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If you read Simon's original post you will see that he does not mention the grade of the radiologist. The radiologist was a consultant. It has never been difficult to deal with radiology registrars here. JP >>> Adrian Fogarty 06/26/03 11:50pm >>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Ryan" Subject: Re: Are we Clinicians? > The issue of 'stubborn', 'difficult', whatever you want to call them > radiology registrars is clearly a pervasive problem. But surely it is for us > to provide solutions to why it happens not look for reactive solutions to > when it happens. Why does this keep happening? Surely we are not that > naieve as a specialty to think that when we convince today's radiology > registrar that we are clinicians, or know better, or whatever it is we want > to convince them that when they change over jobs then next year's lot will > never have the same attitude again? A very good point, John, although I challenge anyone on the list to come up with a long term solution! > The challenege for us as a specialty is surely not to react to today's > perceived egotistical trip by radiology juniors but to spend our time > looking at why it is we receive such a response. Surely these are nice > people and not genetically linked to be difficult as with some other > specialties! Am not so sure! Doctors who choose to eschew clinical medicine in order to work in an environment like radiology must be "self selected" in some way. They choose a specialty with minimal "real" patient contact, i.e. they may have patient "contact" in a superficial sense, but they avoid true relationships with patients, with all of the demands and stresses that this brings. They choose a specialty with minimal out-of-hours work, although this is changing, thankfully. And finally, they choose a specialty with little risk in terms of litigation and complaint, with a few notable exceptions e.g. breast screening. All round, it's a pretty cushy specialty, and I have my doubts about doctors' motivations for choosing this specialty as a career. Clearly there may be exceptions; there must be radiologists who are excited by their field, who are driven by the challenges of their workload, and who are motivated by their ability to help their colleagues and their colleagues' patients. But I suspect they are the minority... > I can recommend a reading of the diatribe of responses from radiologists to a > particular BMJ filler last year. It does give some insight into how they > think and the pressures they are under: http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/325/7368/831#26283 And you'll note my own particular reply among those responses, John! http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/325/7368/831#26473 Regards Adrian Fogarty