Experience

I came to a shocking realization the other day and I thought I’d share it with you: I am the most experienced interventional radiologist in my entire hospital and, probably, our local healthcare system.

This is probably not something you think about when you’re practicing at any time during your career; I certainly never thought to myself: “Gee, at some point, I’m going to be the IR who has hung around the longest. No one else has the amount of clinical experience that I have accumulated over the past nearly three decades.” But here I am. It’s like IR rodeo…who can hang on the longest.

Acknowledging this, I need to be more mindful of the advice I give to my partners and other practitioners. Do they value my opinion differently from other, less experienced operators? Frankly, I’m not sure that’s a good thing. After all, my opinion or experience is exactly just that: mine and mine alone. First year attendings are always learning valuable lessons too and sharing those experiences are just as valid and potentially impactful. Do you really want to learn tips and tricks from me on how to place a PICC with venography? Or subclavian dialysis catheters? Or, *gasp* Ancure stent grafts?!

I’ll draw a very important distinction here: I did not say that I am the BEST IR in our hospital, etc., just the most experienced. I think “best” can be defined a lot of ways. I am blessed to work with some very technically gifted IRs and others who are superb clinicians. There have been some incredibly innovative and determined IRs I’ve worked with too. Who is to say what qualities or quality should define “best?” 

That said, I think it’s true that, just like Porsche, there is no substitute for experience. I’ll take that. Or at least I’d prefer to be called the most experienced IR rather than the oldest IR.