This is about one Resident Doctor who worked in my department. What I propose to do is to narrate two events that come to mind, though there have been many more such.
- There was a case of severe anemia, who was to be given blood transfusion. The blood bank of the institute did not have blood of that group. So they arranged to have blood brought in from another blood bank. The standard procedure for this was (and still is) for the blood bank to give a request note to the other blood bank asking for a bag of blood of that particular group, for the relative of the patient to go and get it and deposit it in our blood bank, for our blood bank to cross match it with the patient's blood, and if it was compatible, to issue it to the patient, and only then for our Resident Doctor to transfuse it to the patient. Unfortunately the relative brought and handed over the blood bag to this Resident Doctor. She/he was about to start the transfusion, when fortunately Senior Resident Doctor said 'Don't transfuse it like that. Send it to our blood bank. When they cross match it with our patient's blood, they will issue it. Then transfuse it to the patient.' Unfortunately the Resident Doctor ignored this instruction and transfused it as it was. Fortunately nothing untoward happened to the patient. If the patient had died of a mismatched transfusion, the Resident Doctor would have lost her/his registration for criminal negligence. When we learned of this much later and asked her/him why she/he did so, she/he said 'I thought it was OK to transfuse it like that.'
- The other example is a minor one. There was a patient with pelvic infection. The microbiology department required two swabs from the cervix, not one. I had written an eBook for the resident doctors, in which I had detailed all procedures including this one, so that there would be no error in the performance of any procedure. Every Resident Doctor had a free copy, and every one had said she/he had read it. Still I instructed this Resident Doctor 'Send TWO cervical swabs of this patient', and she/he said 'OK'. The patient came back from the examination room with only one swab in a test tube. 'Why did you not collect two swabs when I had instructed you to do so, very clearly, and just five minuted ago?" I asked. 'I thought one was enough' she/he said.
- She/he did not understand English.
- She/he was dumb.
- She/he was rebellious.
- She/he did not pay attention to seniors when they were giving instructions.
- She/he believed she/he was smarter and more knowledgeable that everyone senior (and of course all juniors).
- She/he was lazy and wanted to do minimum possible work.
- She/he suffered from a curious psychological condition (which no one named). In this connection I recall what my mother used to say about such people 50 years ago. She used to quote a famous Marathi phrase to describe it - 'कर न करी' which meant one would do exactly opposite of what one was told to do. In order to get the desired result, the trick was to instruct such a person exactly opposite of what was desired. I wish she had known the name of the psychological condition and told me.
