Jukebox

One of the main things a resident is expected to do is teach interns and students. And Mohan is interestingly pretty bad at this. I just watched the episode where Santos says one awkward thing to a patient. She’s a new intern and she didn’t handle a patient’s overwhelming emotions perfectly. She wasn’t particularly bad, just not ideal. This isn’t surprising. This is a learned skill for many people.

Mohan takes Santos out of the room and dresses her down her in the middle of the hall. She doesn’t invite a conversation where Santos can reflect and learn. Samira speaks over Santos, shames her, and lectures her. She does the same with Whitaker and the sickle cell patient when she shames him in the middle of the hall rather than encourage him to learn from a common mistake. Both times she’s right in pointing out what her trainee did wrong, but she’s so aggressive and condescending that she’s going to alienate her trainees rather than let them reflect and grow from her feedback. Then she lets Santos take the fall for her mistake with the hyponatremia patient, which is quite a choice for a resident to make.

the way that, even before she says she’s thinking about going into it, you can see her bracing for some kind of comment about emergency psychiatry being lesser. and then the visible relief on her face when robby just says “very cool,” which is so unlike anything her mom would’ve said. the way she asks him if he thinks she can do it, and his response is just that she can do anything she puts her mind to. you can see it roll over her face, like, woah.

She knows all about the horrors of the ED. I do think, as a mom, she is rightfully worried for her daughter if she were to stay in the ED. She knows what it does to doctors. Yes, part of it is bias (not because she thinks ED isn't important or cool, she thinks other specialities can show off the skills she believes her daughter has better than the ED can, which to me is a more of a "jack of all trades" sort of speciality) but I do think part of it is genuine concern for her daughter's well-being.

And to her, she knows she (and maybe even her husband, who seems to have a better relationship with their daughter) are up against someone who they may admire professionally but also know is 100% this cool, intelligent, capable leader type who was there to teach their daughter and support her on what is possibly the worst first day a med student can have. Victoria clearly holds Robby in high regard of some sort (even though she's clearly also aware of his PTSD) and her parents are fearful of that.

Robby is an outsider they can't control the way they can show off other attendings from other departments. Robby and The Pitt are the result of Victoria's almost sheltered upbringing: they planned for everything but Victoria being interested in something they deem more dangerous and unpredictable, which is what they were trying to avoid.

And Robby is very encouraging! He also showed Victoria on day 1 he didn't care her mom was a doctor at PTMC (he didn't even know) and hasn't seemed to have judged her for it. In fact, he's probably one of the first adults and teachers in her life who have said to follow her own path and have encouraged her to do what she wants, which is why, again, Shamsi is worried because Robby is "pressionable" and she can't stop it.

Frank the perfect protégé.

Robby the perfect mentor.

This idolization manifests itself in different ways. Robby believes in Frank’s abilities as a physician so much that he rarely worries about Frank and leaves him alone more frequently than he would other residents. Frank believes that Robby is the absolute pinnacle of what an emergency medical physician can be and so he frequently seeks advice and approval from him.

One side effect of their idolatry is that neither can see the flaws in the other.

oh he joined during peacetime, he was escaping an abusive home, he was poor but he wanted to go to med school to help people, he didn’t think he’d be doing bad military stuff like killing people and then it was too late and he had no choice but to serve his time. he’s nothing but an innocent victim of capitalism and military propaganda.

Except for child abandonment cases. Robby knows he should let the system do what it does, as flawed and broken as it is, but he can't help himself. Those babies--left with no one, with no identity--stay with him in a way he can't ignore. Not if he wants half a shot at sleeping at night.

So, over time, he gets to know the CYF case workers. Ask the right questions, neutrally. "Just want to help how I can." He works through the right channels, anonymously, to send supplies to foster families. Adoptive families. Necessities, like top-of-the-line high chairs and car seats and infant carriers, but also books and stuffies and the kind of toys that can't replace a mother who left, but it's something.