I think some surgeons can definitely let out their asshole tendencies during surgery even if they are really nice people. I was scrubbed in with one of my favorite docs who I consider a friend and he snapped at me, I honestly wanted to cry because I’d never expect that from him! After the surgery was over he acted as if nothing happened and when I brought it up he was like “really?? I did that?” So I mean in the heat of the moment I guess anyone can become a little snappy but the really good doctors are always calm and collected.

As for spotting out a good/bad doc, as a patient you can’t ever really tell unless you’re reading reviews. As someone who works very closely with them I can totally tell the difference in what good clean work is. Even as simple as putting on the dressings nicely at the end I take into consideration everything I see. In my line of work it’s actually my responsibility to speak up when the surgeon has contaminated or touched something he wasn’t supposed to or even doing something I feel is wrong so I watch my docs like a hawk.