Attitudes 2

We have an associate professor in our department who is very senior. In fact, he will superannuate in a few years. He is quite knowledgeable and well read. Unfortunately he has some quirks which are detrimental to patient care. Normally we do not go to the operation theater on days allotted to other units. Once I had occasion to go there on his operation day. He arrived after I reached there. He changed into operation-theater clothes. Then he opened his locker and took out a pair of slippers for wearing into the theater. We have a perpetual shortage of theater footwear and unless you are early, you may end up barefoot in the theater. A senior person like would always be given a pair by someone, but he seemed to prefer to keep his pair in his locker, to be used by him once a week. That explained partly the shortage in the theater. I noticed something unusual on the strap of each slipper. He had made a pad of gauze covered over with white sticking plaster, and stuck it on the strap of each slipper. On the pad he had put his initials in bold letters. The sad part was that he could not get the slippers washed because the artwork would get spoilt. So he was keeping the slippers in the locker week after week, month after month, year after year (if the slippers lasted more than a year), without getting them washed at all. All the dirt collected on the bottom of the slippers carried bacteria into the theater, which explained partly the somewhat higher infection rate in our theater. The most upsetting fact was that these basic principles of microbiology are taught to a second year medical student, and he as an associate professor was definitely aware of the harm he was causing. That he should continue to do so for personal reasons was inexcusable. I talked to him about it and he readily agreed to change his ways and get his slippers cleaned every week. A month or so passed, and I had to go to the operation theater on his day. He arrived later than I, and the slippers he took out to wear were the same as before, with the bottom as dirty as before. He had not kept his promise, and his attitude had not changed. It is unlikely to change no matter how much I may explain the need to him, because the desire to change has to come from within, not by an order of a senior officer.