To think that surgeons, while obviously skilled, often have a certain arrogance that makes them difficult to work with?

My parent had a brain tumor.
I can remember the rudest, most arrogant man coming into their room with a following trail of medical students, and introducing himself as the surgeon. Absolutely no bedside manner at all.

Later when i was talking to a friend, they said well, if you’re going to have someone taking a scalpel to your brain, you’re probably best they have a bit if confidence, you wouldn’t like it if they were a hand wringing nervous type! I think they were probably right.

Ultimately the surgery was futile and he was at least a bit nicer when he said there was nothing further to be done.

I think the "psychopath" trope is lazy and inaccurate. It is going to take a certain kind of confidence and mindset to cut into living flesh, but I'm just thankful some people have it and the training and skills needed.

When I had eye surgery, fully awake, I felt very aware for the time I was on the table I was An Eyeball to my (actually very pleasant) surgeon. I can see the need for such a focus.

My daughter’s neurosurgeon was a lovely man with a naturally smiling face. Reassuring at a particularly terrifying point of my life.

To be fair that wasn’t arrogance, and it wasn’t predominantly surgeons (main issue was anaesthetic, with a couple of ENT surgeons trying to help). They became too task focused on intubating her, and lost sight of the fact she wasn’t being ventilated.

Elaine Bromily’s husband (a pilot) was very keen on bringing in human factors training, not on criticising the individuals.

Also, partially certain types of people apply to these types of jobs. But also, they also act in the way they do, because they can. There are no consequences for being rude. It doesn't matter what colleagues and patients think of you. Patients are your customers, and they have to accept what they get and can't really go elsewhere. And if you have a choice, if you're good enough, it doesn't matter.

That being said, i use mainly private healthcare services. Especially after I started working in public health care.

My guy's name began with S.

I had more faith in him than any other person I've ever met.

My obstetrician was an arrogant, rude woman. I saw her reduce other mothers in my shared ward to tears.Unlike the on call obs who took pity on me when my sweep didn't work, at 38 weeks, with enormous twins. She was raging at that.
My mother's ortho surgeon was a rude snobbish sexist fucker. Suggested just taking her home and keeping her morphine topped up rather than amputating her necrotic leg. I am in awe of the skills they must have, but i can't understand why they aren't more empathetic members of the medical profession.

I worked with many surgeons - like in all professions there were arrogant gits who were disdainful towards nurses, and their patients, but I have to say most were reasonable people and easy to work with.

One of the nicest was David Nott who is known for his volunteering work in war zones.

No it's not. Psychopath doesn't mean murderer, even though it's become common parlance for it.

I used to work part time in theatres and the rest of the time in the pre op unit with patients before their surgery, and it was so intriguing to see certain surgeons go from being all sweetness and light in pre op, to being the devil incarnate when operating in theatre. Seemed to be a stress/environment thing in some cases. Others were just arseholes 100% of the time, and the rest (though rare) were lovely regardless of where they were working. Always found that the ones that were lovely regardless were the ones that were the most confident and capable at their jobs and the ones that I’d want if I was a patient!

I don't think you're who the OP is talking about. Plenty of positive comments on this thread, including my own experience with an epic female surgeon. Of course I'd expect someone to prioritise their job over people's feelings in a moment of intense focus.

A relative is a paediatrician, though a physician. She chose to specialise in paediatrics as she felt they were the least arrogant, most down to earth people. I suppose arrogance does not go down well with kids!

My mum was at the Royal London. Surname of surgeon starts with a B.

Its basically a medically induced coma.

If your in a coma in ITU the same drugs can be used to comatose you.
Also, to the person that said about anaesthetists being technicians, anaesthetists also run ITU. In my trust they all rotate through ITU if they wish. Having to monitor every body system, ensuring yhe patient is ventilated adequately and haemodynamically stable whilst dealing with emergencies.

