Chapter 386: Passing the Buck

"You've returned." Seeing Lu Gang and Ji Xiang return, Liu Zhuren didn't even ask about the consultation; he seemed to have already had the answer. "Let's go, let's go grab some skewers! Let's celebrate."

"Liu Zhuren, did it really pass?" Lu Gang still didn't believe it, asking with full suspicion.

"It definitely passed. Our proposal content is the best; why wouldn't they give it to us, right?" Liu Zhuren laughed, looking quite proud.

"Liu Zhuren, did it really pass? Didn't they say the evaluation criteria had changed?" Lu Gang continued to press.

"Evaluation criteria? That's not an issue." Liu Zhuren said with a smile.

But he only said half of what he meant, keeping Lu Gang in suspense.

Although Ji Xiang had just explained it, Lu Gang still didn't believe it. That was *The Lancet*, a world-class top-tier journal! You just get published like that? And such a coincidence?

"Hurry up, if you don't tell me, believe it or not, next year I'll audit your department's Medical Records and find 20 Grade B Medical Records," Lu Gang threatened.

"Xiao Ji had a paper for *The Lancet*; it came out during the evaluation, just in time."

"!!!" Lu Gang was so surprised his eyeballs almost popped out.

It was actually true!

Liu Zhuren shouldn't be joking.

With the provincial natural science evaluation criteria plus the addition of a national-level journal paper, he had already assumed Ji Xiang definitely wouldn't make it this year.

A paper in a national-level journal—if no one is guiding you, how could a Standardized Training Student possibly have one?

Like Zhao Tianjiao mooching off Deng Chaohong, that was the proper path.

On this matter, both Bai Chuzhang and Liu Zhuren were a bit careless, letting Ji Xiang handle his own paper while they focused their energy on the provincial natural science project.

But one couldn't say the two had a problem; after all, for so many years, the requirements for the provincial natural science project had always been the proposal, which was different from the national natural science project and relatively much looser.

But Liu Zhuren actually said Ji Xiang bypassed national-level journals and published directly in *The Lancet*.

"*The Lancet*, really?!" Lu Gang asked again in a daze.

"Of course." Liu Zhuren stood up. "Let's go, let's go eat."

Lu Gang chased after Liu Zhuren asking questions the whole way, finally falling silent.

He certainly knew the weight of *The Lancet*.

Lu Gang himself had published world-class SCI papers, but they were all small journals with impact factors under 10.

A world-class top-tier journal like *The Lancet* was something he didn't even dare to imagine.

Ji Xiang could do something he didn't dare imagine; Lu Gang wasn't envious, but his heart felt a little hollow.

Connecting it to Tang Zhuren not "seeing" it earlier, and the Adalat shell that appeared suddenly after Ji Xiang performed suctioning, Lu Gang wasn't stupid; he vaguely guessed something.

"Xiao Ji, there is too much clinical work; in the future, if you can avoid going to consultations for other departments, don't go. You need to focus," Liu Zhuren said while sitting in Peiyang Barbecue.

"Mm, I also feel there have been too many things lately, and time is limited." Ji Xiang nodded; he had also realized this recently.

"And the patients nowadays..." Liu Zhuren shook his head.

"Zhuren, what happened?" Zhao Zhe asked.

"I was at the Outpatient Department a few days ago, and a patient over sixty years old came to me. It had nothing to do with the Urology Department; I could see she just snuck in, didn't register, and was prepared to ask a casual question and leave," Liu Zhuren said.

"She wanted to look at the spots on her face. I told her to go to the Dermatology Department, but she said a lot and asked me to just take a look."

"I told her it was seborrheic keratosis, and she told me to speak human language. I had no choice but to tell her they were age spots."

Liu Zhuren shrugged.

"So age spots are called seborrheic keratosis? I didn't even know that." Zhao Zhe smacked his lips.

"Later, the patient walked out of the Outpatient Department wailing," Liu Zhuren said helplessly. "This is only because I'm old and she's old; if it were a young girl, who knows how it would be spread around the hospital in a couple of days."

"Hahaha, she's already over sixty; isn't it normal to have age spots?"

"The patient wouldn't accept it, no way around it."

"Zhuren, I also encountered many similar patients when I was in Yuanliao. One day a patient came to get medicine; I asked what you are planning to get, and he said he just wanted to get medicine, but didn't know what to get."

As Zhao Zhe spoke, his smile grew wider.

"Clinical work is a big window; you can indeed see many strange and peculiar people. Later I asked a lot of questions, and only then did I understand what the patient wanted to do."

When Zhao Zhe wanted to keep rambling, Liu Zhuren interrupted him.

"Xiao Ji, let me test you with a question."

Ji Xiang focused. "Zhuren, please go ahead."

"Let me ask you, our ward has 4 high-end rooms. Suppose you are the Zhuren now, and if a Family Member comes and finds you saying their patient's condition is relatively serious and they have poor sleep and need a high-end room, what do you do?"

This was indeed an extremely difficult question.

Ji Xiang had been grinding in clinical practice for half a year and knew that almost all patients and Family Members with slightly better conditions wanted a high-end room after being hospitalized.

High-end rooms are lived in alone, no need to endure other people's snoring, and the privacy is also very good; the Family Members have a place to stay, which is simply heaven compared to a regular room.

But there is a limited number of high-end rooms, and as a Zhuren, you absolutely cannot give one just because someone asks.

Ji Xiang recalled what he had seen and heard while working in the Urology Department and answered cautiously, "Zhuren, it seems like arranging wards is the Head Nurse's job."

"Correct." Liu Zhuren clapped his hands and laughed. "Do you know why?"

Ji Xiang shook his head.

"In the department, except for a very few departments, the Zhuren has the final say. But this matter of arranging wards is left to the Head Nurse, mainly to have an excuse. Just like the example I just gave, you can tell the patient that arranging wards is the Head Nurse's business, and you must go apply with the Head Nurse yourself."

"..." Ji Xiang was speechless; he immediately thought of the Family Member finding the Head Nurse, and the Head Nurse would definitely say this is up to the Zhuren.

Isn't that just passing the buck?

But thinking about it again, passing the buck isn't necessarily bad; anyway, after a few rounds, the patient should be ready for surgery or discharge.

The patient turnover rate at the Second Affiliated Hospital is very fast; they would absolutely not let a regular patient stay endlessly.

"Figured it out?"

"Zhuren, when Zhao Ge was handling his transfer procedures, it seems he was also passed the buck."

"This is the most common thing; what is common is reasonable," Liu Zhuren laughed. "Observe more in clinical practice. Although it has nothing to do with technical level, these things... worldly wisdom is also an art; in clinical practice, having a high technical level doesn't solve everything."

Ji Xiang understood the deeper meaning in Liu Zhuren's words; he knew Liu Zhuren was worried that he would become arrogant after receiving the Provincial Natural Science Fund, so he gave him a heads-up in advance.

But Liu Zhuren's "warning" was so light that if he had been even slightly arrogant, he wouldn't have been able to hear the implication within it.

"Zhuren, I understand, thank you."

"However, one must look at everything dialectically," Liu Zhuren said. "Last year in the Endoscopy Room, a Patient with a colon polyp went up for a colonoscopy and never came back down."

Everyone fell silent.

(End of this chapter)