Role of the Consultant
A simple question – what is the chief function of the consultant?
The answer is probably the same, regardless of what you mean by ‘consultant’. In the anglo-antipodean world ‘consultant’ typically means a doctor who has completed their specialty exams and has a more senior supervisory role, like an ‘attending’ in the States. Alternatively, ‘consultant’ may refer to a doctor from another service that you have asked to review a patient under your care.
Regardless, the primary role of the consultant has changed little over the last 100 years:
The chief function of a consultant is to make a rectal examination that you have omitted.
William Osler
The major difference is that, these days, most will put on gloves, rather than rely on the old soap-under-the-fingernails trick…
And as for those inane discussions about the order in which the various body cavities should be examined, I side with Hamilton Bailey:
“Actually it is immaterial which of the examinations is done first; the important point is to change the glove.
Hamilton Bailey
Chris is an Intensivist and ECMO specialist at The Alfred ICU, where he is Deputy Director (Education). He is a Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University, the Lead for the Clinician Educator Incubator programme, and a CICM First Part Examiner.
He is an internationally recognised Clinician Educator with a passion for helping clinicians learn and for improving the clinical performance of individuals and collectives. He was one of the founders of the FOAM movement (Free Open-Access Medical education) has been recognised for his contributions to education with awards from ANZICS, ANZAHPE, and ACEM.
His one great achievement is being the father of three amazing children.
On Bluesky, he is @precordialthump.bsky.social and on the site that Elon has screwed up, he is @precordialthump.
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