Being an anaesthetist is far from any "technician". They are incredibly smart people who understand the body as a whole. Surgeons are also very intelligent, however some that I've come across are very smart in their own speciality. Anaesthetists have to understand each speciality.

As an ODP, I work with both daily

As a paediatric physio, I love reading this, thank you for sharing and I'm glad your son is doing well.

I have only met paediatric surgeons, mainly orthopaedics, and they were nearly all lovely. Confident yes, but kind and good communicators.

I work with a team of about 20 surgeons. 2 are women and are lovely. 2 of the men are grade A arseholes and actually the most mediocre surgeons in the whole team ( although they think they are absolutely fantastic of course) The remainder are hard working, decent, good to patients and excellent technically.
I think the 2 tossers are the ones who are remembered ( thankfully not always) and create a bad rep for the others.

I'm autistic, my daughters autistic, my son is autistic and so is my dad. So is my sister! My dad has very little empathy and isn't good at communicating. My son isn't great with empathy either. My daughter actually has too much empathy

Hardly a stereotype when I literally grew up and live with autistic people..... I also work with autistic people

Here to stick up for the surgeons who are getting a bit of a bashing! Yes I have only ever been on the patient side of the fence, but having lived (literally) in hospital for a year with my child whilst they underwent a total of 11 brain surgeries, I saw a LOT of surgeons and their interactions. The neurosurgeons were some of the kindest, gentlest, most empathetic and extraordinary people I have had the fortune of meeting. They showed me endless patience and kindness when I was losing my mind, real empathy to our horrific situation, and such sweetness towards my child. I absolutely deify them, but it’s hard not to when you’ve witnessed them save the life of your 2 week old to be honest! Though as someone previously said, as long as they’re respectful I wouldn’t care if they were arrogant!!! You have to have such self confidence to cut into and operate on the brain of a baby, thank GOD there are people out there who can. I certainly couldn’t.

They certainly have a reputation amongst the medical doctors I work with 😄 though I remember a lovely Orthopaedic surgeon who, when I was watching a shoulder replacement as a student nurse, was so kind, explained what was happening and fetched a stool for me to stand on so I could see better! So they're not all bad 😄

As a surgeon - this is delightful to read, thanks !
Yes , we fight hard for our patients when managers suggest that our patient’s major case should be cancelled
Yes there are times in theatre, when the music needs to go off, people need to stop chatting and I need to be able to concentrate to save someone’s life.
Yes there are times, that we throw a strop because we are being asked to cram extra patients into a clinic ( with no notes/ an IT system that isn’t working) because we still need to
make the right life changing decision for each person.

Yes , we take residents to task when their actions have lead to a poor outcome or put someone in danger .

But we also wake in the middle of the night , very frequently with patients’ details buzzing round our heads.

We miss special occasions with our families because a patient came first.

We phone relatives the minute we take our gloves off to put their mind at rest that their loved ones are out of danger.

We ensure that sloppiness is not tolerated within a surgical team ( those blood tests or that referral can’t just wait, that discharge surgery needs to be correct) .

If I was 18, I wouldn’t be a surgeon - more than 20 years of study and the stress is unbelievable. My husband jokes that a patient death is a nail in my coffin and that like a boxer we have only so many fights in us.

I worked at the JR in Oxford. One of the cardiac surgeons claimed to be, "the closest thing to God in Oxford".

Psychopaths apparently make good surgeons.

It was at Atkinson Morley

The last one I came across ushered his colleagues in to admire my crocs whilst I was on the meat slab getting prepped to be cut open 🤣🤣🤣 He was lovely !

The female who did my endometriosis excision was incredible. I didn’t meet the bowel surgeon but he spent 3hrs with her, and she operated on me for a full day from 9.30am - 6pm
i kept everything apart from my appendix and she saved my bowel
brilliant before surgery at explaining everything and listening to me and so kind

If you think surgeons are bad, you should meet a Navy pilot.
Oh - excuuuse me - a Naval aviator.