Please Don't Tell Me That You Are "Just Covering"

Peter Pan, Hyde Park, London

Do you remember the scene in J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, where Tinker Bell survives only because enough children believe in fairies?  "If you believe," he shouted to them, "clap your hands; don't let Tink die." 

Teachers are not unlike fairies. We do much better if believed in and might wither otherwise.

Which is why I am pleading today with young doctors to be mindful that us old fogies are sensitive and vulnerable to the pervasive post duty hours era phenomenon consisting of  hearing you tell a senior consultant (for instance a French Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist who has just seen the patient your team wanted her to see and wants to report back to you) that "no, I am not interested in  hearing about a patient because....( insert one of the following sentences: [I am post-call; I am off-service; This is not really my patient; I am just covering])."

Besides the fact that you owe more to any patient than "not really" being their doctor, you owe more to yourselves and to your teachers...Please never believe that you have nothing to learn; & clap those hands for teachers...We believe in you; please believe in us.

Till Later,

Anne