Just Ring the Bell!

"Why don't you just ring the bell?" - Anonymous Surgeon

He didn't really say that and tell that story did he? I may not want to work with this ego maniac any longer, but this has to be the funniest conversation I've ever been involved in. I'm speechless. But that didn't stop me from chuckling out loud.

The average United States Navy SEAL spends over a year in a series of formal training environments before being awarded Naval Special Warfare (SEAL) position.

In 2005 a 4-man SEAL team, deemed Operation Red Wing, is sent in to capture or kill a Taliban leader in Afghanistan. They were discovered soon after landing in the area and forced to fight a fierce, futile battle.  Most of the team and all of a chopper full of would be rescuers, are killed leaving a lone survivor. The lone survivor is Marcus Luttrell, Navy SEAL. One of my colleagues recently watched the movie depicting these events, “Lone Survivor”.

Because of its particularly challenging requirements to become a SEAL, many candidates begin questioning their decision to volunteer for this training and a significant number Drop (from the program) on Request (DOR). The tradition of DOR consists of dropping one's helmet liner next to a pole with a brass ship’s bell attached to it and ringing the bell three times. The training and the bell DOR event is captured and shown during the opening credits of the movie.

Now, surgery can be a difficult environment and challenging but it’s not SEAL school. And surgery is patriotic and something we do voluntarily, but it’s not SEAL school. And being a healthcare provider is challenging and giving to the community we serve, but it’s not SEAL school. There is no DOR process nor should there be. It’s a career, and a calling, but not a life or death gunfight.

So to use the “bell” ritual as representative of whether to work with someone or not in surgery is ridiculous at best. Maybe even psychotic. Individuals have nothing to prove to anyone in their medical career except to themselves and their patients. We don’t have anything to prove to other providers who for whatever reason feel they are vastly superior to everyone else around them. Sometimes excusing one’s self from the company of others is better for the team, and the patient. Really no reason to stay in that working relationship or prove anything to myself.

It’s not a matter of “sucking it up”, not "ringing the bell" and continuing to work with just anyone.  That should be reserved for firefights against the Taliban.