Teaching hospitals are a funny thing. You are going to get the best, top of the line care at the forefront of medical research. You are also most likely going to get poked and prodded by less than skilled hands (ie medical students and new residents).
I'm on my anesthesia selective for two weeks. In the week I have been there so far, an elderly woman woke up with an extra bruise on her hand from a botched IV, another woman woke up with a swollen lip from a botched intubation, and still another woman woke up with the back of her throat possibly more scratched than it had to be from yet another botched intubation. I asked if I could practice intubations in a sim lab and was told that it isn't at all the same. In the sim lab, the tongue stays put and doesn't flop everywhere. I need to practice on real people, I'm told.
I watched the attending leave the first year anesthesia resident alone in the room for ten minutes. The apnea alarm started going off. I asked why it was saying that, he had no idea. If anything bad had happened in those ten minutes, that woman might have been dead. I watched the junior resident accidentally bovie the stomach serosa instead of the fascial adhesions. If you told patients during the consent that their surgery might have a few mistakes, the anesthesiologist is new and doesn't know what to do if anything goes wrong, and a med student is going to practice with their veins to put in IVs and try intubation only to probably just scratch up their mouth, I'm unsure they would consent.
It's a necessary evil of a teaching hospital. And you know what? If one day I need to wake with a few extra bruises and minor abrasions from a surgery that maybe didn't go as smoothly as it could have because a resident messed up, then so be it. That is what it takes to make doctors of tomorrow. We have yet to find a better way.
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