"Good job!"

When I started my clinical rotations, I noticed something that grew to bug me. In many areas of medicine, people hardly ever say "good job." Not that we should be insincere, but when somebody does, in fact, do a good job it's a helpful and widely-followed convention to acknowledge it by saying, well, "good job." But not so in the cathedral of healing. Most days, you could save someone's life by repairing a brain hemorrhage using only a printer cartridge, four paper clips, and your car keys, and nobody would say "good job."

Which brings me to something I'm really enjoying about my current rotation working with ER people: they acknowledge a task performed well. They're also good about providing constructive criticism, but in a supportive way.

Good job, Culture of Emergency Medicine. Good job.