TravisDBA (5/1/2013)
majorbloodnock (5/1/2013)
umailedit (4/30/2013)
Let me take the contrary view here.Hypothetical Question: You are about to have a brain aneurysm operated on. Who would you pick?
1) A brain surgeon with little less technical skills but who you can get along with nicely.
2) The brain surgeon who is a genius who has a 100% success rate and is the most arrogant prick you have ever met.
If the surgeon in point 2 was regularly pissing off the rest of the team, especially to the extent they weren't concentrating properly on their jobs, I'll take number one, please. As with most things, surgery involves teamwork, and teamwork involves people getting on together. Very few jobs exist that aren't a compromise of technical skill and people skills.
I have a sister that was a RN nurse so I can speak from her experience here. If they were operating on my shoulder I might (enphasizing the word MIGHT) agree with you, but one of the most important organs in my body!!!! I'm sorry, but I will take expertise (Point#2) here everytime. I don't want a real nice guy in that operating room bringing his B or C game. I don't care how nice he is. I want the guy that knows his stuff and what he is doing and bringing his A+ game with all his knowledge, period. Most operating room staff leave that personality crap at the operating room door anyway. Particularly, when it involves someone's life. The hospital and them can be held liable if they let stuff like that affect an patient outcome. My sister used to tell me all the time when I was younger when she would come home from work complaining about a certain doctor on her floor "But you know, although that doctor is a 14-carat gold prick, if I was in this hospital I would want him taking care of me.". That pretty much says it all... 😀
I can go much further than that. Nice, quiet, unassumming surgeons with excellent people skills and the patience of a saint don't exist. OR nurses learn very quickly how to do their jobs, what each surgeon wants and how to do it. If not, they don't work in the OR very long at all!
There is a difference between treating people poorly for no good reason (not a good doctor), and setting standards for performance and demanding a competent person to replace the one that can't perform. There is nothing mean about telling an incompetent nurse to get the xxxx out of the OR! Great surgeons tend towards having limited patience. Why? Because surgeons who are too patient kill people, and don't practice very long.
"Oh nurse, would you please take a moment, when you are done discussing your daughter's cheerleading skills of course, to hand me that clamp so I can stop this guy from bleeding out? Only if it pleases you though, I know how important cheerleading is to you..."
Dave