Page 23 - CASA Bulletin of Anesthesiology 2019 Issue 1

I felt offended and replied immediately: “Hey, I thought we should work on the same page on it. However, I am not your technician (I learned this from training. )” The situation escalated from there, back and forth. I even threw my pen to the ground in frustration, but then, I held a deep breath, and told him “ let’s stop here, I wouldn’t argue with you during the surgery (I was clearly realizing it’s not moral to fight while patient was on the table no matter who is right), and wouldn’t do everything you want.”
Later weaning off bypass, he requested the drug, to which I refused. He then instructed
the OR nurse to start the drug, at which point I declared no meds without my permission. We finished surgery while the entire OR staff was watching intensively. As soon as I dropped patient in ICU, I encountered him at front desk and asked him for a talk. He said: “ David, it’s midnight already, I have a case tomorrow, can we talk after that?” I said,“sure.”
Next day, I called his office and told his secretary “let surgeon call me as soon as he is off work, please.” Near late afternoon, he called me and said (before I say anything): “David, that
is the most wonderful thing for me today that you tried to communicate with me. You made my day. No one tried to reach me for a talk like this in the past. I was very appreciative of your approach. I apologized for my behavior last night .” Since then, no further conflict has happened between him and me. We remain in a collegial relationship for 15 years now.
My point is this, be professional during any interaction, be calm during the irritating situation, take a deep breath to start cooling down yourself first, and try to resolve the conflict outside of the OR. If the approach above failed, you may take further step to report to his /
her supervisor (in order).Be mindful that if you do file a report, it might cause some backlash through worsening the work environment with a narrow minded co-worker. However, escalation might work if administration intervenes. Use your judgment on the personality of your colleagues unnecessary of the administration. Later I learned this surgeon had been written up many times by OR staff( this might be the reason he played it down in OR). Since he conceded/ apologized the next day, I didn’t attempt to push further (didn’t let my anger control me) like Chinese old sayings: 得饶人处，且饶人。this is why we still 低头不见抬头见。Anyway, I always handle this kind of conflicts down first, drag them to private area to save our faces, but point out issues straight forward and defend yourself aggressively. However, if I know I am in the wrong or contributed to the faults, I will apologize first. it’s been working well so far.
Vol.6, No.1,2019
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