Glove Magic

One criterion of diagnosing the institute of training of a doctor is his or her ability to wear a surgical glove. If the person can wear any sized glove on any hand and work satisfactorily, the person has to be from a civic or government hospital, where gloves are perpetually in short supply. I noticed this the other day when my houseofficer wore a size six glove for a left hand on her size six and half right hand and continued to work without any indication that something was amiss. I knew she was from the same institute as me. I had to wear a glove and see the same patient. The only gloves available in that tray were of size six, and all of them were for the left hand. Someone who washed the gloves had not bothered to invert the gloves, but left them the way they were when the previous users had peeled them off their hands. The nurse who had packed the gloves had also not bothered to invert them. So the entire tray had gloves for left hands. When I started to don the glove on my size seven and half right hand, the residents started running around to get me a seven and a half size glove. I stopped them and told them, "anyone can wear the right sized gloves and work properly. A truly great person can wear any glove on any hand and still work well. Perhaps they missed the joke, but I hope they did not miss the message that one should be able to perform well irrespective of the conditions one is forced to work in, while the administrators continue to struggle to make the two ends meet.