Dr. Wade Smith on "Discipline Creates Performance" (Orthopedic Surgery)

from episode ER/"Denver Memorial Hospital:"

You do your Best, & you leave the Rest..that's what i tell the residents"... "They [ residents in training ] have to understand why they're here..& if you can tell them there's a STANDARD. & that standard's going to get DONE. And, if it's NOT going to get done, they're NOT going to be here anymore..they pickup real quick on that.".... "I think you teach them by example ...I think.. you teach it by having a standard, that anything else is COMPLETELY unacceptable."... "Then you have to show them that performance is.. predicated on every day, every minute, every hour..being on top of the game... "I'm a big believer in telling them right away if they're doing a bad job..and right away if they're doing a good job."... "Now i'm just worried about the people..bozos who are working with me. I've had a couple of my residents hit me with hammers..just about DESTROYED me"... "one way of really enforcing that is to invoke a physical punishment.. I need them to understand when i'm on this team, every mistake they make, ..is my mistake too. ".... "29, 30. then i always do 2 more pushups to show that i'm stronger than they are. so it never becomes an issue"... "i didn;'t tell them it was going to be easy..but when they're finished, they better be as good as they can be, else they're going to STINK." everytime those bones buckle, they tear blood vessels & tiusse that damage affects the whole body & the whole system. we got to go through it over & over your mind fior it to happen correctly when you get in there now i'm just worried about the people..bozos who are working with me. I've had a couple of my residents hit me with hammers..just about destroyed me I think you teach them by example...I think.. you teach it by having a standard, that anything else is COMPLETELY unacceptable. you want to fix her femur as rapidly as possible.. I feel an obligation.. when I go talk with the family to think about how I'm going to describe what happened so they can understand it. but in a way they'll be able to deal with it emotionally Doctors who use big words..medical words..they don't care.