Do not guess!

After a patient was stabilized in the red zone, the ED physician gathered all the students around and asked us to interpret an ABG.

A simple answer like metabolic acidosis was not enough... I forgot to add with hypoxia! And being dramatic in nature, the tutor sure had his way around making us (or at least me) feel like a total idiot. He kept on questioning us about different aspects of an ABG as well as how to deal with a patient with acute pulmonary oedema. Unfortunately, we all made the biggest mistake when answering some of his questions: GUESSING!

Anyway after what seemed to be a lengthy bedside tutorial with him, one of the main message was:
When you are in the ED and you don't know something, say you don't know and do not guess as this might lead to the death of your patient!
He added that if we were in the medical wards, we could go ahead and guess and come back one month later and change the diagnosis....as I said, he is a bit dramatic :p

Well, lesson learnt! I think that as a medical student, even when I am not sure, I either tend to guess things or say what I am thinking.
I think that this has both its advantages and drawbacks.
Speaking your mind during a bedside teaching is actually beneficial in my learning process and it also shows that your mind is working rather than just nodding like a parrot.  But in some instances, especially in emergency cases, guessing would probably lead to the death of the patient!

I think the message he really wanted to bring out was to know your limitations as a doctor in terms of knowledge and abilities and to accept the help of more senior personnel when you are unsure about what to do.