancy) calls Ilissa and says I know your case and I think there is a
drug that can salvage your cycle
 One problem: Only one pharmacy in Chicago has it and its downtown
and it closes it 5:00
 It’s 3:45, Ilissa is at work in Northern Suburbs and I am on call
 Ilissa fights Chicago traffic and makes it on time
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Result
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My turn to pay it forward
 Called by Resident to staff a consult of a women undergoing fertility
treatments who clearly has appendicitis
 Take patient to OR at 1:00 a.m. for laparoscopic appendectomy
 Case takes no longer than 15 minutes to remove inflamed, nonruptured appendix
 Prior to completing operation, take an extra 10 minutes to assess her
tubes, ovaries, and uterus to see if there is an anatomic cause to her
infertility
 Call husband and give results
 Pt. discharged several hours later with no complications
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Result
 Patient writes a 3 page letter describing her awful hospital experience
 Patient felt she was just a cog in a machine and that her needs weren’t
met (specifically post-op pain medications)
 Lesson no one ever taught me: 70% of patient satisfaction has nothing
to do with their clinical outcome
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Progress
 17 y.o. Cross-Country Athlete
Involved in MVC and arrives in extremis
 Have to amputate left lower extremity to
stop hemorrhage.
 Long hospital course—promise mother
that I will attend high school graduation
once he recovers
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Priorities
Patient has full recovery and will graduate
on time in the spring
Graduation Day is same day as Abby’s first
Dance recital
Gave my word that I would come to
graduation
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Compromise
Went to Abby’s recital, took Julia
to the Graduation Party 2 weeks later
Always make sure
your family is your
#1 priority
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The Rules of Eiferman
1. Be great (not just good) at what you do. If you have no street
credibility, no one will listen to you.
2. Be a great team builder. Embrace conflict. Create an atmosphere
where failure is expected and accepted so that there can be future
success. Be willing to take risks. (Yerkes-Dodson curve below).
3. Be a great communicator.
4. Stay calm. Only 2 things are worth getting upset about and they both
start with the letter “L”
5. Focus on the process, not the results
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