Not only are these types of occurrences exhausting, but they are damaging.

I have had consultant physicians refuse to convey information to me because they are looking to speak to my 'superior.' I have had nurses ask if I am 'ready to transport the patient to CT scan' whilst sitting at the computer labeled 'attending only,' wearing physician-designated scrubs as I typed patient notes. The trauma attending had made a swift judgement on my identity, role, and experience based on the only thing that was visible to her: my skin.ДЄs my initial anecdote illustrates, role misidentification does not solely occur at the patient level but happens even with the clinical staff. In fact, I had on a mask, gown, and gloves as standard trauma PPE. While the hair comment theoretically could have been regarded as a seemingly innocuous observation, my hair was fully covered by a surgical bouffant. Thus, the comments from the trauma attending were not an innocent case of mistaken identity, but a blatant demonstration of bias. It is common knowledge and practice that this potentially life-saving procedure is performed by, or under the direct supervision of, the most senior and experienced physician or surgeon in the room - never by an unsupervised medical student. As the most senior physician in the trauma bay, I swiftly began to perform the indicated emergent thoracotomy. He lost his pulses immediately upon his arrival. Moments before this brief interaction, a 19-year-old Black man's lifeless body was rolled into the trauma bay with a single gunshot wound to his chest. She quickly got to work as we stood side-by-side, working simultaneously to try to save the life of our young patient. 'Oh, uh.it's just that you.it's just that you have the same hair as the last medical student on our service,' she continued. 'No.I'm the emergency medicine attending.do students usually do thoracotomies?' I responded.

Trauma center second opinion used